Asia is a continent that has more than 12,000 cubic kilometers of water available per year. We have plenty of water on earth and earth’s vast majority of water is present in the ocean but unfortunately, it is not portable. Seawater contains a large amount of salt and the process of removing salt from water is very much expensive, So it is not the only option for countries that are surrounded by land from all sides.
The main source of fresh water on earth is the precipitation of snow, ice, or rain but the amount of precipitation differs around the world. Different continents have large amounts of rainfall variation and some parts of the earth are much wetter than others. For example, Asia has more than 12000 cubic km of water available per year and the southern region is generally much wetter and the northern region is less wet.
Africa and Latin America which are in the southern area get an abundant amount of rainfall and North America in addition to northern areas are much drier as compared to the tropics.
The people who have faced drought conditions in the past know the value of water and they conserve water for future use. But those who are wealthy and have not experienced drought before are not aware of the conservation of water. So, the amount of rainfall available depends on the weather conditions and the people who live in that area.
Continental differences in the amount of precipitation per annum.
The annual precipitation is 814 mm worldwide in a year but it varies from place to place. For example, North America receives an average of about 637 mm a year while the Latin American area receives much more than an average of 1600 mm a year.
Within a continent, there are huge differences in the amount of precipitation. For example in Africa, some deserts receive less rainfall while the places near the equator have tropical rainforests which receive high rainfall.
Europe, which is a drier place like Africa receives less rainfall but unlike North Africa, it does not have a higher temperature which means it has less evaporation.
Asia has about 12,000 cubic kilometers of water available per year. But even in Asia, as it is a large continent, the water availability for each person varies from place to place as the northern regions are much drier than the southern. In fact, China has more water availability per person than India.
Parts of the Asian continent are very wet as they receive 1139 mm per year and there are also monsoon rains that fall each year in some regions. Some parts of the world such as the Middle East are very arid as they receive only 85 mm per year.
The country with the lowest precipitation is Egypt.
Dependence of Water Availability
The greater the population the larger the demand for the water for domestic use, industrial purpose, and agriculture methods.
It is seen that the use of water also depends on the level of wealth people have as wealthy people use more water than poor people.
Cultural differences also impact the availability of water as the people who are more aware of the value of water and have faced droughts know the value of water and conserve that.
Final words
Earth has 71% of water but most of the water is present in seas and oceans so because of the salinity of water people can’t use it. Asia has more than 12,000 cubic kilometers of water available per year. Water availability depends on various factors and it varies from continent to continent so we must conserve water as much as we can to make it available for the future.
