About three-fourths of the earth's surface is covered with water. Why then is there a shortage of water?

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Solution

The shortage of water is because of the following reasons:

1. Around 97.4% of the total water is present in oceans and seas. This water can not be directly used because of the presence of high concentration of salt. Moreover, some proportion of fresh water is present in glaciers as ice.

2. The distribution of water is uneven throughout the Earth. Some places have high amount of water, whereas others have very low quantities of water.

3. Water pollution has profoundly degraded the quality of fresh water.

4. The ground water level has profoundly decreased because of human activities.

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