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Why do freshwater lakes hold most of the surface water available for human use?

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lake Lake Ann in North Cascades National Park, Washington, U.S., viewed from the park's Maple Loop Trail. The North Cascades National Park is a large wilderness area that preserves majestic mountain scenery, snowfields, glaciers, and other unique natural features.

Freshwater lakes hold over 98 percent of the surface water available for human use, despite representing a very small fraction of the Earth's total water supply. While the vast majority of the planet's liquid fresh water exists as groundwater, much of it is located at significant depths, making it prohibitively expensive to extract for widespread use.12

Furthermore, most of the world's remaining continental fresh water is inaccessible because it is locked away in glaciers and ice sheets. Consequently, freshwater lakes serve as the primary, accessible surface-water reservoirs for human needs, including drinking, irrigation, and industrial applications. These lakes effectively collect and store drainage from vast land areas, providing a reliable, albeit finite, supply of water that is more readily available than deep-seated groundwater or frozen reserves.134