The supply of fresh water on earth will run out. Natural reserves of the Earth in facts

Water is a unique substance. If you drink a bottle of Pepsi today, the liquid from it can fall in the form of rain within a few days in a neighboring city. How long can this magic last?

If the environmental situation does not change in the near future, people may soon have another currency, for example, a bottle of water

What are we drinking?

Residents of Central Russia are incredibly lucky - they drink water from artesian springs. It is rich in minerals and tastes good. However, good water is not available everywhere. People who are not connected to water supply systems consume rainwater from aquifers. Thousands of settlements take water from rivers or lakes. In most cases, water is purified at special stations.

Many people do not pay attention to the quality of the water they consume. It is taken for granted. However, it has been proven that the richer a person becomes, the more attentive he is to what he drinks. This is why some people prefer to order bottles of natural water at home, buy mineral water, or install powerful filters on their home taps.

Canadian businessmen plan to sell a bottle of clean water for $10. They want to hire a ship that will transport icebergs from the coast of Greenland.

Is there enough for everyone?

Despite the fact that humanity lives in the middle of a huge puddle consisting of rivers and oceans, fresh water reserves account for only 2.5-3% of the total amount of liquid. Already today, every seventh person living on Earth experiences a shortage of drinking water. The smallest supplies of drinkable liquid are in Egypt, Israel, Turkmenistan, Moldova and Pakistan.

Scientists have calculated that, along with the rapid growth of the planet’s population, 47% of earthlings will have water shortages by 2030. This will inevitably lead to rising water costs, population migration and interstate conflicts over access to drinking water sources.

Meanwhile, no matter how many people there are on Earth, there will be no less water. It’s worth remembering Natural History and Geography in elementary school, where teachers talked about the water cycle in nature. Let's say you bought a bottle of water at the store. It was extracted from a well. You drink water. After some time, it naturally leaves the body. Some of it evaporates through the body, the other goes from the sewer to treatment plants, and from them into the air or river. Water constantly evaporates, so some of the water you drink from a bottle may fall out in the form of rain or snow, while some may return through the water supply to your home tap.

Serious problems will arise when the planet's population increases from the current 7-8 billion people to 20-30 billion people. Only new technologies that make it possible to desalinate salt water from the oceans, or strict savings in liquid consumption can save humanity.

How to save water?

The average Russian consumes 200 liters of water per day. Experts recommend drinking 2-3 liters of fluid per day, but most are limited to only 2-3 cups of tea or coffee. The remainder of the liquid is consumed in the shower, toilet and kitchen. Water is wasted when washing dishes, laundry, and leaking pipes.

The reduction of areas with fresh water on Earth is proceeding at a rapid pace and the time of “water” wars is just around the corner

In Western European countries, water is expensive, so local residents are forced to wash their entire family with water collected in one sink.

Taking good care of water will not only save on water bills, but also preserve it for future generations. It’s easy to do this at the everyday level:

1. You will save 8-10 liters of water if you turn it off when you brush your teeth: just wet your toothbrush, turn off the tap, and brush your teeth. Then quickly rinse your mouth and sink.

2. Hundreds of liters of water per month can be saved if you install a sensor faucet. It only works when you bring your hands to it.

3. If you give up taking a bath in favor of a 7-minute shower, you will save up to 1000 liters of water per month.

4. You don’t have to pay for hundreds of liters of water if you use a dishwasher to wash dishes. It will take her only 9-15 liters of water to clean several sets of plates. If you wash by hand, the consumption will be 3-4 times more.

These are not all ways to save water. Their performance will be higher if you install liquid consumption meters at home. It is also a good idea to check the quality of your home water. If it is unsatisfactory, then it is better to spend money on filters or buying bottled water.

Water reserves in the world. List of countries by water resources

A list of 173 countries of the world is presented, ordered by the volume of total renewable water resources according to data [. Data include long-term average amounts of renewable water resources (in cubic kilometers of precipitation, renewable groundwater, and surface inflows from neighboring countries.

Brazil has the largest renewable water resources - 8,233.00 cubic kilometers. Russia has the largest reserves in Europe and the second in the world - 4,508.00. Next is the USA - 3,069.00, Canada - 2,902.00 and China - 2,840.00. Full table - see below.

Fresh water. Reserves[Source - 2].

Fresh water- the opposite of sea water, covers that part of the available water of the Earth in which salts are contained in minimal quantities. Water whose salinity does not exceed 0.1%, even in the form of steam or ice, is called fresh. Polar ice sheets and glaciers contain the largest portion of the earth's fresh water. In addition, fresh water exists in rivers, streams, groundwater, fresh lakes, and also in clouds. According to various estimates, the share of fresh water in the total amount of water on Earth is 2.5-3%.

