Ninety-eight percent of the water on planet Earth is in the oceans and unusable for drinking. About 2 percent of the planet’s water is fresh, but 1.6 percent is locked in the polar ice caps and glaciers, and another 0.36 percent is in underground aquifers and wells. Less than 0.04 percent of the planet’s total water supply is found in lakes and rivers. That is thousands of trillions of gallons but a very small amount relative to all the water on the planet.