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Only 2.5–2.75% is fresh water, including 1.75–2% frozen in glaciers, ice and snow, 0.5–0.75% as fresh groundwater and soil moisture, and less than 0.01% of it as surface water in lakes, swamps and rivers. Freshwater lakes contain about 87% of this fresh surface water, including 29% in the African Great Lakes, 22% in Lake Baikal in Russia ...
The total volume of water on Earth is estimated at 1.386 billion km 3 (333 million cubic miles), with 97.5% being salt water and 2.5% being freshwater. Of the freshwater, only 0.3% is in liquid form on the surface. [2][3][4] Because the oceans that cover roughly 70.8% of the area of Earth reflect blue light, Earth appears blue from space, and ...
Fresh water makes up less than 3% of the world's water resources, and just 1% of that is readily available. Just 3% of it is extracted for human consumption. Agriculture uses roughly two thirds of all fresh water extracted from the environment. [1] [2] [3] Fresh water is a renewable and variable, but finite natural resource.
There are three basic types of freshwater ecosystems: Lentic (slow moving water, including pools, ponds, and lakes), lotic (faster moving water, for example streams and rivers) and wetlands (areas where the soil is saturated or inundated for at least part of the time). [2] [1] Freshwater ecosystems contain 41% of the world's known fish species. [3]
Water resources are natural resources of water that are potentially useful for humans, for example as a source of drinking water supply or irrigation water. These resources can be either freshwater from natural sources, or water produced artificially from other sources, such as from reclaimed water or desalinated water (). 97% of the water on Earth is salt water and only three percent is fresh ...
Fresh water is a renewable resource, yet the world's supply of clean, fresh water is under increasing demand for human activities. [12] The world has an estimated 1.34 billion cubic kilometers of water, but 96.5% of it is salty. [13] Almost 70% of fresh water can be found in the ice caps of Antarctica and Greenland. Less than 1% of this water ...
According to the World Health Organization (WHO) and UNICEF, as of 2020, approximately two billion people globally do not have access to safely managed drinking water. [1] This lack of access leads to various consequences, including increased vulnerability to waterborne diseases , reduced educational opportunities, gender inequalities, and ...
The list includes sovereign states and self-governing dependent territories based upon the ISO standard ISO 3166-1. According to World Bank, ″annual freshwater withdrawals refer to total water withdrawals, not counting evaporation losses from storage basins. Withdrawals also include water from desalination plants in countries where they are a ...