Book Review #5: The World's Water

The World’s Water:  The Biennial Report on Freshwater Resources (2008-2009)

By Peter H. Gleick

After reading so many books by journalists and economist, it was a bit startling but also refreshing to read a book by a scientist.  There is a very interesting chapter on urban water use in the United States.  However, what I found most useful were the charts in the data section of the book that gave a country-by-country break down, by region, of everything from annual renewable water resources to percentage of the population with access to sanitation.  What I learned about Colombia is organized in the chart below. 

Country	Colombia
Total renewable freshwater supply	2132 km3/yr
Fraction of population with access to improved drinking water (urban)	1970 88 1975 86 1980 93 1985 100 1990 87 1994 88 2000 98 2002 99 2004 99
Fraction of population with access to improved drinking water (rural)	1970 28 1975 33 1980 73 1985 76 1990 82 1994 48 2000 73 2002 71 2004 71
Fraction of population with access to improved drinking water (total)	1970 63 1975 64 1980 86 1985 1990 86 1994 76 2000 91 2002 92 2004 93
Fraction of population with access to improved sanitation (urban)	1970 75 1975 73 1980 93 1985 96 1990 84 1994 76 2000 97 2002 96 2004 96
Fraction of population with access to improved sanitation (rural)	1970 8 1975 13 1980 4 1985 13 1990 18 1994 33 2000 51 2002 54 2004 54
Fraction of population with access to improved sanitation (total)	1970 47 1975 48 1980 61 1985 1990 64 1994 63 2000 85 2002 86 2004 86