Water - Lifeline for Living Organisms

Posted Date: 25-Feb-2010	Category: General
Author: Qays	Member Level: Gold	Points: 10

Water is the life-line for all living organisms on earth as it is an essential constituent of all living beings. All living organism have their metabolism, which necessarily depends on the physical as well as chemical properties of water.Water also forms the habitat for innumerous organisms on earth.

Water - Lifeline for Living Organisms

Aquatic systems such as freshwater and marine realms support luxuriant growth of plants and animals,including the microscopic and macroscopic ones.Adequate supply of water is essential to sustain a healthy environment because it is an important constituent of the protoplasm in all-living organisms.An estimate reveals that if a man lives for a life span of 70 years, he needs at least 750,000 tonnes of water for his survival.

Water available on Earth:

The quantum of water on earth has been estimated as 10 power 15 acre-feet.Of this, 97.6% is in the oceans and therefore, not potable.Only 2.4% (approximately 1.4 billion kilo meter cube) or 33 X 10 to the power of 12 acre-feet is fresh water of which more than 1.9 % remains frozen in the polar regions and in the glaciers.The ground water available is 0.5%; of which 0.1% is available in soil as moisture and 0.2% is available in lakes and streams(0.126 million kilo meter cube) remaining found as such. About 14% of the ground water is at depths between 2,500 and 12,000 feet and only around 11% of groundwater is available at depths less than 2,500 feet.Globally, over 70% of water is utilized for agriculture only. Of this, Over 90% is utilized by the developing countries.

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