Water Resources

When viewed from space, Earth truly appears to be a water-rich planet. Water covers nearly 75% of the Earth's surface. Yet, 97% of that water is salty ocean water that can't be used. Of the remaining freshwater, most of it is frozen in glaciers and ice sheets and is not readily available for use. This means that a little less than 1% is all of the freshwater that is available to the 6.6 billion people and countless animals in the whole world.

Since everything on Earth depends on water, shouldn't we know more about it? Shouldn't we be concerned about water and water-related issues before there is a crisis such as drought, polluted groundwater wells or a water treatment facility failure? Shouldn't we learn more about this precious resource and what we can do to conserve it for future use?

All of the topics below will give you a good foundation in your quest to learn more about water. Click on each term to learn more about it.

Watershed
Surface Water
Groundwater
Wetlands
Drinking Water
Water Recycling
Water Conservation
Desalination