Water is
a chemical essence with the chemical
formula H2O. A water fragment contains one oxygen and
two hydrogen atoms connected
by coalescent bonds. Water is a liquid at temperatures above 0 °C (273.15
K, 32 °F) at sea level, but it often co-exists on Earth with
its solid state, ice and water vapor or steam. Water also
exists in a liquid crystal state near hydrophobic surfaces.
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Water covers 71%
of the Earth's surface, and is vital for all known forms of life.
·
On Earth, 96.5% of the planet's water is found in
oceans, 1.7% in groundwater, 1.7% in glaciers and the ice caps of Antarctica
and Greenland, a small fraction in other large water bodies, and 0.001% in
the air as vapor, clouds and precipitation.
·
Only 2.5% of the Earth's water is fresh water and
98.8% of that water is in ice and groundwater.
·
Less than 0.3% of all freshwater is in rivers,
lakes, and the atmosphere, and an even smaller amount of the Earth's freshwater
is contained within biological bodies and manufactured products.
Water on Earth
moves continually through the hydro- logical cycle of evaporation and transpiration, condensation
and usually reaches the sea. Evaporation and transpiration contribute to the
precipitation over land.
Safe drinking water is
essential to humans and other life forms. Access to safe
drinking water has improved over the last decades in almost every part of the
world, but just about one billion people still lack access to safe water and
over 2.5 billion lack access to adequate sanitation.
There is a clear
relationship between access to safe water and GDP per capital. However,
some observers have estimated that by 2025 more than half of the world
population will be facing water-based vulnerability.
A November
2009 report suggests that by 2030, in some developing regions of the
world, water demand will exceed supply by 50%.Water plays an important role in
the world economy, as it functions as a solvent for a wide
variety of chemical substances and facilitates industrial cooling and
transportation. Approximately 70% of the fresh water used by
humans goes to agriculture.
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