How much of the world’s fresh water is in Canada?
Freshwater refers to water that usually contains less amounts of dissolved solids. Generally this amount is defined as lesser than 1000 milligrams of dissolved solids in every liter of water. The major portion of the world’s freshwater (99.9%) is to be found in ice fields and glaciers, or underground. Mostly, the small quantity of the freshwater that we are familiar with is to be found in lakes, wetlands, and rivers, in atmosphere, or in soil.
Canada is lucky in terms of availability of freshwater. The percentage of total world population residing in Canada is quite low, about 0.5%. However, according to a calculation, about 9% of the total area in Canada has freshwater. Canada supplies approximately 7% of the total world’s supply of renewable freshwater. The rivers of Canada discharge 105 000 m3/s of renewable freshwater. The Great Lakes in Canada occupy about 10% or 87,500 square kilometers of the total 89, 1163 square kilometers of available freshwater in the nation. About 60% of Canada’s freshwater usually drains towards the northern part. The area occupied by wetland in Canada is the largest in the world. This country has approximately 25% of the entire world’s wetlands.
Canada ranks third in terms of availability of renewable freshwater. The first country in this category is Brazil while the second one is Russia.
