The Advantage Of Water

The air we breathe is essential to keep us alive, the same also applies about water. From every form of life, to the production of as little as a paper clip to as big as an airplane, everything needs water. Water covers 70 percent of the earth’s surface with 96.5 percent found in seas and ocean, known as saltwater or seawater. The rest 3.5 percent, is known as freshwater which the primary source of water needed to support our life, found in groundwater also in glaciers and the ice caps of Antarctica and Greenland. Nonetheless, “of that small number, less than 1 percent is easily accessible for human use; most of the rest is locked up in polar ice caps or buried deep in underground aquifers that catch and hold groundwater” (Haugen and Musser …show more content…
It is because the role of water is quite precisely present in everything mankind does (Fishman 2). From human body, to the cup of coffee we drink every morning, to the transportation we use, it all requires the work of water. Certainly, the exponential growth of the world population is causing a huge impact to water depletion too. Not only we need water and air to survive, we also need food which consumes nearly 70 percent of water usage and becomes the number one water user (Maxwell and Yates 54). Here are some fun facts; one gallon of milk and one pound of beef need 53 and 1857 gallons of water respectively (57). That is just two of countless foods that we consume every day. It is just a peek of how massive quantities of water needed in order to produce food and now, imagine how much water need to produce food for one whole year every year for every living-beings on earth. “In the last century, the human population has increased from 1.7 billion people to 6.6 billion people, while the total amount of potable water has slightly decreased” (Haugen and Musser 12). The finite source of water keeps depleting since the number of population is growing significantly. In another words, the more people we have on earth consequently the more people need water and cause the increase in water usage and demand while we only have a fixed amount of …show more content…
The ultimate fate of freshwater will depend on the mankind’s treatment of that precious element of life. There is a need to act quickly to reform water usage every aspect of living. “Yes, water frequently falls from the sky. Yes, three-quarters of our planet is covered with water. And yes, freshwater is abundant in many parts of the globe… but we still have the same amount of water. And, unlike any other commodity, there is truly no substitute for water” (Maxwell and Yates 215). The foremost need is to change the way of thinking that freshwater is abundant and start to understand how crucial the water is, not for one’s own usage but for the whole world. It is better to start acting right now, before it is too