Fresh water makes up no more than 2.5-3% of the Earth's total water supply. Its bulk is frozen in glaciers and snow cover in Antarctica and Greenland. Another part is numerous fresh water bodies: rivers and lakes. A third of fresh water reserves are concentrated in underground reservoirs, deep and closer to the surface.

At the beginning of the new millennium, scientists began to seriously talk about the shortage of drinking water in many countries of the world. Every inhabitant of the Earth should spend from 20 to water per day on food and personal hygiene. However, there are countries where there is not enough drinking water to even sustain life. Residents of Africa are experiencing severe water shortages.

Reason one: increase in the Earth's population and development of new territories

According to the UN, in 2011 the world's population grew to 7 billion people. The number of people will reach 9.6 billion by 2050. Population growth is accompanied by the development of industry and agriculture.

Enterprises use fresh water for all production needs, while returning water that is often no longer suitable for drinking to nature. It ends up in rivers and lakes. The level of their pollution has recently become critical for the ecology of the planet.

Agricultural development in Asia, India and China has depleted the largest rivers in these regions. The development of new lands leads to shallowing of water bodies and forces people to develop underground wells and deep-sea horizons.

Reason two: irrational use of fresh water sources

Most natural fresh water sources are replenished naturally. Moisture enters rivers and lakes with precipitation, some of which goes into underground reservoirs. Deep-sea horizons are considered irreplaceable reserves.

The barbaric use of clean fresh water by humans is depriving rivers and lakes of their future. Rains do not have time to fill shallow reservoirs, and water is often wasted.

Some of the water used goes underground through leaks in city water supply networks. When turning on the tap in the kitchen or shower, people rarely think about how much water is wasted. The habit of saving resources has not yet become relevant for the majority of the Earth's inhabitants.

Extracting water from deep wells can also be a big mistake, depriving future generations of the main reserves of fresh natural water, and irreparably disrupting the ecology of the planet.

Modern scientists see a way out in saving water resources, tightening control over waste processing and desalinating sea salt water. If humanity thinks about it now and takes action in time, our planet will forever remain an excellent source of moisture for all species of life existing on it.

Fresh water belongs to a group of substances that everyone knows...everyone knows, but not many can give a definition.

In this material we will try to briefly summarize the main characteristics of this type of water, give basic concepts and main starting points for a better understanding of it.

Fresh water, what is it...

• Natural natural waters with a mineralization level not higher than 1 g/l or 0.1%.
• “Clean water”, suitable for drinking and cooking by humans, without harm to health.

Geological Dictionary

Fresh water - all natural waters with mineralization up to 1 g/l (g/kg); hydrocarbonate predominate, less often sulfate and very rarely chloride. See Classification of groundwater by degree of mineralization.

Geological Dictionary: in 2 volumes. - M.: Nedra. Edited by K. N. Paffengoltz et al. 1978

Fresh water reserves on Earth

• Glaciers - 24,000,000 km 3 (85% of total reserves), 90% concentrated in Antarctic ice;
• Groundwater - 4,000,000 km 3 (14%);
• Lakes and other freshwater reservoirs - 155,000 km 3 (0.6%);
• Soil moisture - 83,000 km 3 (0.3%);
• In the atmosphere - 14,000 km 3 (0.06%);
• Rivers - 1,200 km 3 (0.04%).

Total the total volume of all fresh water on Earth is 28,253,200 km3, and this is no more than 3% of the reserves of all water on the planet.

Sources fresh water

• Rivers;
• Lakes;
• Artificial reservoirs;
• Groundwater:
  • Springs;
  • Wells;
  • Artesian wells;
• Atmosphere;
• Glaciers;
• Seawater desalination systems (man-made artificial sources);

Types of fresh water

Classification by water composition:

• Hydrocarbonate fresh waters;
• Sulfate fresh waters;
• Chloride fresh waters.

Classification according to its human use:

• Drinking water;
• Household services;
• Municipal waters;
• Agricultural industries;
• Industrial waters.

As we have written more than once, the main threat to fresh water supplies on Earth is human waste, both industrial and domestic.

Another global problem for humans is the uneven distribution of fresh water supplies. In some regions there is an abundance of it, and in others there is a significant deficit.

It is likely that these are the two main challenges that humanity will face in the context of water supply and life support in the near future.

The problem of uneven distribution of water resources can largely be solved through desalination of sea water, but at the moment there are no technologies that would solve this problem “correctly”.

The fight against fresh water pollution in developed countries is being carried out quite actively, but, unfortunately, so far unsuccessfully; new concepts, solutions and new technologies may be needed.

