More than 70% of our planet consists of water.
But fresh water bodies form a very small proportion of this enormous quantity. About 2.7 per cent of the total water available on the earth is fresh water.
Of this, about 75.2 per cent lies frozen in polar regions and another 22.6 per cent is present as ground water. The rest is present in lakes, rivers, atmosphere, moisture, soil and vegetation.
What is effectively available for consumption and other uses is a small proportion of the quantity available in rivers, lakes and ground water. Less than 1% of the world’s fresh water (or about 0.007% of all water on earth) is readily accessible for direct human use.