Fresh water makes up less than 3% of the world's water resources, and just 1% of that is readily available. Fresh water can easily become polluted by human activities or due to naturally occurring processes, such as erosion. Much of the earth's fresh water (on the surface and groundwater) is to a substantial degree unsuitable for human consumption without some treatment. Many organisms can thrive on salt water, but the great majority of higher plants and most insects, amphibians, reptiles, mammals and birds need fresh water to survive.įresh water is not always potable water, that is, water safe to drink by humans. Water is critical to the survival of all living organisms.

Fresh water is the water resource that is of the most and immediate use to humans. Fresh water may encompass frozen and meltwater in ice sheets, ice caps, glaciers, snowfields and icebergs, natural precipitations such as rainfall, snowfall, hail/ sleet and graupel, and surface runoffs that form inland bodies of water such as wetlands, ponds, lakes, rivers, streams, as well as groundwater contained in aquifers, subterranean rivers and lakes. Although the term specifically excludes seawater and brackish water, it does include non-salty mineral-rich waters such as chalybeate springs. Over the last two years alone, Indiana American Water proactively invested more than $130 million in its water and wastewater infrastructure around the state.Rivers, lakes, and marshlands, such as (from top) South America's Amazon River, Russia's Lake Baikal, and the Everglades in Florida of The United States, are types of freshwater systems.įresh water or freshwater is any naturally occurring liquid or frozen water containing low concentrations of dissolved salts and other total dissolved solids. We are continually investing in the infrastructure improvements necessary to keep your homes and businesses supplied with quality water service. Indiana American Water customers spend their days on top of our most vital water source – groundwater, which supplies approximately 60 percent of the treated water delivered to homes and businesses for drinking, bathing, chores, and more. It’s the longest lake, and extends across Burundi, Zambia, Tanzania, and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Africa’s Lake Tanganyika is the second deepest freshwater lake, and holds the second largest volume of fresh water.

Lake Victoria, which spreads across the African countries of Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania, is the second largest freshwater lake in the world by surface area.

It holds about 20 percent of the Earth’s unfrozen surface fresh water, the largest volume in the world.

Lake Baikal in Russia is considered the deepest, oldest freshwater lake in the world.

The American Great Lakes account for 21 percent of the Earth’s surface fresh water.

These two ice sheets account for more than 99 percent of the fresh water ice on the planet. The Greenland ice sheet also contains large volumes of fresh water. The ice sheet covers approximately 8.7 million square miles.

The Antarctic ice sheet holds about 90 percent of the fresh water that exists on the Earth’s surface.

Of that water considered to be surface water, 87 percent exists in lakes, 11 percent in swamps, and 2 percent in rivers. Another 30 percent is groundwater that is held in underground soil and rock crevices, while the remaining one percent is surface water and other sources. Nearly 69 percent is held in glaciers and ice caps. Of the Earth’s water, 97 percent is saline while 3 percent is fresh water-meaning it has low concentrations of dissolved salts and other total dissolved solids.

The world’s fresh water comes from many different sources – some are nearby, and others on the other side of the world. Only 3 percent of Earth’s water is fresh. The water we use each day in homes and businesses is fresh water, meaning it doesn’t come from an ocean.