All the water in the World
Because water covers three-quarters of the earth’s surface, it
might appear that there is plenty to go around and that we
will never run out of this valuable resource. In reality, however, we
have a limited amount of usable fresh water.
Over 97 percent of
the earth’s water is found in the oceans as salt water. Two percent
of the earth’s water is stored as fresh water in glaciers, ice caps,
and snowy mountain ranges.
That leaves only one percent of the
earth’s water available to us for our daily water supply needs.
Our
fresh water supplies are stored either in the soil (aquifers) or
bedrock fractures beneath the ground (ground water) or in lakes,
rivers, and streams on the earth’s surface (surface water).
We use fresh water for a variety of purposes. Agricultural uses
represent the largest consumer of fresh water, about 42 percent.
Approximately 39 percent of our fresh water is used for the pro-
duction of electricity; 11 percent is used in urban and rural homes,
offices, and hotels; and the remaining 8 percent is used in manu-
facturing and mining activities.