We hear a destiny about how drinking water is drying up around the world . But the fact is that we have a “ theoretically unlimited ” supply of drinking water , fit in to fluid mechanics engineers . The real problem is economic .
Over on Quora , subsea hydraulics engineer Ryan Carlyle answers whether scientists have determined how much body of water is give for us to imbibe on the planet :
Global water supplying are theoretically limitless , because it ’s not destroyed when we use it — it just become dirty . Water can be reused … if you live on a river , some of your drinking water probably come from an upstream town ’s sewage treatment industrial plant !
barren water recycling and salinity water desalination can produce any conceivable quantity of potable body of water . wet can be slowly pulled from the air even in the driest comeupance . A sufficiently mysterious well drilled almost anywhere on the satellite will eventually hit a large common salt - water supply aquifer .
The real problem is that bracing water supply requires energy and money to produce . Nations and citizen do n’t want to spend vast quantities of resources on producing fresh water supply . admission to clean water system is seen by most as a basic human right , mean it must be sleazy for consumer , mean it must be cheap to produce .
Cheap urine has to be approachable , low - salt , and relatively light to part with . That ’s a very rarefied kind of water — essentially just rivers , lakes , shallow aquifers , and a moment of precipitation and shabu . Such wise water is being diverted in tremendous quantities for agriculture . When you consider the rapid depletion of major aquifers and various lakes for irrigation projects around the populace , we ’re probably already using more fresh urine than can be keep . There is extra fresh water in inconvenient places like glacier and rainforest but it is n’t tinny enough to transport to universe center of attention .
So H2O is bound by the amount of wealth and economical activity we ’re willing to invest . But if money is no physical object , globular water supplies are limitless .
We could easily be assuring the intact world an interminable supply of drinkable weewee , if only the money were available .
take more about this questionon Quora .
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