About 85-90% of fresh water is contained in the form of ice. The distribution of fresh water around the globe is extremely uneven. Europe and Asia, where 70% of the world's population lives, contain only 39% of river waters.

Russia occupies a leading place in the world in terms of surface water resources. About 20% of the world's lake fresh water reserves and more than 80% of Russia's reserves are concentrated in the unique Lake Baikal alone. With a total volume of 23.6 thousand km³, about 60 km³ of rare purity natural water is reproduced in the lake annually.

According to the UN, at the beginning of the 2000s, more than 1.2 billion people live in conditions of constant fresh water shortage, and about 2 billion suffer from it regularly. By the middle of the 21st century, the number of people living with constant water shortages will exceed 4 billion people. In such a situation, some experts say that Russia’s main advantage in the long term is water resources.

Fresh water reserves: atmospheric vapor - 14,000 or 0.06%, river fresh water - 200 or 0.005%, total Total 28,253,200 or 100%. Sources - Wikipedia: , .

List of countries by water resources[Source - 1]

№	A country	Total volume of renewals water resources (cubic km)	Date info mation
1	Brazil	8 233,00	2011
2	Russia	4 508,00	2011
3	United States	3 069,00	2011
4	Canada	2 902,00	2011
5	China	2 840,00	2011
6	Colombia	2 132,00	2011
7	European Union	2 057.76	2011
8	Indonesia	2 019,00	2011
9	Peru	1 913,00	2011
10	Congo, DR	1 283,00	2011
11	India	1 911,00	2011
12	Venezuela	1 233,00	2011
13	Bangladesh	1 227,00	2011
14	Burma	1 168,00	2011
15	Chile	922,00	2011
16	Vietnam	884,10	2011
17	Congo, Republic	832,00	2011
18	Argentina	814,00	2011
19	Papua New Guinea	801,00	2011
20	Bolivia	622,50	2011
21	Malaysia	580,00	2011
22	Australia	492,00	2011
23	Philippines	479,00	2011
24	Cambodia	476,10	2011
25	Mexico	457,20	2011
26	Thailand	438,60	2011
27	Japan	430,00	2011
28	Ecuador	424,40	2011
29	Norway	382,00	2011
30	Madagascar	337,00	2011
31	Paraguay	336,00	2011
32	Laos	333,50	2011
33	New Zealand	327,00	2011
34	Nigeria	286,20	2011
35	Cameroon	285,50	2011
36	Pakistan	246,80	2011
37	Guyana	241,00	2011
38	Liberia	232,00	2011
39	Guinea	226,00	2011
40	Mozambique	217,10	2011
41	Romania	211,90	2011
42	Türkiye	211,60	2011
43	France	211,00	2011
44	Nepal	210,20	2011
45	Nicaragua	196,60	2011
46	Italy	191,30	2011
47	Sweden	174,00	2011
48	Iceland	170,00	2011
49	Gabon	164,00	2011
50	Serbia	162,20	2011
51	Sierra Leone	160,00	2011
52	Germany	154,00	2011
53	Angola	148,00	2011
54	Panama	148,00	2011
55	Great Britain	147,00	2011
56	Center. Africans. Rep.	144,40	2011
57	Ukraine	139,60	2011
58	Uruguay	139,00	2011
59	Iran	137,00	2011
60	Ethiopia	122,00	2011
61	Suriname	122,00	2011
62	Costa Rica	112,40	2011
63	Spain	111,50	2011
64	Guatemala	111,30	2011
65	Finland	110,00	2011
66	Kazakhstan	107,50	2011
67	Croatia	105,50	2011
68	Zambia	105,20	2011
69	Hungary	104,00	2011
70	Mali	100,00	2011
71	Tanzania	96.27	2011
72	Honduras	95.93	2011
73	Netherlands	91,00	2011
74	Iraq	89.86	2011
75	Ivory Coast	81.14	2011
76	Butane	78,00	2011
77	Austria	77,70	2011
78	North Korea	77.15	2011
79	Greece	74.25	2011
80	South Korea	69,70	2011
81	Portugal	68,70	2011
82	Taiwan	67,00	2011
83	Uganda	66,00	2011
84	Afghanistan	65.33	2011
85	Sudan	64,50	2011
86	Georgia	63.33	2011
87	Poland	61,60	2011
88	Belarus	58,00	2011
89	Egypt	57,30	2011
90	Switzerland	53,50	2011
91	Ghana	53,20	2011
92	Sri Lanka	52,80	2011
93	Ireland	52,00	2011
94	South Africa	51,40	2011
95	Slovakia	50,10	2011
96	Uzbekistan	48.87	2011
97	Solomon islands	44,70	2011
98	Chad	43,00	2011
99	Albania	41,70	2011
100	Senegal	38,80	2011
101	Cuba	38.12	2011
102	Bosnia and Herzegovina	37,50	2011
103	Latvia	35.45	2011
104	Mongolia	34,80	2011
105	Azerbaijan	34.68	2011
106	Niger	33.65	2011
107	Slovenia	31.87	2011
108	Guinea-Bissau	31,00	2011
109	Kenya	30,70	2011
110	Morocco	29,00	2011
111	Fiji	28.55	2011
112	Benin	26.39	2011
113	Equatorial Guinea	26,00	2011
114	Salvador	25.23	2011
115	Lithuania	24,90	2011
116	Turkmenistan	24.77	2011
117	Kyrgyzstan	23.62	2011
118	Tajikistan	21.91	2011
119	Bulgaria	21,30	2011
120	Dominican Republic	21,00	2011
121	Zimbabwe	20,00	2011
122	Belize	18.55	2011
123	Belgium	18,30	2011
124	Namibia	17.72	2011
125	Malawi	17.28	2011
126	Syria	16,80	2011
127	Somalia	14,70	2011
128	Go	14,70	2011
129	Haiti	14,03	2011
130	Czech Republic	13,15	2011
131	Estonia	12,81	2011
132	Burundi	12,54	2011
133	Burkina Faso	12,50	2011
134	Botswana	12,24	2011
135	Algeria	11,67	2011
136	Moldova	11,65	2011
137	Mauritania	11,40	2011
138	Rwanda	9,50	2011
139	Jamaica	9,40	2011
140	Brunei	8,50	2011
141	Gambia	8,00	2011
142	Armenia	7,77	2011
143	Macedonia	6,40	2011
144	Eritrea	6,30	2011
145	Denmark	6,00	2011
146	Tunisia	4,60	2011
147	Swaziland	4,51	2011
148	Lebanon	4,50	2011
149	Trinidad and Tobago	3,84	2011
150	Luxembourg	3,10	2011
151	Lesotho	3,02	2011
152	Mauritius	2,75	2011
153	Saudi Arabia	2,40	2011
154	Yemen	2,10	2011
155	Israel	1,78	2011
156	Oman	1,40	2011
157	Comoros	1,20	2011
158	Jordan	0.94	2011
159	Cyprus	0.78	2011
160	Libya	0,70	2011
161	Singapore	0,60	2011
162	Cape Verde	0,30	2011
163	Djibouti	0,30	2011
164	UAE	0,15	2011
165	Bahrain	0.12	2011
166	Barbados	0.08	2011
167	Qatar	0.06	2011
168	Antigua and Barbuda	0,05	2011
169	Malta	0,05	2011
170	Maldives	0.03	2011
171	Bahamas	0.02	2011
172	Kuwait	0.02	2011
173	Saint Kitts and Nevis	0.02	2011

