A、Seventy percent. B、Fifty-four percent. C、Seventeen percent. D、Fifty percent. A

Everywhere, water use is increasing. Humans already use fifty-four percent of all the fresh water in rivers, lakes and underground. There are some estimates that this rate will reach seventy percent by 2025.
    Fresh water is necessary for life on the Earth. People need water for everyday activities and to produce food. Water is also important for energy production and the health of the Earth’s environmental systems.
    The United Nations is organizing a series of events to increase concern about water issues. UN officials have declared 2003 the International Year of Fresh Water. A goal of the campaign is to build support for policies to use water more wisely.
    Another goal is to get more people to use water in ways that will not hurt the environment. The world population exceeds six thousand million. More than one thousand million lack safe drinking water. More than two thousand million suffer from diseases linked to dirty water. And, more than two thousand million live without waste-treatment systems.
    Water was one of the issues discussed at the UN Millennium Summit two years ago. Leaders said they would work to cut the number of people without safe drinking water in half by 2015. Officials renewed that goal last year at the Summit on Sustainable Development, in Johannesburg, South Africa. They also promised to cut in half the number of people without safe systems to treat waste by 2015.