THE WATER USE IN THE WORLD
The water is the most important thing for our life
what is the water?
Water is one of the most vital natural resources for all life on Earth. The availability and quality of water always have played an important part in determining not only where people can live, but also their quality of life. Even though there always has been plenty of fresh water on Earth, water has not always been available when and where it is needed, nor is it always of suitable quality for all uses. Water must be considered as a finite resource that has limits and boundaries to its availability and suitability for use.
Today: the good and bad aspects
The most obvious uses of water for people are drinking, cooking, bathing,
cleaning, and—for some—watering family food plots. This domestic water use, though crucial,
is only a small part of the total. Worldwide, industry uses about twice as much water as
households, mostly for cooling in the production of electricity. Far more water is needed to
produce food and fibre (cereals, fruits, meat, cotton) and maintain the natural environment.
Providing six times more water now than a hundred years ago, an enormous task, has significant
impacts on people and the environment.
On the positive side: a major investment drive, major investments in wastewater treatment over the past 30 years, food production and perhaps the biggest achievment of the century.
But at the same time: an unaccetaptably large portionof world population does not have access to safe and affordable drinking water and sanitation, there are too much economics investment,unregolated access to groundwater and
Categories of water use
The U.S. Geological Survey categorizes water use for analyzing current patterns and predicting future trends.
Commercial water use includes fresh water for motels, hotels, restaurants, office buildings, other commercial facilities, and civilian and military institutions. Domestic water use is probably the most important daily use of water for most people.
Domestic use includes water that is used in the home every day, including water for normal household purposes, such as drinking, food preparation, bathing, washing clothes and dishes, flushing toilets, and watering lawns and gardens.
Industrial water use is a valuable resource to the nation's industries for such purposes as processing, cleaning, transportation, dilution, and cooling in manufacturing facilities. Major water-using industries include steel, chemical, paper, and petroleum refining. Industries often reuse the same water over and over for more than one purpose.
Irrigation water use is water artificially applied to farm, orchard, pasture, and horticultural crops, as well as water used to irrigate pastures, for frost and freeze protection, chemical application, crop cooling, harvesting, and for the leaching of salts from the crop root zone. Nonagricultural activities include self-supplied water to irrigate public and private golf courses, parks,
Livestock water use includes water for stock animals, feed lots, dairies, fish farms, and other nonfarm needs. Water is needed for the production of red meat, poultry, eggs, milk, and wool, and for horses, rabbits, and pets. Livestock water use only includes fresh water.
Mining water use includes water for the extraction of naturally occurring minerals; solids, such as coal and ores; liquids, such as crude petroleum; and gases, such as natural gas. The category includes quarrying, milling (such as crushing, screening, washing, and flotation), and other operations as part of mining activity. A significant portion of the water used for mining, about 32 percent, is saline.
Public Supply water use refers to water withdrawn by public and private water suppliers, such as county and municipal water works, and delivered to users for domestic, commercial, and industrial purposes. In 1995, the majority of the nation's population, about 225 million, or 84 percent, used water delivered from public water suppliers. About 42 million people supplied their own water, with about 99 percent of that water being groundwater, usually from a local well.
Thermoelectric Power water use is the amount of water used in the production of electric power generated with heat. The source of the heat may be from fossil fuels, nuclear fission, or geothermal. Fossil fuel power plants typically reuse water. They generate electricity by turning a turbine using steam power. After the steam is used to turn the turbines, it is condensed back to water by cooling it. The condensed water is then routed back to the boiler, where the cycle begins again.