IB Geography Freshwater

The world's water resources are becoming increasingly valuable-and strained. GOOD and the Office of CC put the mind-boggling numbers in perspective.

In rural Africa, women spend 26% of their time fetching water, often walking for miles with heavy buckets balanced on their heads. That's time that could be spent going to school, working outside the home, or teaching their children. The Hippo Water Roller eases the burden by allowing women to transport five times as much water with much less physical effort. In our latest LOOK video, we examine the impact of the rollers on one village in South Africa. LEARN MORE hipporoller.org

It's the source of life but it's also the cause of a lot of unnecessary death. In places where clean water isn't available, water-related diseases like cholera cause massive diarrhea, dehydration, and thousands of deaths each day. Affordable water-treatment solutions exist.

As the world's population increases, temperature rise and societies develop, will water become the "credit crunch" of tomorrow?

Where America's largest cities get their water: rivers, lakes, reservoirs, local water (ground, recycled, surface) and aquifers. And how far it travels to get there.

How Much Water Do You Use? Diagram showing how many gallons of direct and virtual water are used for daily activities.

China is planning to build 59 reservoirs to collect water from its shrinking glaciers as the cost of climate change hits home in the world's most populous country.

Since 2000, the Colorado River - which provides water for seven US states in the region - has carried less water than at any time in recorded history.