Even though water makes up some seventy percent of the earth’s surface, most of it is too salty to drink. Three fourths of the
fresh water that is available is found in the polar ice caps, and in the form of glaciers (rivers of ice). The remaining fresh water exists in the form of ground water, rivers, lakes and streams. There are over two hundred and fifty river basins in the world. The prominent
rivers in India are the Indus, the Yamuna, the Ganges, and the Brahmaputra.
The world population is growing, and the demand for water is doubling every twenty years. Though a person requires only about four litres of drinking water every day, over two thousand litres of water are required to meet an individual’s daily needs. 85
gallons of water are required to
produce one
pound of eggs, 150 gallons to produce a loaf of bread, and 1000 gallons to produce a pound of potatoes. But over half the water used for irrigation is
lost due to evaporation. Surprisingly enough, bottled water costs more than milk, oil or even gas!
Over extraction of water is causing water tables to fall. At the same time, the quality of water is deteorating in many parts of the world, especially in urban areas. In India, more than four million hectares of agricultural land have been lost either due to water logging, or increase in salt content.
Many water borne diseases, and
diseases caused by lack of bathing water, afflict millions of people every year.
Perhaps the most scary fact is that in another twenty years, there will not be sufficient fresh water to meet the basic need of over half the world’s population.
That is the reason why over ten thousand desalination plants have been built, a majority of them in the middle east.
More abstracts about the Article: Facts about Water