water resources

Ecologa

2022

We explain what water resources are, what types exist and what they are for. In addition, various examples and water resources in Mexico.

Water resources are essential to sustain life.

What are water resources?

Water resources are the deposits and inputs of Water sweet that, in different state physical and being available or potentially available, they can be used by the human being to satisfy some need.

It is one of the great natural resources of planet Earth. It is indispensable not only for the support of the life, but to preserve the physical-chemical balance of the planet.

The amount and arrangement of water resources varies enormously depending on the region geographic. While in some places it is wasted, in others it is a particularly rare commodity.

In addition, there are different agents and activities pollutants that threaten the preservation of water, and that require constant measures to keep them at bay.

It is known that two thirds of the land surface is submerged, and that of that total water 97.5% is contained in the seas Y oceansIn other words, it is salty water, the use of which requires additional activities such as desalination.

Therefore, only 2.5% of the planet's water is fresh water and, in turn, of this percentage, 68.9% is contained in the planet's polar caps and glaciers, and another 30.1% in the aquifer deposits that are found below the surface. Which leaves only 0.4% of fresh surface water available for direct use.

Types of water resources

The water from rivers and lakes is the most easily accessible.

The water resources of a nation or a region can be in different presentations, such as:

  • Rivers and lakes. Stagnant or flowing freshwater accumulations that irrigate the continental shelf. The rivers are born in the ice that melts at the top of the moutains, and lakes are stagnant waters.
  • Groundwater. Freshwater deposits underground, formed over long periods of time and with a greater or lesser degree of purity, depending on the underground environment in which they are found.
  • Glaciers and perpetual snow. Water at certain heights or at certain altitudes is exposed to levels of temperature that lead it to change physically, thus forming ice, perpetual snow or icebergs.

What are water resources for?

Water resources, in principle, do not have a specific use, since they are resources of the nature. But they are usable by the human being for a diverse set of activities, such as:

  • farming. For the irrigation of plantations.
  • Cattle raising. To feed the cattle.
  • Chemical industry. To obtain hydrogen and oxygen, or to feed another type of chemical reactions controlled.
  • Consumption urban. That is, to bring fresh water to our homes with which to cook, shower or clean ourselves.
  • Mining. To separate valuable components from the rest of the earth.
  • Energetic industry. In hydroelectric or electric power plants, in which the water steam To generate electricity.

Importance of water resources

Water is essential for many activities such as agriculture.

The importance of water resources exceeds the merely economic, commercial or industrial. It is not only a directly usable input, that is, of something that we can take and transform into something else, but it is also an irreplaceable resource to perpetuate the different biochemical cycles and biogeochemicals of the planet.

The water resources of a region are also a guarantee of the fertility of its lands, of the stability of its climates and his biodiversity.

Examples of water resources

Lakes, rivers, deltas, large snowy peaks or underground aquifers are examples of water resources.

Mexico's water resources

Mexico has multiple rivers flowing to the Pacific or the Atlantic.

The Mexican region, although it has enormous desertsThere are also important water resources among which there are 320 hydrological basins, such as those of the Yaqui, Fuerte, Mezquital, Lerma, Santiago and Balsas rivers, all slopes towards the Pacific Ocean; and the Bravo, Pánuco, Papaloapan, Grijalva and Usumacinta rivers, which flow into the Gulf of Mexico.

The Mexican nation makes good use of these resources through hydraulic works that store up to 125,000 million square meters of water, corresponding to 34% of the annual runoff from the rains. Of this, 33% is used to supply water to the semi-arid regions of the north and 37% in electricity generation tasks.

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