How is the purity of fresh water determined, what are its signs? The very concept of “clean water” transforms over time and takes on different colors. Putting aside all sorts of pollutants produced by man and all the natural and non-natural bacteria that can be found in water, then the purity of water is determined by these criteria.

Fresh water purity criteria:

• Water acidity pH;
• Water hardness;
• Organoleptics – smell, color and taste.

Fresh water can be found in all basic physical states of water, so it takes an active part in such an important process for our entire planet as the water cycle in nature. Theoretically, thanks to the water cycle, fresh water supplies are constantly replenished and a certain balance is maintained. But this is only theoretical. Due to aggressive human activity, firstly, as we wrote above, global water pollution occurs, and the ecosystem can no longer cope with their purification naturally. Secondly, due to global warming, the ecosystem is disrupted and an imbalance of water resources occurs. Some scientists predict global drought within 100 years.

In 100 years, we can expect drought, and the quality of life, which is directly related to the quality of fresh water, is already declining today, so the issue of “purity” of fresh water is of utmost importance for all inhabitants of the planet “now and here.”

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Life on planet Earth originated from water, and it is water that continues to support this life. The human body consists of 80% water; it is actively used in the food, light and heavy industries. Therefore, a sober assessment of existing reserves is extremely important. After all, water is the source of life and technological progress. The supply of fresh water on Earth is not endless, so environmentalists are increasingly reminded of the need for rational environmental management.

First, let's figure it out ourselves. Fresh water is water that contains no more than one tenth of a percent of salt. When calculating reserves, they take into account not only liquid from natural sources, but also atmospheric gas and reserves in glaciers.

World reserves

More than 97% of all water reserves are found in the world's oceans - it is salty and, without special treatment, is not suitable for human use. A little less than 3% is fresh water. Unfortunately, not all of it is available:

• 2.15% comes from glaciers, icebergs and mountain ice.
• About one thousandth of a percent is a gas in the atmosphere.
• And only 0.65% of the total amount is available for consumption and is found in freshwater rivers and lakes.

At the moment, it is generally accepted that freshwater bodies are an inexhaustible source. This is true, the world's reserves cannot exhaust themselves even with irrational use - the amount of fresh water will be restored due to the planetary cycle of substances. More than half a million cubic meters of fresh water evaporate from the World Ocean every year. This liquid takes the form of clouds and then replenishes freshwater sources with precipitation.

The problem is that readily available supplies may run out. We are not talking about the fact that a person will drink all the water from rivers and lakes. The problem is the contamination of drinking water sources.

Planetary consumption and scarcity

Consumption is distributed as follows:

• About 70% is spent on maintaining the agricultural industry. This indicator varies greatly from region to region.
• The entire world industry spends about 22%.
• Individual household consumption accounts for 8%.

The available freshwater sources cannot fully meet the needs of humanity for two reasons: uneven distribution and pollution.

Fresh water shortages are observed in the following areas:

• Arabian Peninsula. Consumption exceeds available resources by more than five times. And this calculation is only for individual household consumption. Water on the Arabian Peninsula is extremely expensive - it has to be transported by tankers, pipelines have to be built, and seawater desalination plants have to be built.
• Pakistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan. The level of consumption is equal to the amount of available water resources. But with the development of the economy and industry, there is an extremely high risk that fresh water consumption will increase, which means that fresh water resources will be depleted.
• Iran uses 70% of its renewable freshwater resources.
• The whole of North Africa is also under threat - 50% of fresh water resources are used.

At first glance, the problems may seem to be specific to dry countries. However, this is not true. The greatest deficit is observed in hot countries with high population densities. These are mostly developing countries, which means we can expect further growth in consumption.

For example, the Asian region has the largest area of ​​freshwater bodies, and the continent of Australia has the smallest. At the same time, a resident of Australia is provided with resources more than 10 times better than a resident of the Asian region. This is due to differences in population density - 3 billion residents of the Asian region versus 30 million in Australia.

Nature management

Depletion of fresh water supplies is leading to severe shortages in more than 80 countries around the world. The decline in reserves affects the economic growth and social well-being of a number of countries. The solution to the problem is to search for new sources, since reducing consumption will not significantly change the situation. The share of annual depletion of fresh water in the world is, according to various estimates, from 0.1% to 0.3%. This is quite a lot, if you remember that not all freshwater sources are available for immediate use.

Estimates show that there are countries (mainly the Middle East and North Africa) in which reserves are being depleted slowly, but water is inaccessible due to pollution - more than 95% of fresh water is not suitable for drinking, this volume requires careful and technologically complex treatment.

