Fresh water is essential for life:
Yet, merely 3 percent of the water on Earth is fresh —
and most of that is locked up in glaciers or deep underground. Imagine all of
the world's water — oceans, rivers, lakes, glaciers — was represented by
something the size of a standard globe; its fresh water would be just a
marble-sized drop.
Fresh water also harbors the greatest concentration of
life on Earth — greater than either terrestrial or marine biomes. Though it
covers less than a fraction of 1 percent of the Earth's surface, fresh water
provides habitat for more than 10 percent of known animals and about one-third
of all known vertebrate species. And, more than 40 percent of all fish species
are found in fresh water — even though it is, relatively speaking, a drop in
the bucket.
The
health and abundance of these species is a crucial indicator of the health of
freshwater ecosystems. These ecosystems, in turn, play an important role in
moderating the location, distribution, and timing of freshwater flows, ensuring
that we receive a multitude of benefits and services.
Americans
consume 99 gallons of water daily. And one out of six gallons served by U.S.
water utilities finds its way back to the ground, leaking out of pipes or
otherwise wasted. We protect only 35 percent of the upland areas that secure
delivery of freshwater services downstream.
An
ever-worsening water crisis demands that we respond with combined water
efficiency and ecosystem management solutions to maintain freshwater species
and services. Failure is simply not an option — at the current rate, we will
degrade the remaining 11 percent of ecosystems that provide us with fresh water
services by 2050.
Importance of
water:
- Agriculture uses a huge
amount of water, more than 70 percent of available surface water each
year.
- Nearly 40 percent of the
rivers in the U.S. are too polluted for fishing and swimming.
- Nutrient runoff from
agriculture has created algal blooms that deplete oxygen from the water
and result in dead zones.
- Nearly every major river
in the world has been dammed, altering natural freshwater flows, cutting
off migration routes and depleting fisheries downstream.
- We have already lost more
than half of our planet's wetlands and an estimated 30 percent of freshwater species.
- Sixty-nine percent of
river catchments, responsible for the capture and provision of our
freshwater supply, remain unprotected — putting more than two-thirds of
the source areas of our rivers at risk.
- Declines in native
species and changes in freshwater food webs have been estimated to exceed
US $100 million in lost income revenues.
- In the next few decades,
more than half of the world's people are expected to live with severe
water scarcity.
- Climate change, a growing
global population, and increasing demands on water due to higher standards
of living threaten to further burden our planet's freshwater systems.
Freshwater
Ecosystem Services:
- drinking water
- water for
bathing/sanitation
- water for food productionhydroelectric power generation
- water purification and
waste removal
- nutrient cycling
- transportation
- recreation
- flood control
- climate
regulation
