6 Billion People Suffering from Water Shortage

SadaNews - New research based on satellite data over 22 years shows that vast areas of the world are losing freshwater and becoming drier, with nearly 6 billion people—living in 101 countries—now suffering from water shortages.

According to the study published in the journal "Science Advances", regions of "extreme drought" include large parts of Canada, Russia, the southwestern United States, Central America, the Middle East to northern China, and Southeast Asia, as well as a massive desiccating area interconnected from North Africa to Europe.

Since 2002, satellites have been measuring changes in the Earth's gravitational field to track shifts in water, both frozen and liquid. The data shows that nearly 6 billion people, or three-quarters of humanity, live in 101 countries experiencing water shortages.

Hreshikesh Chandamborkar, a researcher at Arizona State University and co-author of the study, stated that satellite data not only indicates that these regions and others are on average turning into drier conditions but also that they are failing to "live within the limits of available water.}

He added that "the reality is that water is not appreciated enough and its long-term reserves are exploited for short-term profits."

The study estimated that groundwater depletion accounts for 68% of water loss in dry areas around the world, with total water loss in these areas now exceeding mountain glacier melt as a contributor to rising sea levels.

Massive Drought Areas

It also noted that the dry areas of the world lose 368 billion metric tons of water annually. This exceeds twice the volume of Lake Tahoe in the United States or ten times the volume of Lake Mead, the largest reservoir in the country.

Satellites have monitored the total amounts of water stored in glaciers, ice sheets, lakes, rivers, and soils for more than two decades, in addition to the vast natural underground reservoirs in the world, known as aquifers.

Scientists see "extensive massive drought areas", one extending from the western United States through Mexico to Central America, and another from Morocco to France, through the entire Middle East to northern China.

The study points out two main causes of drought: increasing temperatures due to the use of oil and gas, and excessive groundwater pumping on a large scale that took thousands of years to accumulate underground.

Jay Famiglietti, a water scientist and professor at Arizona State University and co-author of the study, said: "These results may send the most alarming message yet about the impact of climate change on our water resources." He added that "the rapid change in the water cycle that the planet has witnessed over the past decade has led to a wave of rapid drought."

Large parts of the world are becoming drier, and vast areas are losing freshwater. In addition to the melting of glaciers and ice caps, many areas are becoming increasingly arid and depleting their groundwater. Each year, these drought areas expand by an area roughly double the size of California, according to the study.

According to the study, Canada and Russia lose the most freshwater, as large amounts of ice and permafrost are melting, while the United States, Iran, and India rank highly as well, experiencing rising temperatures and chronic overuse of groundwater.

Groundwater Depletion

Farms and cities are extracting large amounts of water using high-capacity pumps, leading to significant evaporation and much of the water ending up as rain falling over the ocean, contributing to rising sea levels markedly.

The study noted that these water losses now contribute more to rising sea levels than the melting of mountain glaciers or ice sheets in Antarctica or Greenland.

The rapid and astonishing expansion of dry areas has even surprised the scientists in the study. Famiglietti predicted that the situation in many areas will worsen, leading to "widespread drought and desertification."

Famiglietti remarked: "We have observed tremendous growth in land areas around the world suffering from severe drought," noting that "only tropical areas are becoming wetter, while the rest of the world's land areas are drying up."

The wave of drought has driven many people in various food-producing regions around the world to dig more wells and rely more heavily on pumping groundwater.

The study indicates that as groundwater levels drop, wells increasingly leak and dry up, prompting people to dig deeper, and the land may sink as underground spaces collapse, potentially leading to irreversible losses, leaving current and future generations with less water.

Famiglietti warns that the potential long-term consequences are dire, as farmers will struggle to grow enough food, economic growth will be threatened, increasing numbers of people will be displaced from dry areas, conflicts over water are already growing, and more governments in unprepared countries will destabilize, according to his estimation.

As land drought and groundwater depletion become major reasons for rising sea levels, dry land and groundwater have added the equivalent of 22.2 millimeters of water to the ocean from 2002 to 2024, according to the study.

Previous studies pointed to declines in groundwater levels, increasing dryness in dry areas, and that these water losses contribute to rising sea levels, but this new study shows that these changes are occurring at a faster rate and on a broader scale than previously known.

Hreshikesh Chandamborkar remarked: "It's quite alarming. Water affects everything in life, and the effects of its irreversible decline are likely to seep into everything."

He added that groundwater depletion, which is often invisible, conceals the extent to which arid regions are exhausting their reserves, and "once these reservoirs dry up, bankruptcy in the water sector becomes imminent."

Source: Al Jazeera + Agencies