Why do they say we need to conserve water? isnt water a renewable source?

Yes, water can be naturally renewed as you describe, but we humans consume water much faster than nature can naturally renew it. The water cycle doesn't occur fast enough for there to always be an abundant supply. In fact, many climates in the world don't receive a lot of rain (such as the deserts). Desert cities often import water from other cities, putting pressure on their water supply. You can see how this can quickly lead to water shortages and why droughts are such bad news. As an analogy, it's like spending more money than you earn. Living above your means. For example, pretend you earn $50,000 a year but spend $100,000 a month. A drastic example but it illustrates the point. Soon enough, you're gonna plummet deep into the depths of debt. It's just the same with our water supply.

It's not just about conserving water, it's about conserving water that we can drink safely. All the water in the world is no use if we can't drink (or use it in other ways) safely. As populations grow, the water sources can't keep up the pace, and potable water gets scarce. The oceans are still there. The peat bogs are still stinky. But the reservoir is dry.

Usable water is the key here. There is plenty of water here on Earth and there is no shartage of it...the problem arises when we want to drink it safely or use the water for another purpose, normally clean water is essential for both. When we talk about conserving water we are really talking about conserving the ENERGY needed to make polluted water clean or desalinating salt water. Huge amounts of energy are used and consumed during these processes. Relying on the weather to renew our water isn't going to be sufficient. There are many places where you can drink the water from a stream or river...and then again there are many more places where you cannot. Try taking a gulp of the Mighty Mississippi and you'll see why. The other issue is water availability. When an area is suffering from a drought, they don't even have dirty water to clean. They have to import the water from other places and this too also uses ENERGY. How do we create this energy? By burning fossil fuels that are not renewable. If we just used the clean water we already have more efficiently then we wouldn't have to use so many other resources renewing it ourselves. So when people say conserve water, what they really mean is conserve the energy that it takes to transport or create potable water.

Well first, the ice caps aren't melting. Brief time of heat called Summer :) Second I would pretty much say your right but, it doesn't rain every second. More places then others.

Water is a renewable source but the way I see it is that there are too many people and weuse the water to quickly..

Funny I thought up this same question and asked my husband just yesterday.

If it comes down as rain, an extended drought will make one appreciate the absence of water and how a commodity we so often take for granted can be denied us.

Candle and trigonot got it. The water does recirculate, but think about how much of the water on earth is in an ocean or otherwise unusable. Think of the surface area land:ocean ratio - much more rain falls on oceans and is immediately unusable. Even rain that falls on land is likely to flow to an unusable or difficult to use point.