Water Facts - Worldwide Water Supply - Water covers about 71% of
the earth's surface. - 326 million cubic miles of water on the
planet - 97% of the earth's water is found in the oceans (too
salty for drinking, growing crops, and most industrial uses
except cooling). - 320 million cubic miles of water in the
oceans - 3% of the earth's water is fresh. - 2.5% of the earth's
fresh water is unavailable: locked up in glaciers, polar ice
caps, atmosphere, and soil; highly polluted; or lies too far
under the earth's surface to be extracted at an affordable cost.
- 0.5% of the earth's water is available fresh water. - If the
world's water supply were only 100 liters (26 gallons), our
usable water supply of fresh water would be only about 0.003
liter (one-half teaspoon). - In actuality, that amounts to an
average of 8.4 million liters (2.2 million gallons) for each
person on earth. - This supply is continually collected,
purified, and distributed in the natural hydrologic (water)
cycle. If the Earth Were a Globe 28 Inc