Freshwater is a precious resource that comprises only 2.5% of the world's water.* Of that, only 30% is renewable - less than 1% of the total water on our planet. Demand for water is projected to grow substantially for the foreseeable future, driven primarily by agriculture, especially for "consumptive" uses that move water into the atmosphere as vapor where it is no longer readily accessbile by humans.

FRESHWATER MAPS AND SLIDESHOW
As part of an effort to provide geospatially explicit assessments of water availability, ISciences carried out substantial data analysis to produce a gridded map of "Annual Renewable Freshwater Supply Per Capita." This map along with others that help tell the story, are included in ISciences' "Freshwater Sustainability" a PowerPoint® slideshow by Thomas M. Parris, Vice President and Director of Sustainability Programs for ISciences. Slides 10 and 11 show that country- and river-basin level analysis provide a much starker narrative of where water is readily available.

ISciences provides these resources to encourage public discussion of global environmental security issues.

*(UNEP, 2007.)