Posted by: Saving Water SA (Cape Town, South Africa) - partnered with Water Rhapsody conservation systems – 14 February 2010

Source: wierievents

Water is a ubiquitous chemical substance that is composed of hydrogen and oxygen and is vital for all known forms of life.

In typical usage, water refers only to its liquid form or state, but the substance also has a solid state, ice, and a gaseous state, water vapour or steam. Water covers 71% of the Earth’s surface and is found mostly in oceans and other large water bodies, with 1.6% of water below ground in aquifers and 0.001% in the air as vapour, clouds (formed of solid and liquid water particles suspended in air), and precipitation.

'do you believe in always' courtesy of Wendy Cook ©2006 W.Cook

Oceans hold 97% of surface water, glaciers and polar ice caps 2.4%, and other land surface water such as rivers, lakes and ponds 0.6%. A very small amount of the Earth’s water is contained within biological bodies and manufactured products.

Clean, fresh drinking water is essential to human and other life forms. Access to safe drinking water has improved steadily and substantially over the last decades in almost every part of the world. There is a clear correlation between access to safe water and GDP per capita.  However, some observers have estimated that by 2025 more than half of the world population will be facing water-based vulnerability.

A recent report suggests that by 2030, in some developing regions of the world, water demand will exceed supply by 50%.Water plays an important role in the world economy, as it functions as a solvent for a wide variety of chemical substances and facilitates industrial cooling and transportation. Approximately 70% of freshwater is consumed by agriculture. Continue reading About Water