- Undoubtedly, without water, we’d be nothing but just dust. It is one of the most common substances on earth, and one of the most vital too.
- It’s a tremendously valuable resource, yet one we are wasting and polluting recklessly.
- Water is deceptive. For while it pours freely from the heavens and seems to flow endlessly in rivers, it’s a finite resource; we only have what we have.
- And although there is about 332,500,000 cubic miles of it on earth – only one-hundredth of one percent of the world’s water is readily available for human use.
- It also plays a critical role in regulating the body temperature and carrying nutrients throughout the human body.
- Even though water deserves celebration every day and not just on the World Water Day, we should do whatever it takes to save and use this tremendously valuable resource wisely.
- So with that in mind, let’s know some amazing and eye-opening facts about it.
- Water covers 70.9 percent of the planet’s surface.
- Ninety-seven percent of the water on Earth is saltwater; the water found in the Earth’s lakes, rivers, streams, ponds, swamps, etc. accounts for only 0.3 percent of the world’s freshwater. The rest is trapped in glaciers or is in the ground.
- If the world’s water supply were only 100 litres (26 gallons), our usable water supply of freshwater would be only about 0.003 litre (one-half teaspoon).
- 80% of all illness in the developing world is water-related and each minute a child dies of a water-related disease.10% of the global disease burden could be reduced with improved water supply. Not only would it increase hydration, but sanitation and hygiene as well.
- Two-third of the world’s population is projected to face water scarcity by 2025, according to the United Nations.
- There is more water in the atmosphere than in all of our rivers combined.
- If all of the water vapour in our planet’s atmosphere fell as water at once and spread out evenly, it would only cover the globe with about an inch of water.
- The freezing point of water lowers as the amount of salt dissolved in at increases. With average levels of salt, seawater freezes at -2 °C (28.4 °F).
- Water expands by 9% when it freezes.
- Today, a larger number of people own a mobile phone than those who have access to a toilet.
- Each day, we also lose a little more than a cup of water (237 ml) when we exhale it.
- A litre of water weighs 1 kilo; a cubic meter of water weighs 1 tonne.
- A person can live about a month without food, but only about a week without water.
- About 6,800 gallons of water is required to grow a day’s food for a family of four.
- To create one pint of beer it takes 20 gallons of water.
- It takes 39,090 gallons of water to manufacture a new car.
- At one drip per second, a tap can leak 3,000 gallons in a year.
- Water can dissolve more substances than any other liquid including sulfuric acid.
- 1/3 what the world spends on bottled water in one year could pay for projects providing water to everyone in need.
- A water-efficient dishwasher uses as little as 4 gallons per cycle but hand washing dishes uses 20 gallons of water.