Water Facts

While humans can go for over a month without food, if you deprive us of water, we’re dead within a few days. Yet we still take it for granted.

Here are a few fast facts about water on our planet and how we consume it.

• Almost 70 per cent of all fresh water is used for agriculture.
• Over pumping of groundwater exceeds natural replenishment rates by at least 160 billion cubic metres a year.
• 1,000 to 3,000 liters of water is needed to produced just one kilo of rice.
• A corn field of one acre gives off 4,000 gallons of water per day in evaporation.
• The production of one pound of beef requires over 2000 gallons of water.
• Around 75 percent of the earth’s surface is covered with water, but only 3% of that is fresh water.
• Over 90% of the world’s fresh water supplies are located in Antarctica.
• Around 6,800 gallons of water is needed to grow a day’s worth of food for a family of four.
• Freshwater animals are becoming extinct five times faster than land animals.
• If one-thousandth (or more) of the weight of water is salt, the water is considered “saline.”
• A gallon of gas can contaminate 750,000 gallons of water.
• Most of the world’s population must walk at least 3 hours to fetch water.