I’ve been hearing, for as long as I could remember, that fresh water sources are shrinking, and soon, we may be left with no fresh water sources at all. It’s a scary thought, to think that in a few hundred years we may have run out.

But after a new breakthrough discovery, paranoids like me may be able to rest a little easier at night.

“Australian researchers said Thursday they had established the existence of vast freshwater reserves trapped beneath the ocean floor, which could sustain future generations as current sources dwindle,” reported Phys.org.

There are estimations that today about 30% of people live without adequate water supplies and that by 2030 that percentage may rise to about 45%. It’s because water use has grown almost double the population growth, no doubt thanks to factory farms.

And look at how we treat our rivers globally! I’m not an environmental scientist, nor am I even a staunch environmentalist. But sometimes a picture says a thousand words.

There are many options as to handle these great water reserves. Some say to use them as an emergency, others, particularly U.S. corporations may look at the reserves with $ in their eyes.

Either way, we need to treat these reserves as a non-renewable resource. “When the polar icecaps started melting about 20,000 years ago these coastlines disappeared under water, but their aquifers remain intact–protected by layers of clay and sediment,” Vincent Post, an Australian professor, told Phys.org.

The big problem here, though, is once these aquifers are spent, they don’t replenish. At least not while the oceans are as high as they are now.

Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2013-12-scientists-vast-undersea-freshwater-reserves.html#jCp