In just 13 years, humanity will run out of fresh water. In 50 years there will be a choice - to drink or eat.

Water crisis and agriculture

Russia has a chance to move from the oil to the “water period” and gain a new sphere of influence in the world; the economic potential of the country’s hydro resources is estimated at 800 billion dollars a year.

World Water Day was established by decision of the UN General Assembly in 1992, and in 2012 it is being held for the twentieth time. “According to the forecast of Russian scientists, by 2025–2030, the volume of fresh water consumed by humanity will be equal to its resources. Those. For the first time, humanity will seriously face a consolidated crisis. Already now our planet with a population of 7 billion people. experiencing water deficiency. At the same time, population growth continues, the volume of water use will only increase.”, - speaks Alexander Konovalov.

Urbanization and industrialization are driving increased demand for water. To account for, analyze and forecast water consumption, new terms have been introduced - “water intensity” of the product and “virtual water”. Since 1990, the water intensity of the Russian economy has doubled. Virtual water is water “invested” in goods. The global volume of virtual water associated with international trade in goods is 1,600 km3/year.

“The amount of virtual water consumed in each person's diet varies depending on the type of diet: from 1 m3/day for a survival diet to 2.6 m3/day for a vegetarian diet and more than 5 m3/day for an American diet based on meat", - provides data from an academician of the Russian Ecological Academy, a member of the Supreme Environmental Council of the State Duma of the Russian Federation, a member of the Committee on Environmental, Industrial and Technological Safety of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs, Ved. n.s. Institute of System Analysis RAS Renat Alekseevich Perelet.