It makes no sense to hope that the population’s needs will decrease – consumption only grows every year. As of 2015, more than 2 billion people were limited in consumption, food or household, to one degree or another. According to the most optimistic forecasts, with the same consumption, fresh water reserves on Earth will last until 2025. Afterwards, all countries with a population of more than 3 million people will find themselves in a zone of serious shortages. There are almost 50 such countries. This number shows that more than 25% of countries will find themselves in deficit conditions.

As for the situation in the Russian Federation, there is enough fresh water in Russia; the Russian region will be one of the last to face shortage problems. But this does not mean that the state should not take part in the international regulation of this problem.

Environmental issues

Freshwater resources on the planet are distributed unevenly - this leads to a pronounced shortage in specific regions, along with population density. It is clear that it is impossible to solve this problem. But we can deal with another problem – the pollution of existing freshwater bodies. The main contaminants are salts of heavy metals, products of the oil refining industry, and chemical reagents. The liquid contaminated by them requires additional expensive treatment.

Water reserves on Earth are also being depleted due to human intervention in hydraulic circulation. Thus, the construction of dams led to a drop in water levels in rivers such as the Mississippi, Yellow River, Volga, and Dnieper. The construction of hydroelectric power plants provides cheap electricity, but damages freshwater sources.

A modern strategy to combat shortages is desalination, which is becoming increasingly common, especially in eastern countries. And this despite the high cost and energy intensity of the process. At the moment, the technology is fully justified, allowing natural reserves to be replenished with artificial ones. But the technological capacity may not be enough for desalination if depletion of fresh water reserves continues at the same pace.

Fresh water reserves on the planet are decreasing. How can this threaten humanity?

The water reserves on our planet are enormous - according to scientists, the hydrosphere is about one and a half billion cubic meters. And this is very important, because without sufficient water reserves, not only humanity, but also all flora and fauna could not exist. However, only 3% of the total amount of water on Earth is fresh water. Its volume is approximately ninety million cubic meters. And more than seventy percent of the earth's surface is covered by salty waters of the world's oceans, unsuitable for drinking.

What are the water reserves on planet Earth?

Fresh water is not only found in rivers and lakes. Most of the vital liquid we need is contained in glaciers, as well as in underground “reservoirs” formed naturally. For the most part, these are not even underground lakes, but simply wet sand and gravel located at great depths. Only 0.3 percent of the world's fresh water is found on the land surface in its usual (unfrozen) state. And this is a lot - for example, the volume of Lake Baikal, the deepest on our planet, is equal to 20% of all the world's fresh water reserves in a free state. Meanwhile, if we imagine that all the glaciers suddenly melted and spilled onto the earth’s surface, and then froze again, then the entire land would be covered with a crust of ice more than half a meter thick. The volume of drinkable liquid contained in glaciers is equal to the amount of water that ran through the beds of absolutely all the earth's rivers and streams over half a millennium! According to scientists, the volume of glaciers is 24 million cubic meters.

We studied the most important property of our hydrosphere back in first grade - the water cycle in nature. Water first evaporates from the surface of seas and rivers, and then, under the influence of gravity, falls from the clouds in the form of precipitation. But did you know that in ten days both the water in river beds and the vapor in the atmosphere (that is, clouds) are completely renewed? In glaciers, swamps and lakes, water is completely replaced more slowly, and groundwater changes even more slowly. It is thanks to the cycle that water supplies are inexhaustible. Therefore, unlike other natural resources (minerals), water reserves seem practically inexhaustible, but is this so?

Can we “run out” of drinking water?

China is already facing the problem of acute water shortage, and this topic is becoming increasingly relevant for many other countries in Asia and Africa. The problem of water shortage in some countries is so acute that it is already leading to disputes at the political level. First of all, this problem is to blame global warming. As our planet's atmosphere warms, arid areas are becoming drier.

In general, of course, the person himself is to blame. After all, two and a half billion people on Earth (primarily residents of Asia and Africa), that is, a third of the population, live in unsanitary conditions. And almost half of these unfortunate people do not have direct access to clean water suitable for drinking. Already today, 4/5 of all diseases on Earth are associated with poor quality of drinking water and violation of sanitary and hygienic standards.

The tragedy of China lies in the fact that a country in which the population is growing very quickly, at the same time is rapidly developing the economy. More and more people are concentrated in cities, and industrial production is growing. Domestic sewage and industrial waste make the water of local rivers and lakes undrinkable. Nature can no longer cope with the problem of purifying polluted water without outside help. Because of this, already scarce water supplies are rapidly running out. The Chinese government constantly passes various laws, the purpose of which is to conserve water resources and make them accessible to everyone, but passing a law is one thing, but making sure it is respected is another...