Earth has a lot of water on its surface i.e. about 71% of its surface area is covered with water. This majorly constitutes of oceans and saltwater bodies. If we talk about the drinking water left on this planet then the stats are quite low. Only 2.5% of water on earth is fresh drinking water. However this entire water is not accessible as most of it is in the form of glaciers and mountains. Thus the accessible portion of water accounts for less than 1%.
Recently a lot of awareness programs have been focusing on saving water. While the amount of water on Earth has remained constant over time as it is continually recycled by the atmosphere and back into our cups, the population in the world has exploded. This means that every year the competition for a clean, copious supply of water intensifies leaving some people with shortages. This has led the environmentalists to believe that soon most of the world will face this danger with such high rates of increasing population.
While most of the people don't face the problem of water shortage and find it to be an abstract phenomenon, there is a part of world population that struggles on a daily basis to get this basic necessity. In India itself there are thousands of households who spend a day in just one bucket of water.
Thus the water on the planet remains the same and never increases or decreases but its the population stress that reduces its availability.
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Water source | Water volume, in cubic miles | Water volume, in cubic kilometers | Percent of freshwater | Percent of total water |
---|---|---|---|---|
Oceans, Seas, & Bays | 321,000,000 | 1,338,000,000 | -- | 96.54 |
Ice caps, Glaciers, & Permanent Snow | 5,773,000 | 24,064,000 | 68.7 | 1.74 |
Groundwater | 5,614,000 | 23,400,000 | -- | 1.69 |
Fresh | 2,526,000 | 10,530,000 | 30.1 | 0.76 |
Saline | 3,088,000 | 12,870,000 | -- | 0.93 |
Soil Moisture | 3,959 | 16,500 | 0.05 | 0.001 |
Ground Ice & Permafrost | 71,970 | 300,000 | 0.86 | 0.022 |
Lakes | 42,320 | 176,400 | -- | 0.013 |
Fresh | 21,830 | 91,000 | 0.26 | 0.007 |
Saline | 20,490 | 85,400 | -- | 0.006 |
Atmosphere | 3,095 | 12,900 | 0.04 | 0.001 |
Swamp Water | 2,752 | 11,470 | 0.03 | 0.0008 |
Rivers | 509 | 2,120 | 0.006 | 0.0002 |
Biological Water | 269 | 1,120 | 0.003 | 0.0001 |
Source: Igor Shiklomanov's chapter "World fresh water resources" in Peter H. Gleick (editor), 1993, Water in Crisis: A Guide to the World's Fresh Water Resources (Oxford University Press, New York). |
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