just for fun, researched the fresh water resources, from wiki,
earth's water: 97% salt water
3% fresh water.
--> 30% ground water
--> 68% ice cap + glacier water
--> 1% surface water (lakes, rivers).
Generally speaking the more developed countries of North America, Europe and Russia will not see a serious threat to water supply by the year 2025, not only because of their relative wealth, but more importantly their populations will be better aligned with available water resources. North Africa, the Middle East, South Africa and northern China will face very severe water shortages due to physical scarcity and a condition of overpopulation relative to their carrying capacity with respect to water supply. Most of South America, Sub-Saharan Africa, Southern China and India will face water supply shortages by 2025; for these latter regions the causes of scarcity will be economic constraints to developing safe drinking water, as well as excessive population growth.
Facts about Tibet/china water resources -- really scary.
- An estimated 70 percent of China’s rivers are polluted, leaving an estimated 300 million people with limited access to clean water.
- Almost half of the world’s population lives in the watersheds of the rivers whose sources lie on the Tibetan Plateau.
- Scientists say glaciers on the Tibetan Plateau are receding faster than in any other part of the world — if the rate continues, most will gone by 2035.
- There are more than 1000 lakes on the Tibetan Plateau, including the world’s highest salt lake — Namtso (Nam Co).
- Both sourced in the Tibetan Plateau, the Yangtze (Chang Jiang) River and the Yellow River serve roughly 520 million people in China.
- The Yangtze River is the third-longest in the world, after the Amazon and the Nile.
