World Water Day: 10 Facts About Water!

Water is essential. We rely on water for our survival, sanitation, agriculture, and production of things. In view of the World Water Day on 22 March, it’s a good time to learn a little more about the ocean, our water sources, and our water crises! Here are 10 facts about water!

#1 The ocean didn’t always exist

Until I came across the information on the National Ocean Service website, I thought the ocean has always been a feature of the earth like the craters on the moon. One never existed without the other. But I was wrong.

The oceans didn’t exist billions of years ago. Water existed as a gas then, having escaped from the great molten rocks of the earth. It remained in the air until the earth cooled down below 212 degrees Fahrenheit (100 degrees Celsius).

The water vapor condensed into water droplets, rained onto the ground, eventually filling the great basins of the earth. Thus forming the primeval ocean.

#2 The ocean wasn’t salty at first!

As rain fell, carbon dioxide in the air dissolves in it to form carbonic acid. The rain, now slightly acidic, dissolves tiny particles of rocks to produce ions that were then carried off into the ocean through streams and rivers.

Some of these ions are used up by tiny organisms, while the rest remained in the ocean. Every time water evaporates from the ocean, fall as rain and washes over the rocks and into the ocean, more ions are deposited in there.

Over billions of years of the water cycle, the concentration of ions in the ocean increased – the majority of them being sodium and chloride, which imparts a saltiness to the ocean.

I don’t know about you, but I found that really cool!

#3 Natives used to drink from streams

Similarly, the water cycle that got kicked off when the first rain fell, plus the changes in the climate of the earth, resulted in lakes, rivers, swamps, glacial, ice caps, permafrost, and groundwater.

Imagine a world before cities and industries, where tribal people lived simply and everything worked as nature intended it to. People bathe in lakes without using soaps that pollute the water, the rivers are chemical and plastic-free, and the ocean is a safe home for all marine creatures. Natural predators aside, of course.

I read somewhere that the water in streams and rivers in North America used to be so clean, Native Americans could drink from one and not get sick.

It stuck with me for a long time… what they had and what they lost.

#4 Less than 1% of the water on earth is easily accessible freshwater

With the exception of deserts, water is all around us. It’s in the air, in the trees, in the ground, underground, and obviously all the water bodies in the world. 71% of the earth’s surface is water!

But earth maybe a blue planet filled with water, most of that water is seawater. Only 2.5% of the world’s water sources are freshwater, and we only have easy access to less than 1% of it. The rest is stored in glaciers and polar ice caps.

#5 Our precious water sources are facing multiple sources of pollution, and people are suffering because of it

Unfortunately, that less than 1% of easily accessible freshwater isn’t the clean water we used to have.

Our industries – textiles, agriculture, manufacturing, factory farming, plastic – are all causing a great deal of pollution to our waters.

Just to name a few pollutants: fade-resistant dyes, heavy metals, forever chemicals from our non-stick wares, chemicals used in fracking, fertilizer runoffs from plantations, sewage from factory farms and the ubiquitous plastic. The list goes on.

In the infamous Citarum river, some parts of it are choked full of plastic, while others were discolored by chemicals released from factories. People fished for recyclable plastic instead of fishes because the water is so deoxygenated and contaminated there aren’t fishes in it anymore. This only exacerbates their poverty.

People living near these rivers are forced to use and consume contaminated water because they don’t have an alternative. So their skin burned and some of them develop sores, but still, they use the water. It’s all they have.

#6 Water crises are the top global risk

Pollution, poor management, and overconsumption of water are damaging our water supplies.

In 2019, the World Economic Forum rated water crises as one of the top global risks. It’s number 4 on the list.

Depending on where you are, you may not realize that around 4 billion people, or 67% of the world’s population, don’t have enough access to fresh water for at least a month of the year.

It’s no longer just a problem for underdeveloped countries. Developed countries like Australia and some states in the U.S. are experiencing water shortages too. The UK could run out of fresh water in 25 years.

#7 Water is a renewable resource, but we’re using too much too fast

It’s true that water is a renewable resource. However, the way we’re using water is so fast that the aquifers in some parts of the USA, like Southwest Kansas and northwest Texas, can’t be replenished in time.

Jakarta has sunk 4 meters because so much groundwater has been pumped out to meet the city’s need.

There are billions of us on earth, and we need water to drink, to grow our food and to clean ourselves with. In addition to that, everything in our life has a water footprint – be it your clothes, cars, smartphone, computer, glass, jewelry, paper, apple, broccoli or bacon, they all required water to be made.

Overconsuming products equal to overconsuming water. The rate we’re using water is unsustainable.

#8 80% of wastewater isn’t properly treated before release

Even though developed countries treat most of their wastewater before release, that isn’t the case with underdeveloped or developing countries. Globally, more than 80% of wastewater enters the environment without proper treatment.

In developing countries like India and Indonesia, a lot of places don’t have treatment plants in place. Waste from humans and farms flows freely into the sea, as do chemicals and plastic, contaminating both surface and groundwater and reducing water availability and biodiversity.

Wastewater from agriculture and animal waste contains nutrients such as nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium. When released into the water, the excess nutrients cause excessive growth of algae that eventually results in deoxygenation of the water, resulting in more dead zones forming in seas and oceans.

#9 Everything washes into the ocean

Throughout history, countless rivers have become choked with rubbish because humans dumped their trash into it. The Ganges river in India and the Citarum river are two notorious examples.

Since I learned about how the ocean was formed, our predicament became very clear to me.

Everything ends up in the ocean. Whatever enters the ocean doesn’t magically disappear.

Like the ions that remain in the ocean after the water evaporates and make the ocean salty, all the pollutants that end up in the ocean will remain in the ocean. Some of it will be consumed by fish and taken out of the ocean. (Not exactly a good thing.)

Some plastic will be picked up by ocean cleaning efforts. (Yay!)

All the forever chemicals leaked into the sea will remain for, well, forever. Chemicals may break down into other chemicals. Do we really know what our pollution does to the ocean?

The ocean may be vast, but with 7.5 billion people polluting it, feeding it plastic and chemicals and fertilizers and dyes and sewage, how can it remain pristine like it once was? Just as the water turned salty, our constant pollution of the ocean will turn it into a soupy and undesirable mess over time.

I don’t like to think about what that means to our marine animals.

#10 Climate change will worsen water scarcity

Drought happens in nature. However, climate change has made droughts more likely and more severe when they happen.

I’m sure you still remember the wildfires that happened in Australia earlier this year. Several years of drought and higher temperatures brought upon by climate change contributed to the severity of the fires. Bushland burnt up like tinder, as did wet rainforest. Events like that are going to make water shortages worst.

Southern Africa was experiencing its worst drought in a century late 2019, I’m not sure if it’s still going on, but no water meant no harvest and millions of people are starving as a result.

That’s also the reason Guatemalans in South America are forced to migrate. Years of drought and changing weather patterns caused by climate change have led to poor harvests. People have gone hungry for years, and the water shortage meant that many of them have to use contaminated stream water.

As our climate crisis deepens, more people will experience water and food scarcity.

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Look at me, delivering bad news again, but we can’t solve problems we don’t know about. We may think that we don’t have a part to play in Guatemala’s water shortage, but we do. We all contributed to climate change.

The next time you turn on the tap and watch the clear and cool water run out of it, I hope you’ll have a better appreciation of water. Remember our fellow humans who are facing water shortages and cherish water!

Lower your carbon footprint, reduce your energy use, reduce food waste, and vote for governments who commit to climate action.

Last but not least, start talking to your friends and family about water and climate change!