About 80% of virtual water comes from trade in agricultural goods, while the remainder comes from trade in industrial goods.

« Agriculture is the largest user of water. About 70% of the world's water consumption, from surface sources and groundwater, is used for irrigation of agricultural land, 20% is used in industry and 10% for domestic purposes.", – says Alexander Konovalov.

Water may soon become a strategic resource. This was stated by Secretary of the Security Council of the Russian Federation Nikolai Patrushev. Analysts seriously talk about the likelihood of water wars and conflicts. There are more than 215 major rivers and about 300 groundwater basins and aquifers in the world, control of which is shared by several countries. Over the past year, more than 20 million people around the world have fled their homes in water-deprived regions. Russia's closest southern neighbors are already experiencing an acute shortage. According to the UN, about 700 million people in 43 countries are constantly under conditions of “water stress” and scarcity. Approximately one sixth of the world's population does not have access to clean drinking water. If you don’t take action, then in 50 years you will have a choice between drinking or eating. Russia and Brazil have the main fresh water reserves on the planet.

According to scientists, in the near future, what will be of particular value on the world market is not water itself as a resource, but water-intensive products. “An increase in prices for water-intensive products as the scarcity of water resources increases is inevitable. It is possible that due to the difficulties of winning the war for water, competition for water will move into the field of world grain markets. The countries that will win in this competition will be those that are stronger financially, rather than militarily,” says Renat Alekseevich Perelet.

“The rise of agriculture as a rational development of water and land resources is a prerequisite for achieving prosperity in our country. Of particular importance is the development of organic agriculture, which, at a minimum, does not pollute the soil, groundwater and wastewater with chemicals, and, at a maximum, introduces environmental technologies. The time of reckless expansion of food production is coming to an end; it is no coincidence that all over the world we see a trend toward rapid growth in organic agriculture. By consistently developing organic agriculture, Russia can become the largest importer of water-intensive products.", says Alexander Konovalov.

« Water-intensive technologies can become the basis of our economy in the post-oil period. Russia's hydro resources exceed 97 thousand cubic meters. km. If we translate all this into money, we can talk about $800 billion a year. The country has an excellent chance to move from the “oil” period to the “water” period, not only without losses, but also by significantly strengthening its economic position.”, states Director of the Institute of Water Problems of the Russian Academy of Sciences Viktor Danilov-Danilyan.

According to Renat Alekseevich Perelet, trade in aquiferous agricultural lands began to develop very actively at the beginning of the 21st century. At the same time, to meet their food needs, they buy abroad not so much land (outwardly this looks like the acquisition or lease of land), but the water associated with it. Since 2006, approximately 15-20 million hectares of agricultural land in developing countries have been the subject of negotiations with foreign investors. We are talking about transactions totaling 20-30 billion US dollars. If the grain harvest from these lands is 2 tons per hectare, then we are talking about the production of 30-40 million grains per year, which is very significant compared to world production of 220 million tons. In 2008, the Swedish company Alkot Agro acquired 128 thousand hectares in Russia. The largest Russian grain processing company, Pava, was going to sell 40% of its assets (500 thousand hectares) to investors from the Persian Gulf area.

Victor Danilov Danilyan believes that the international authority of Russia and the level of its security will significantly depend on the efficiency of use of water resources, with the increasing volume of their involvement in the economy.

Anna Lyubovedskaya

While the deposits of “black gold” will last for another hundred years, drinking water may run out much earlier – by 2030. Scientists come to this disappointing conclusion every time they sit down to do calculations.

The problem is not the volume of water resources - in this regard, the Earth has colossal reserves at both poles. However, glacier water remains only a theoretical reserve that has yet to be extracted and transported in the future. Now many regions of the world are experiencing an environmental and humanitarian catastrophe due to the lack of drinking water.

As of 2006, only 42 percent of the world's population has access to clean water. Next year this number will decrease by another two percent. Every eight seconds, one child dies from diseases related to water quality and quantity. Such data were announced by representatives of UNEP, the United Nations Environment Program. Senior UN officials seriously fear that the lack of fresh drinking water could lead to a violent struggle for it.

Fresh water makes up only 2.5% of the total water on the planet. However, this amount should be enough to satisfy all the needs of earthlings for the next 25 thousand years. The problem is that almost 70% of this reserve is concentrated in the ice of the Arctic and Antarctic. For comparison, we can say that traditional sources of water supply - rivers, lakes and artesian wells - contain only 0.26% of the world's fresh water reserves.

