FIGURE9 Water availability breakdown
Surface/other fresh water
Atmosphere 3.0%
Living things 0.26%
1.2%
Fresh water 2.6%
Rivers 0.49%
Other saline water 0.9%
Swamps, marshes 2.6%
Groundwater 30.1%
Lakes 20.9%
Soil moisture 3.8%
Oceans 96.5%
Ground ice and permafrost 69.0%
Glaciers and icecaps 68.7%
Surface water and other fresh water
Total global water
Fresh water
9.6.7 Water scarcity The last aspect of water variability is scarcity. Water scarcity is defined as deficiency or lack of safe water supply. This does not simply refer to locations that lack sufficient rainfall or flow of water (often referred to as physical water scarcity). Water scarcity can affect any location, particularly those which have rapidly increasing populations. In these locations, the demand for water is far greater than supply.
FIGURE10 This topographic map highlights how difficult it is for the people of Papua New Guinea to collect and distribute water.
Equator
130°E
140°E
150°E
0°
Sorong
Admiralty Islands
Biak
Jayapura
Kavieng
Nabire
Wewak
B I SMARCK
Rabaul
SEA
Moluccas
Timika
4884 m
I NDONES I A
New Britain
New Ireland
Madang
BANDA SEA
Aru Islands
4509 m
Hoskins
Mendi
Lae
SOLOMON
PAPUA NEW GUINEA
Merauke
SEA
Popondetta
Port Moresby
4035 m
ARAFURA
Torres Strait
10°S
SEA
Abau
Alotau
CORAL SEA
Key
Height in metres
1000 2000 4000 6000
Country capital Major Town Town Mountain Major Road Country border
0 200 500
0
200 1000 2000 4000 6000
Depression
Depth in metres
0 200 400km
Source: Based on data from Natural Earth and ETOPO1: doi:10.7289/V5C8276M. Map drawn by Spatial Vision.
TOPIC9 Water in the world 277
Made with FlippingBook interactive PDF creator