first only of the water on earth is freshwater second most of freshwater not locked up in ice caps or glaciers comes at the wrong time and place in monsoons and floods and is in areas too remote for humans to access although of the world s population lives in asia the continent has only of the world s water resources table b these two types of freshwater vary in a number of key characteristics and these differences have direct implications for water security groundwater constitutes nearly of the freshwater on our planet discounting that in the polar ice caps but only a small proportion less than can be withdrawn each year without depleting the resource base