Currently, scientists are looking for ways to desalinize and transport polar ice. The greatest successes in this direction have been achieved by scientists from the Department of Glaciology of the Institute of Geography of the Russian Academy of Sciences. They developed a technique that allows them to actually squeeze fresh ice out of icebergs, and demonstrated its use in practice. If the proposed technology finds application in industry, then in one day it is possible to produce fresh water in quantities sufficient to cover the needs of the entire Earth for a week.

Scientists are confident that systems for delivering desalinated water to different regions of the world can be built very easily. They refer to the fact that humanity already has experience in transporting another liquid substance - oil, which means the use of pipelines and tankers can also be used in water production.

Environmentalists have expressed serious concerns about the possibility of implementing this plan. According to the forecasts of the most radical experts in this field, by the end of this century the average annual temperature on the planet will rise by 3 degrees Celsius. This will lead to an increase in the rate of ice melting, as a result of which glaciers in the Alps will disappear, and the polar ice caps will shrink several times.

In accordance with modern scientific theories, the process of global warming precedes the new Ice Age and is weakly related to human economic activity. It turns out that the problem of drinking water would confront the population of the Earth with any development of scientific and technological progress.

In recent years, the dependence of the global financial system on the cost of energy resources has become increasingly obvious. Also, due to the increase in population, there is a growing shortage of other resources that ensure the life of humanity: food and fresh water.

The analytical information service of the International Organization of Creditors (WOC) conducted a study to determine how long humanity will have enough natural resources and how their shortage affects the global economy, Vesti.ru reports.

In the 70s last century, humanity's needs began to exceed the planet's ability to renew resources. Now, according to ecologists, it takes the Earth 1.5 years to reproduce what humanity consumes in a year.

“In recent years, about 25% and 20% of the planet’s resources have been used by the United States and China. Accordingly, the remaining countries accounted for a little more than half of the Earth’s available reserves,” says WOC President Robert Abdullin. “Maintaining the life of the average American, for example, requires 3. 5 times more than the average per inhabitant of the Earth, and 9 times more than per 1 inhabitant of India or almost any African country."

In the context of significant population growth, both in the world as a whole and in individual countries, issues of availability of resources such as energy, water and food become relevant.

Energy resources

According to OPEC, developing countries control 2/3 of the world's oil reserves, the resource most needed by humanity, which is rapidly depleting. The largest share of the world's oil reserves is found in Saudi Arabia and Venezuela. Russia is in 8th place according to this indicator. When recalculating reserves per capita, Kuwait becomes the leader, followed by the UAE and Qatar. At the current volumes of proven reserves and production volumes, humanity will have enough oil for no more than 50 years. In Russia, oil, at current production volumes, may run out in 21 years.

In terms of natural gas reserves, the Russian Federation is in first place in the world (47.5 trillion m3), followed by Iran and Qatar by a significant margin (29.6 trillion m3 and 25.4 trillion m3, respectively). With the current volumes of proven reserves and production volumes, this type of fuel will last humanity for just over 60 years. In Russia, natural gas reserves, other things being equal, will last almost 80 years.

Food

Population growth and, accordingly, an increase in demand for food resources provoke an increase in prices.

In terms of the availability of agricultural land and forest areas per capita, Russia is the undisputed leader among the countries considered, followed by Brazil and the United States. China and India are outsiders due to their high population density. In absolute terms, China's agricultural area is more than double that of Russia. As for the volume of grain produced, in per capita terms the United States is the leader, followed by Russia. The US leadership is explained by very high productivity in agriculture: grain yields in America are three times higher than, for example, in Russia.

Water

The leader in the availability of total renewable water resources among the countries considered is Brazil (8,233 billion m3 per year), followed by Russia (4,505 billion m3 per year). In India, this figure is 1,911 billion m3 per year, in Egypt this figure is much lower - 57 billion m3 per year.

Brazil also ranks first in terms of the availability of total renewable water resources per capita (42,604 m3 per person per year), followed by the Russian Federation (31,511 m3 per person per year). For the USA, the figure is three times lower than for Russia. The low value of this indicator in China and India is explained by high population density, and in Egypt by the limited water resources of the region.

The growing shortage of energy, food and fresh water is a serious challenge for humanity. We must take into account that the world’s population is growing: by 2025, according to UN forecasts, there will already be 8 billion of us. At the same time, there will be enough oil for the next 50 years, and natural gas for 60.

The influence of states with sufficient reserves of natural resources on the world economy is increasing. This means that we are on the verge of a global turning point and a redistribution of vectors of influence on the planet.