Tuesday, April 24, 2007

Water Resources

Water resources are sources of water that are useful or potentially useful to humans. It is important because it is needed for life to exist. Many uses of water include agricultural, industrial, household, recreational and environmental activities. Practically all of these human uses require fresh water. Only 2.7% of water on the Earth is fresh water, and over two thirds of this is frozen in glaciers and polar ice caps. Water demand already exceeds supply in many parts of the world, and many more areas are likely to experience this disproportion in the near future. The framework for allocating water resources to water users (where such a framework exists) is known as water rights.

Uses of fresh water can be classified as consumptive and non-consumptive (sometimes called "renewable"). A use of water is consumptive if that water is not straight away available for another use. Losses to sub-surface seepage and evaporation are considered consumptive, as is water incorporated into a product (such as farm produce). Water that can be treated and returned as surface water, such as sewage, is generally considered non-consumptive if that water can be put to additional use.

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