how many percent of the water on earth is not suitable for human consumption?

Answer 1

The answer is 99.7%
A breakdown of how that is distributed can be found here http://ga.water.usgs.gov/edu/earthwherewater.html

Answer 2

Okay.. lets do this - 76% of earth is made up of water. Of that percentage, it has been estimated that only 12% is consumable. I dont know where it is now, but I read it in an article in some ecology journal.

Anyhoot, 88% of the total water volume is unconsumable. Note also that this is only a rough estimate. It is virtually impossible to measure all the water... There are deep pockets of water embedded all throughout underneat the earth's crust. Many of which we have not even tapped into.

Answer 3

I read somewhere only yesterday that only 3% of the Earth's water is fresh and only 1% of that is suitable for human consumption.

Answer 4

i thik it's 97%.. it's like only 3% freshwater on earth so the unuseable should be 97 provide you mean drinking when you use the word consumption.. if you include all that washing and bathing thing, it's gotta be a lot more.. not everybody uses fresh water for those purposes.. specially in asia..

Answer 5

Water (in its pure form) is a tasteless, odorless substance that is essential to all known forms of life and is known as the universal solvent. It appears colorless to the naked eye in small quantities, though it can be seen to be blue in large quantities or with scientific instruments.The blue color can easily be seen as one sees the blue color of the sea or a clear lake under an overcast sky, which means that it is not a reflection of the blue sky. An abundant substance on Earth, water exists in many forms. It appears mostly in the oceans and polar ice caps, but also as clouds, rain water, rivers, freshwater aquifers, and sea ice. Water in these bodies continuously moves through a cycle of evaporation, precipitation, and runoff to the sea. Clean water is essential to human health and in many parts of the world it is in short supply.

The water on Earth about 97 percent is in the oceans. 3 percent of all Earth's water is freshwater. The majority, about 69 percent, is locked up in glaciers and icecaps, mainly in Greenland and Antarctica. You might be surprised that of the remaining freshwater, almost all of it is below your feet, as ground water. No matter where on Earth you are standing, chances are that, at some depth, the ground below you is saturated with water. Of all the freshwater on Earth, only about 0.3 percent is contained in rivers and lakes—yet rivers and lakes are not only the water we are most familiar with, it is also where most of the water we use in our everyday lives exists.

Answer 6

90

Answer 7

92% or so... its salt water ~the ocean, but it can be turned. Therefore the answer would be all of it. I think only 1.5% make up all rivers, lakes, and glaciers another 6.5. Which would be the drinkable water ~fresh water.

Answer 8

1% of the water on Earth is in drinkable form right now.

Answer 9

97% of Earth's water is salt water

Answer 10

2% is suitable for mankind

Answer 11

Roughly 70%. by the way why such a basic question after all??Go ask u'r geography teacher?