With glaciers and ice sheets holding about 2% of water. We have found that less then 1% is availble for use by land dwelling plants and animals. This fresh usable water can be found in several places like ground water, fresh-water lakes, soil moisture, the atmosphere, and in rivers. Notice how small the rivers look compared to the rest of the world.

Surface waters are a major source of the usable water on the planet. They supply water for drinking, recreation,transportation,crop irrigation, and power generation. Most of our major cities have grown up around large bodies of water.