15. How much fresh water is there?

We say water is a renewable or replaceable resource because when it is used it is replaced by movement through the water cycle.

Water evaporates from the oceans and land, it rains and the water in rivers and lakes is replaced. But we can still run out of water if people use it faster than it is replaced by rainfall or if we pollute it and cannot use it.

There is a lot of water in the world but at any one time, very little is available for us to use. Most of the fresh water is locked away in ice caps, less than one percent is in the ground and about 0.3% occurs in rivers and lakes, the source we rely on most.

See Investigation 1: How much fresh water is there?

What percentage of the world's water is salt?

Explain why water is a renewable resource.

QUIZ

Of all the water on Earth, what percentage is fresh (use the diagram above)?
97%

 less than 1%

3%

What percentage of the world's water occurs in rivers and lakes?

0.3%

 1%

 3%

Next: How much rainfall does Australia get?

Where? Rainfall Australia