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Fresh water can easily become polluted by human activities or due to naturally occurring processes, such as erosion. Fresh water makes up less than 3% of the world's water resources, and just 1% of that is readily available. About 70% of the world's freshwater reserves are frozen in Antarctica. Just 3% of it is extracted for human consumption.
Most water in Earth's atmosphere and crust comes from saline seawater, while fresh water accounts for nearly 1% of the total. The vast bulk of the water on Earth is saline or salt water, with an average salinity of 35‰ (or 3.5%, roughly equivalent to 34 grams of salts in 1 kg of seawater), though this varies slightly according to the amount of runoff received from surrounding land.
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 ...
Billions of people rely on freshwater sources for drinking water and power generation. Around the world, 70 percent is used for agriculture. At least 10 percent of animals live exclusively in ...
Climate change is contributing to a global drying with no end in sight, according to a new study.
Global map of countries by total renewable internal freshwater resources (billion cubic meters) in 2020, according to World Bank [1]. This is the list of countries by total renewable water resources for the year 2020, based on the latest data available in January 2024, by World Bank and Food and Agriculture Organization (AQUASTAT data). [2]
Common chemical stresses on freshwater ecosystem health include acidification, eutrophication and copper and pesticide contamination. [25] Freshwater biodiversity faces many threats. [26] The World Wide Fund for Nature's Living Planet Index noted an 83% decline in the populations of freshwater vertebrates between 1970 and 2014. [27]
This is the list of countries by freshwater withdrawal for the year 2020, based on the latest data available in January 2024, by World Bank and Food and Agriculture Organization (AQUASTAT data). [3] The list includes sovereign states and self-governing dependent territories based upon the ISO standard ISO 3166-1.