There is a water crisis up ahead even without help from global warming, says S.Ananthanarayanan. Two thirds of the earth’s surface is covered by water, perhaps the most abundant resource there is and there should normally be no fear of its running out.
The trouble is that all the water is not of the kind we can use, most is salt, sea water. Only 3.5 percent of all the water is fresh and potable, and again, most of it is locked in the polar ice caps as ice! Only 0.01 per cent, or one part in 10,000, is in
a form which people can use, in streams, rivers, lakes and groundwater aquifers. And then, well over half of this is out of reach, or lost as floodwater.