The world is not only hungry,but also thirsty for water. This may seem strange to you, since nearly 75 % of the earth's surface is covered with water. But about 97% of this huge amount is sea water, or salt water. Man can only drink and use the other 3% -- the fresh water that comes from rivers, lakes,underground, and other sources. And we cannot even use all of that, because some of it is in the form of icebergs and glaciers. Even worse, some of it has been polluted.
However, as things stand today, this small amount of fresh water, which is constantly being replaced by rainfall, is still enough for us. But our need for water is increasing rapidly-- almost day by day. Only if we take steps to deal with this problem now can we avoid a severe worldwide water shortage later on. A limited water supply would have a bad effect on agriculture and industry. Let me give you just one small exampie of how necessary water is to industry. Did you know that to produce a single ton of steel, it takes about 91, 000 liters of water?
We all have to learn how to stop wasting our precious water. One of the first steps we should take is to develop ways of reusing it. Experiments have already been done in this field, but only on a small scale.
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世界不仅饥饿，而且渴水。这可能看起来很奇怪，因为近75%的地球表面被水覆盖着。但约97%的这一数额巨大的海水，或咸水。人类只能饮用和使用其他3%个来自河流、湖泊、地下和其他水源的淡水。我们甚至不能使用所有这些，因为其中一些是冰山和冰川的形式。更糟糕的是，其中一些已经被污染。
然而，正如今天的情况，这少量的淡水，不断被降雨所取代，对我们来说还是足够的。但是我们对水的需求正在迅速增加--几乎每天都在增长。只有我们采取措施来处理这个问题，我们才能避免以后世界范围内严重的水资源短缺。有限的水供应会对农业和工业产生不良影响。让我给你一个小的对流换热的水是必要的行业。你知道生产一吨钢，需要大约91，000公升的水吗?
我们都必须学会如何停止浪费宝贵的水。我们应该采取的第一步是发展重用的方法。在这个领域已经做了实验，但只是在小规模。
