EARTH’S WATER RESOURCES

A. Water Resources
Around 71 percent of the earth's surface is covered in water.
This massive quantity of water is hard to visualize: the total water
resources of the earth equal roughly 326 million cubic miles, with
each cubic mile equal to around 1 trillion gallons of water. To
imagine just one trillion gallons of water, try to picture 40 million
swimming pools, or 24 billion baths. Now, multiply those numbers
by 326 million!
Of all of this water, only about 2.5 percent is freshwater: the
other 97.5 percent is saltwater. Almost 69 percent of fresh water
resources are tied up in glaciers and an icecap, about 30 percent
is groundwater, and a mere 0.27 percent is surface water. While
all kinds of water resources are important for the survival of the
planet, accessible freshwater is especially important for humans.

Saltwater – 97%
Majority of water on Earth is salty! Chloride and sodium are
the most abundant ions found in salt water. Other ions or
elements, particularly in the oceans, include magnesium, sulfur,
calcium, potassium, and much more. These ions form salts, giving
oceans, seas, and some lakes their salty or saline characteristic.
Organisms that in these habitats have adaptations that allow
them to live in the water and salt that constantly surrounds them.
Humans cannot use saltwater directly – which you probably know
if you’ve ever swallowed ocean water and felt sick afterward.
Before humans can use saltwater for drinking or farmland
irrigation, it must be treated to remove the salts, through a process
called desalinization. Desalinization is costly and requires a lot of
energy, but for places that are extremely dry this process can
provide people with much-needed freshwater.
 Ice – 2.06%
Most of the freshwater on the Earth is frozen! So much of our
water is frozen, that if all of it melted at once, the sea would rise
about 6 meters (20 feet). Ice is made of freshwater, even the ice
floating in oceans and seas. This is because saltwater freezes at
much lower temperatures than freshwater and very cold
saltwater is so dense that it sinks away from the surface where
freezing takes place. Ice is found at the north and south poles as
ice caps, as glaciers on high mountains and at high latitudes, and
in regions with permanent snow and permafrost (frozen soils).
Approximately 90% the Earth’s ice is in Antarctica. Ice seems
motionless but many ice features move and flow, just very slowly.
Ice caps and glaciers form in layers, as snow and frozen water is
deposited over long periods of time. As each layer forms, gasses,
dust, and other molecules get trapped, forming a record of the
climate conditions that year. Climate scientists can drill deep into
ice caps and glaciers to analyze how the Earth’s climate has
changed over millions of years.

Groundwater – 0.9%
Nearly anywhere you can stand on the Earth’s surface, there
is water in the ground underneath your feet. Water from rain
trickles downward through the soil until it reaches material that is
already saturated with water. Depending on depth of this area
and how fast the water has filtered through the soil, groundwater
can be days to thousands of years old. Places where groundwater
collects in water wells are called aquifers. Aquifers can be quite
large – the Great Artesian Basin in Australia is one of the deepest
and largest in the world, covering 1.7 million square kilometers
(660,000 square miles) or 23% of the Australian Continent. Humans
rely heavily on groundwater for drinking, farming, and other uses
but over-use, pollution, and sea level rise threaten this precious
resource.
 Lakes – 0.008%
Lakes are just one type of surface-water – water that is easily
accessible and visible on the surface of the Earth. Lakes form
where water runoff from rain and snow accumulates. In some
places, lakes form in areas where groundwater seeps up to the
surface. Lakes come in a variety of shapes and sizes and can
contain salty or fresh water. The Earth’s oldest and largest lake,
Lake Baikal in Siberia, has a depth of over 1,500 m or 1 mile!
Freshwater lakes are highly valued by people, as places of
recreation and water supply. If your city or town has a reservoir,
this is a natural or man-made lake used for its water – the source
of water coming out of your faucets.

Wetlands – 0.001%
Wetlands occur in areas where water covers the soil for
varying periods of time. This phenomenon can occur along
coastlines where tides move water back and forth over the land,
and in areas that are prone to flooding such as low lying areas
around lakes and rivers. You might also know them as deltas,
estuaries, marshes, swamps, and bayous. Wetlands contain a
large diversity of organisms as they are areas where both
landdwelling and aquatic organisms live. This diversity of
organisms, from microbes to mammals interact with the
environment and each other to create some of the most active
aquatic habitats on Earth. Wetlands also fill important roles such
as nursery habitats for fish, resting places for migrating birds, and
buffer zones from storm damage. Unfortunately, many wetlands
are also located in areas that are considered prime real estate for
humans which have resulted in more than 50% loss of this
important habitat.

Rivers – 0.0002%
Rivers form where water flows downhill, due to gravity,
making a journey from the tops of mountains to the sea. Many
different plant and animal species can be found along rivers.
Although, rivers make up a small proportion of Earth’s water
resources they have and continue to be an important resource
for humans, serving as transit systems for exploration and transport
of goods, power generation, recreation, and a source of
freshwater.

Earth’s Water Resources are connected through the Water Cycle:

As you read above, water on Earth comes in many different

forms and is found in many different places, from the oceans to
deep below the soil surface. The global water cycle, or hydrologic
cycle, constantly transforms and moves water around the Earth.

