20 Facts about water that you simply must know!
Earth is known as the blue planet. When viewed from space, the reason behind the name becomes inherently obvious. The surface of the earth is dominated by water and the oceans cover most of the globe. At first glance, it is almost inconceivable that less than 3% of the earth’s water is freshwater which is essential to most life on earth. Of that 3%, most of it is inaccessible, with 68% of it locked away in icecaps and glaciers, and a further 30 % stored in groundwater reserves.
For all the water on the blue planet, 99% of Earth’s water is unusable by humans and almost all other living things. It's extraordinary to realize that the water that supports most of the life on planet Earth is in fact so scarce and it makes it even more important that we use it wisely and seek to protect it. Here are 20 interesting facts about water that will add some more perspective to this precious and powerful resource.
1. There is an estimated 326 million trillion gallons of water on earth.
2. Less than 1% of the earth’s water can be used as drinking water for both humans and animals.
3. 68% of the world’s fresh water is locked away in frozen ice caps and glaciers. 90% of the frozen freshwater is located in Antarctica.
4. 70% of the available global freshwater withdrawals are used for agriculture.
5. There is more freshwater in the earth’s atmosphere than in all of the rivers on the planet combined.
6. Over a hundred-year period, a water molecule spends about 98 years in the ocean, 20months as ice, 2 weeks in lakes and rivers, and less than a week in the atmosphere.
7. In the United States, groundwater is at any given moment 20–30 times greater than the amount of water in all its lakes, streams, and rivers.
8. A human being can live a month without food, but only a week without water. Without water, dehydration occurs and it eventually leads to death.
9. The human body is composed of 63% water. Your brain is made up of 75% water, your bones 30%, Muscles, and kidneys 79%, and so on. Water is essential for the human body to function.
10. Pure water (that is solely hydrogen and oxygen atoms) has a neutral pH of 7, which is neither acidic nor alkaline.
11. Water expands by 9% when it freezes.
12. The freezing and melting point of water is zero degrees Celsius. However, the presence of salt in water reduces the freezing point of water to anything between -2 degrees Celsius and -21 degrees Celsius.
13. Water dissolves more substances than any other liquid on earth and wherever it exists, it carries chemicals, minerals, and nutrients with it.
14. Ultraviolet light can destroy 99.99% of harmful microorganisms in water such as bacteria, viruses, and cysts which leaves the water chemical-free, safe to drink, and greatly improves the overall water quality.
15. Water-borne diseases kill more people every year than all forms of violence combined. 43% of these deaths are children under 5 years old. 80% of all illnesses in the developing world are linked to water.
16. 771 million people worldwide lack access to an improved water supply or almost one in every ten people on the planet. Most of these people live in rural areas. A further 1.4 billion people live in water-scarce conditions. Combined that’s 30% of the global population.
17. Women in Africa alone spend 40 billion hours a year walking and collecting water. That’s a lot of time wasted that could be used to receive an education, make an income, or grow food.
18. More than half the water used at home is in the bathroom. Switching from a bath to a short shower (less than 4 min) can reduce your consumption by 20–40 litres per person each time they wash.
19. It is estimated that up to 10% of homes have water leaks and that this wastes up to 340 litres per day or more depending on the severity.
20. There have been 265 recorded water conflicts in the last 3000 years and 263 rivers cross or demarcate international or political boundaries.
