 ID: 93756
Added: 2006-02-14 3:50
Modified: 2009-03-17 7:27
Refreshed: 2012-02-10 07:44
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- In Arabic language there are at least ten names of water according to its salinity and potability starting from “Ujaj,” which is the bitterest and most saline water, and ending with “zulal,” the clear, sweet and cool water. Source: Empowers Partnership
- Water has always been regarded as a precious resource in the Arab World that many Arabic feminine names have a water related meaning: Dima = rainy cloud; Riham = fine rain; Muzna & Rabab = white cloud; Nahla = drink of water; Rayya = sated with water; Kawthar = sweet water; Hutoon = pouring rain. Source: Empowers Partnership
- Leonardo da Vinci was fascinated by water and studied it both as an artist/scientist and as a hydrological engineer. He described water as ‘the vehicle of nature’ (‘vetturale di natura’), believing water to be to the world what blood is to our bodies. He was also terrified by water’s destructive capacity, having witnessed great storms, and conducted numerous studies of the motion of water. Leonardo also studied water to learn to control it. Throughout his life, Leonardo was obsessed with a fear of a great water cataclysm. In his drawings and in his writings he describes terrible floods and inundations and great storms. Source: UNESCO Water Portal
- Deserts cover about one fifth of the Earth s surface. With an area of 9,100,000 km2, the Sahara is the largest desert in the world and occupies approximately 10% of the African Continent. Source: UNESCO Water Portal
- Deserts are being used for fish farms. Shrimp are being grown in the high temperatures of the Arizona desert in the United States. And pilot projects in India s desert state of Rajasthan have found its saline water which hinders crop growth ideal for the purpose. Source: UNESCO Water Portal
- Research on the changing urban water systems in Africa, where insufficient infrastructure is a major problem, indicates that while in the early 1970s many major cities still used groundwater supplies as their primary water source, by the 1990s primary sources were more likely to be rivers, and increasingly these river sources were more than 25 kilometres away. Source: WWAP News
- Desertification is found to some degree on 30% of irrigated lands, 47% of rain-fed agricultural lands, and 73 % of rangelands. Annually, an estimated 1.5 to 2.5 million hectares of irrigated land, 3.5 to 4 million hectares of rain-fed agricultural land, and about 35 million hectares of rangeland lose all or part of their productivity due to land degradation. Source: MIO-ECSDE
- The water footprint of an individual, business or nation is defined as the total volume of freshwater that is used to produce the foods and services consumed by the individual, business or nation. A water footprint is generally expressed in terms of the volume of water use per year. Source: UNESCO Water Portal 145
- Virtual water is the water embedded in commodities. Producing goods and services requires water; the water used to produce agricultural or industrial products is called the virtual water of the product. The global volume of virtual water flows related to the international trade in commodities is 1,600 Km3/yr. About 80% of these virtual water flows relate to the trade in agricultural products, while the remainder is related to industrial product trade. The production of 1 kilogram of: rice requires 3,000 litres of water, wheat requires 1,350 litres of water and beef requires 16,000 litres of water. Globally, water is saved if agricultural products are traded from regions with high water productivity to those with low water productivity. Source: UNESCO Water Portal 145.
- During the 20th century, the world population almost increased fourfold, while water used in agriculture through irrigation increased sixfold and some major rivers approached an advanced level of water depletion. While irrigation withdraws about 2,300 km3 of freshwater per year from rivers and aquifers, only about 900 km3 is effectively consumed by crops. Source: UNESCO Water Portal 185.
- In 2030, irrigated agriculture should account for over 70% of the projected increase in cereal production in 93 developing countries. In these countries, the area equipped for irrigation is expected to expand by 20% (40 million ha) between 1998 and 2030. This projected increase in irrigated land is less than half of the increase of the preceding period (100 million ha). Thanks to increased cropping intensity, the area of harvested crops in irrigation is expected to increase by 34% by 2030. In the same period, the amount of freshwater that will be appropriated for irrigation is expected to grow by about 14% to 2,420 km3 in 2030. Source: UNESCO Water Portal 185.
- Over 45% of the land surface of the world is covered by basins that are shared by more than one nation. Over 75% of all nations, 145 of them have within their boundaries shared basins. And 33 nations have over 95% of their territory within international basins. While most basins are shared between just two countries, there are 13 basins worldwide that are shared between 5 and 8 riparian nations. Five basins, the Congo, Niger, Nile, Rhine and Zambezi, are shared between 9 and 11 countries. The river that flows through the most nations is the Danube, which travels within the territory of 18 nations! Over 40% of the world’s population resides within internationally shared river basins. Basins shared by two or more nations account for approximately 60% of the world’s river flow. Transboundary Freshwater Dispute Database (TFDD).
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