The Water Data

Freshwater availability comes with a few huge caveats. While there is roughly 1.4 billion km3 of water on the planet, the vast majority, or 97.5%, is in the oceans in the form of salt water that is unfit for human consumption without first taking the salt out of it, a costly, environmentally intensive method called desalination.

Freshwater, the remaining 2.5%, is what humans (and other land based organisms) depend on for survival. Freshwater is not evenly distributed across the planet, it varies in both quantity and quality where it is found. Roughly 70% of freshwater is found in glaciers, snow, and ice, but most in areas largely inaccessible to the vast majority of us, like Antarctica and Greenland. Another 30% is groundwater – the greatest source of available freshwater for human consumption.

Source: UN Water

Only .3% of the freshwater on the planet, an estimated 105,000 km3, is the water that we find in rivers, streams and lakes. Combining these surface and groundwater sources, there is about 200,000 km3 of freshwater supplies available for human and ecosystem consumption. This is still less than 1% of all freshwater resources. Increases in melt flow and precipitation still need to be captured and stored – which is currently not the case in most places. Of concern is that groundwater supplies are not easily replenished, and if the hydrological cycle is disrupted enough, aquifers can be exhausted. Freshwater is finite, and with continued (see projected) global increases in population, hyper-water stress is likely in many regions.