Freshwater Facts

© Art Wolfe, www.ArtWolfe.com
© Art Wolfe, www.ArtWolfe.com  
 
  • Agriculture uses a huge amount of water, more than 70 percent of available surface water each year.
  • Nearly 40 percent of the rivers in the U.S. are too polluted for fishing and swimming.
  • Nutrient runoff from agriculture has created algal blooms that deplete oxygen from the water and result in dead zones.
  • Nearly every major river in the world has been dammed, altering natural freshwater flows, cutting off migration routes and depleting fisheries downstream.
  • We have already lost more than half of our planet's wetlands and an estimated 30 percent of freshwater species.
  • Sixty-nine percent of river catchments, responsible for the capture and provision of our freshwater supply, remain unprotected — putting more than two-thirds of the source areas of our rivers at risk.
  • Declines in native species and changes in freshwater food webs have been estimated to exceed US $100 million in lost income revenues.
  • In the next few decades, more than half of the world's people are expected to live with severe water scarcity.
  • Every day, the equivalent of ten jumbo jets filled with children is lost to waterborne diarrheal diseases.
  • Climate change, a growing global population, and increasing demands on water due to higher standards of living threaten to further burden our planet's freshwater systems.
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