Amazing Water Facts

Amazing Water Facts

“When the well’s dry, we know the worth of water” – Benjamin Franklin 

#1. The ‘Old Faithful’geyser in Yellowstone National Park, USA, can spout water 52 metresin the air.


#2. 70% of the Earth’s surface is water.


#3. Water is the only substance on Earth that can be found in three different  forms – solid,liquid or gas.


#4. An elephant can smell water up to 5 kilometres away.


#5. 60% of household water is used to flush toilets or take baths and showers.


#6. The hottest sea water is in the Persian Gulf.It is 35 degrees centigrade.


#7. A rat is the animal that can last the longest without water.


#8. It takes 25 litres of water to make 1 litre of beer.


#9. 66% of our body is made of water.


#10. All foods contain water.


#11. Almost all the freshwater on Earth is frozen in huge blocks of ice or glaciers.


#12. The longest river in the world is the Nile in Africa.It is 6670 kilometres long.


#13. The highest waterfall is the Angel Falls in Venezuela.It has a total drop of 980 metres.


#14. An iguana can stay underwater for 28 minutes.


#15. It takes 100,000 litres of water to make 1 kilogram of beef. (most of the water is used to grow animal food not for the animals to drink!).


#16. A person can survive without food for more than 30 days but less than a week without water.


#17. A Seagull can drink saltwater as it has special glands to filter out the salt.


#18. The smallest ocean is the Arctic Ocean and the largest is the Pacific Ocean.


#19. We each use an average of 180 litres of water a day.


#20. It takes 1900 litres of water to make 1kg of rice.


#21. Of all the water on the earth, humans can used only about three tenths of a percent of this water. Such usable water is found in groundwater aquifers, rivers, and freshwater lakes.


#22. 75% of a chicken, 80% of a pineapple, and 95% of a tomato is water.


#23. A person must consume 2.5 quarts of water per day from all sources (drinking, eating) to maintain health.


#24. Water regulates the earth’s temperature. It also regulates the temperature of the human body, carries nutrients and oxygen to cells, cushions joints, protects organs and tissues, and removes wastes.


#25. It is possible for people today to drink water that was part of the dinosaur era.


#26. Industries as well as people need water. It takes, on average, 39,090 gallons of water to manufacture a new car and its four tires.


#27. 62,600 gallons of water are needed to produce one ton of steel; 1,500 gallons to process one barrel of beer; and 9.3 gallons to process one can of fruit or vegetables.


#28. On average, 50-70% of household water is used outdoors (watering lawns, washing cars).


#29. The average American uses over 100 gallons of water per day; the average residence uses over 100,000 gallons during a year.


#30. It costs over $3.5 billion to operate water systems throughout the United States each year.


#31. About 70 percent of the earth is water, but only 2.5 percent of that is freshwater.  Of the freshwater, 68.9 percent is in the form of glaciers and snow cover, 30.8 percent is groundwater, and about 0.3 percent is in lakes and rivers.


#32. The first municipal water filtration works was opened in Paisley, Scotland, in 1832.


#33. Methods to improve the taste and odour of water occurred as early as 4000 B.C., when Sanskrit and Greek people recommended charcoal filtering, exposure to sunlight, boiling and straining.


#34. In 1855, an epidemiologist named John Snow showed that cholera was a waterborne disease; he showed this by linking an outbreak in London with a contaminated well.


#35. In the late 1880s, Louis Pasteur demonstrated the “germ theory” of disease, which showed how microscopic organisms could transmit diseases through water.


#36. In 1908, chlorine was used for the first time as a primary disinfectant of drinking water in the United States.


#37. In the United States, federal regulations of drinking water quality began in 1914.


#38. Water expands by 9 percent when it freezes.


#39. March 22 is World Water Day, as declared by the United Nations.


#40. One litre of water weighs about one kilogram.


#41. Saskatchewan’s name comes from the Plains Cree word kisiskatchewan, which means “the river
that flows swiftly.”


#42. By the time you feel thirsty, your body has already lost more than one percent of its total water.


#43. One inch of rain on an area of one kilometre by one kilometre is equivalent to 25,400 litres of water, which is equal to about 134 bathtubs of water!


#44. Raindrops are not shaped like teardrops.  Small raindrops are spherical, and larger raindrops are shaped like hamburger buns.


#45. 75 percent of the human brain is water.


#46. A living tree is 75 percent water.


#47. One dishwasher cycle uses about 40 litres of water, and hand washing the dishes uses about 35 litres of water.


#48. Leaving the tap running while you wash your hands uses about 8 litres of water.


#49. To produce one kilogram of paper, approximately 300 litres of water are required.


#50. One milligram of free chlorine per litre of water can kill the E. coli bacteria in less than one approximately 16 minutes to kill the Hepatitis A virus, 45 minutes to kill the Giardia parasite, and about 9600 minutes (6 to 7 days) to kill the Cryptosporidium parasite.


#51. One drop of oil can make up to 25 litres of water unfit for drinking.


#52. Acid rain has a pH of 3.6, which is 100 times more acidic than normal rainwater, which has a pH of 5.6.