Jounior Observer | Sunday Observer.lk

Everyone knows how precious water is; it is our lifeblood! But, if the present trend of life continues with people abusing the many natural resources, especially water Mother Nature has given us, we will soon witness a different type of war; people or nations will have wars with one another for the magic liquid of life, water!

The United Nations Population Fund predicts that the world will run out of freshwater in 2050, but it may happen even sooner than that because of the manner in which global warning has been increasing over the past few years.

Many of you may think that a water crisis would not affect you right now, going by the predictions and statistics, and continue to waste the precious life giving liquid. But, please don't.

Try to save even that drop you waste because right at this very minute, many humans and animals too are dying due to lack of freshwater to drink. Even though you can quench your thirst just by opening a tap, many people, even little children have to trek for miles in hazardous conditions, to obtain freshwater to drink.

You may wonder why there should ever be a shortage of freshwater when two-thirds of our planet is covered with water. So, let's check out some valuable facts concerning this invaluable natural resource we all can't do without.

How much of water is actually present on our planet? We see so many rivers, waterfalls, lakes, springs (apart from the oceans) all over the place and assume there's plenty to use. But, unfortunately, not all the waterbodies contain drinkable or fresh water.

According to experts in the field, the volume of water available on Planet Earth is 1.4 billion cubic km. But, hold on. All this is NOT freshwater. Would you believe that more than 97 per cent of this water is saline (salty) and present in the oceans? Then, even out of the 36 million cu.km of freshwater available on Earth, nearly 77 per cent (28 million cu.km) is frozen! And can you guess where it is?

In the glaciers and polar ice caps, including Greenland. So, eventually the actual amount of freshwater left on Earth for us to use as drinking water is ONLY 0.5 (eight million cu.km) of the total quantity of water. And this precious water is found mostly in lakes and rivers and as groundwater.

Only a small fraction is present above or in the air. Can you believe that it's such a little amount of freshwater that is left for us to drink and also use for cooking or washing? In order to understand how little pure water we actually have to use, just imagine that all the water in the world fits into a bottle.

What's left as freshwater would then be only (hold your breath), just about a teaspoon! Now, do you realise why we should try to conserve water?

Water cannot be produced in factories like most products because it's a gift from Mother Nature. However, attempts are being made to desalinate water. That is to turn sea water into freshwater. Now let's examine another important factor the supply.

The supply of water has been constant over millions of years because it is recharged through the water cycle - which is

Mother Nature's most efficient recycling mechanism.

If you are familiar with the water cycle, you'll understand that the water you drink today may have even flowed down the Amazon river, the Mississippi or come from the polar caps long, long ago, because, a drop of water may spend two weeks or more in a river, a hundred years in a lake or over a thousand years in a glacier, before reaching you! It clearly indicates that the water supply of the world remains the same over millions of years.

So, since the quantity of water available is constant and not increasing it is everyone's responsibility to take stock of the amount of water used, and initiate action to conserve this valuable resource.

However, like charity, conservation too should begin at home. Make sure you don't waste water by keeping taps running unnecessarily while you attend to some household chores or other work. You should conserve water not only because you want to ensure the water bills at home are kept low, but also because there's a scarcity of water in the world.

The statistics given by experts are alarming with regard to water scarcity. Accordingly, by 2025 with a world population nearing 10 billion, the percentage of those with access to relatively sufficient sources of water would have fallen to around 58 per cent.

Meanwhile, the number of those facing scarcity would have risen to 24 per cent.If Mother Nature can recycle its water we should also learn not only to conserve, but also to recycle the water we use.

Otherwise the water that has existed for millions of years, since the time of the dinosaurs, would eventually meet the same fate as them. Like the dinos disappeared from the planet, all the freshwater would disappear from the Earth and we'll have to scream "Water water everywhere, but not a drop to drink."

* About 884 million people lack access to safe drinking water. That is approximately one in eight people.

* Millions of women and children spend several hours collecting water from distant, often polluted resources.

Water is a naturally circulating resource which is constantly re-charged. And so freshwater is a renewable source, but it's steadily decreasing today. As the world population grows the demand far exceeds the supply.

* About 9,000 cubic kilometres of water is available in the world for human use. Less than one per cent of freshwater is accessible for direct human use.

* It is estimated that about 15 per cent of the worldwide water is used for household purposes including drinking water, bathing, cooking, sanitation and gardening. Basically, 50 litres per person per day, excluding gardening.

Another 15 per cent is used for industrial purposes and around 69 per cent for irrigation and agriculture.

Roughly it is estimated that about 54 litres of water is needed to make just one kilogram of handmade paper, about 80 litres to dye one kg of cloth, 0.5 litres to make one brick and 150 litres for dairy farming just one cow.

* A person requires about 150 to 250 litres of water per day for drinking (3-5 litres), cooking (20 litres), bathing (50 litres), personal hygiene (50 litres) and laundry (40 to 60 litres).

Quick facts

* At birth, water accounts for 80 per cent of an infant's body weight.

* By the time a person feels thirsty, his/her body has lost over one per cent of its total water amount.

* Hippocrates, the Father of Medicine directed people in ancient Greece to boil and strain water before drinking it. This proves that he was aware of the impurities in water and the diseases it could cause.

* The brain is made up of approximately 85 per cent of water, while bones contain approximately 33 per cent water.

* A healthy person can drink about three gallons (48 cups) of water per day!

* One gallon of water is equivalent to 3,785 litres of water while one cubic foot of water equals 7.48 gallons.

* Water boils at 212 degrees Fahrenheit or 100 degrees Celsius and freezes at 32 degrees Fahrenheit or zero degrees Celsius.

* The total amount of water available on Earth could be counted as 326 million cubic miles.

* When water warms up it turns into a gas called vapour.

* The first major water reservoir of the world was built in 450 BC in South America. It was used in the 19th century too.

* Surface water is water in a river, lake or a freshwater wetland. Sub-surface water or ground water is freshwater located in the pore space of soil and rocks.

* With the scarcity of water, scientists have proposed using icebergs as water.

* Desalination is a process by which the world's saline water (generally sea water) is converted into freshwater.

Save that drop