"Only 2.5 percent of all water on Earth is fresh water and, of this, almost 70 percent is logistically out of reach in Polar Ice Caps, Glaciers and vast sheets of snow that never thaw. Roughly 29 percent of available freshwater is located in underground aquifers - groundwater - with the surface water of lakes, streams, swamps and soil moisture accounting for the one percent balance." The Earth Times April 16, 1998