How much water is there in the world?
Forget diamonds, forget gold, water is one of the most valuable elements in the world and one we can’t live without.
There is the same amount of water in the world today as there was when dinosaurs roamed the earth. It’s continually being recycled through the atmosphere and then falling as rain, but the competition for clean drinking water has risen drastically as the population has exploded.
It’s said that if the world was the size of a basketball, all the water in the world would fit into a ping pong ball, but over 97.5% of that is saline sea water, That leaves just 2.5% of fresh water, but much of this freshwater is not easily accessible, it’s tied up as ice and snow, other water is held deep underground or in lakes , wet lands and in the atmosphere.
In essence, only 0.007 percent of the planet's water is available to fuel and feed its 6.8 billion people.
Or to put it in perspective. If all the water in the world, that’s the seas, rivers, ice, snow, underground reserves were put into a 5 litre can, the amount available to drink would not fill a tea spoon.
It’s amazing to think that the global population and all living species are maintained by such a small amount of all the water on the planet. But for how much longer will this be the case?
Recent headlines “Water Shortages in England within 25 years. The head of the Environment Agency Sir James Bevan warned, there won’t be enough water to meet demand with climate change and the growing population. He would like to see wasting water become “as socially unacceptable as blowing smoke in the face of a baby”.
To our economy, environment, security, happiness, way of life. We can choose to ignore the problem, or we can choose to tackle it.
Let’s do our bit and not waste water.