Warm air temperatures cause evaporation, the loss of water

from the oceans, lakes, rivers, soil, and even plants into the
atmosphere. Water in the atmosphere exists as vapor and as it
rises and is pushed around by wind it encounters cooler
temperatures. The cooler temperatures cause condensation, the
transformation of water vapor into larger droplets – you see large
accumulations of droplets as clouds and fog. Eventually water
accumulations grow and collide forcing droplets to fall as
precipitation: rain, ice, and snow. This precipitation is crucial to
adding water back into the oceans, lakes, rivers, and
groundwater reserves.

The global water cycle is powered by the sun; solar energy

(heating) drives the processes described above. The global water
cycle is an important driver of climate too. Human activity such as
deforestation, water consumption, the channeling and diverting
of waterways, and climate change influence the global water
cycle.
 B. Human Activities that Affect the Water Quality and
Availability

WATER AVAILABILITY

“Enough amount of water may turn-on the bulb of life, but if it

spills out or Ooze - out it may result to short circuit, bust the bulb
of life”

The illustration speaks up for the entire meat of the lesson wherein
water resources being vital to life, must be saved and used
properly, or else it will just cause scarcity of water and even
disasters.

“Those who are near the water source have sufficient water
supply. While those away from the source have inadequate or no
water anymore.”

What other problems with water availability do you have in your

respective barangay? What are the causes?

Some of the other causes of water unavailability are as

follows:

1. Long time drought

This is a natural instance, where perhaps we humans do not
have control of. That is why in many areas in our locality people
makes dam as artificial storage for water in time of drought.
They usually direct water flow through irrigation canals leading
to their farms particularly rice fields. There are also natural
water sources like rivers and likes. But never-theless, they might
just dry –up if dry season takes too long.
2. Wasteful / excessive use
This is one of the major human activities which need to be
addressed. Simply turning-off the faucets after using is already
a gesture of showing concern on saving water. And also, we
must learn to utilize water thriftily when taking a bath and
washing clothes.

3. Mismanagement of water source

A particular locality has to have a good community water
association that would manage the utilization and
maintenance of water for the continuous consumption of all
residents.

4. Pollution
Water pollution is considered a factor for water scarcity, thus
we must be well-guided in making sure not to contaminate our
bodies of water.

WATER QUALITY
When talking about water quality, we directly think of water
pollution, where these are technically not synonymous.

Pollution is a change in air, water, or even land that might cause

harm to the living things. Usually when we hear water pollution,
we picture out floating water bottles and plastics which is also
indeed a form of water pollution but still manageable compared
to those chemicals combining with the water already.

There are other forms of water pollution which is more

complicated like acid rains, chemicals from factories and
disease-causing microorganisms.
Water quality would basically refer to the safeness of water we
consume or use for talking a bath or washing. It may also imply
the safeness of aquatic organisms.

Imagine yourself swimming in the pool full of vinegars, how would

it feel? It might cleanse your skin but it might reach to the point
that it would irritate and harm your skin because of too much
acidity. What if you pour 1 cup of vinegar in an aquarium with
beautiful fishes, what do you think would probably happen to the
fishes?

1. Acid Rain - Rain water for instance is becoming more acidic

nowadays. Acid rain is the condition in which rain becomes acidic
because of too much acid in the atmosphere accumulating in it.

Many human activities are responsible for the change in

rainwater. Chemical fertilizers release nitrogen oxides to the air.
Industrial plants and automobile exhausts give off sulfur and
nitrogen oxides. Both types of oxides combine with water in the
air. They eventually mixed with rain thus causing acidity.

2. Chemicals – Most chemicals come from big factories but it

may also come from us in our daily activities such using of
detergents from washed clothes, bleaches and fertilizers. This will
to the formation of too much algae. When algae die they are
decomposed by bacteria, which require much oxygen. With
lesser oxygen, aquatic creatures may die.

3. Sediments - Erosion and runoff from the agriculture and

construction deposit trillion of kilograms of sediments in United
States water each year. These sediments fill in water-ways, harbors,
and reservoirs. They keep sunlight from reaching underwater
plants and decrease plant growth. Fishes that depend on these
plants die.
4. Disease-causing organisms – Sewage contains viruses and
germs that cause disease in human and animals. If the sewage is
not properly treated, disease can spread. The wastes from farm
animals, meat packing plants and leather-making industries also
release harmful organisms in the streams.

Some naturally occurring water contamination and the ways of

human to cope with them:

Salt water intrusion when the saline water moves into fresh water
aquifers, which the main source of drinking water in coastal areas,
it often leads contamination. Intrusion of salt water happens
naturally because of the varying densities of salt water and fresh
water. However, when the demand for fresh water is greater than
the natural recharge rate of the aquifer (primarily though, the rest
of saltwater intrusion increases, leading to the depletion of usable
ground water.

To mitigate the effects of saltwater intrusion, injection wells are

built where fresh water is injected. The addition of freshwater in
injection wells creates a hydraulic pressure or barrier to saltwater
intrusion.