Groundwater Sources Now Argued to Be Overexploited by Human Society

In the light of new environmental conditions brought about by climate change – we are referring to the drought that recently hit the US – concerns are now raised with respect to how aquifers will manage to cope with ever-increasing water demands, more so since the agricultural industry is bound to soon rely heavily on this natural resource.

A new study published in the journal 'Nature' brings us troubling news with respect to this issue.

Thus, several researchers now claim that various nations around the world are likely to overexploit these groundwater reserves, meaning that the amounts of water extracted by them from the underground go far beyond the aquifers' ability to replenish themselves.

According to Science News, Tom Gleeson from the McGill University in Montreal points the finger at India, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Mexico, and the United States as some of the world's most water-thirsty countries.

Further detailing on this problem, the official website for the journal 'Nature' provides us with an excerpt from said report, which states that 1.7 billion people are presently living in regions whose underground water sources are facing serious overexploiting threats.

By introducing the concept of 'global groundwater footprint' (i.e. an analytic comparison between the amounts of water entering aquifers and the amounts of water extracted from aquifers in order to serve various purposes), the researchers also maintain that “global groundwater footprint is currently about 3.5 times the actual area of aquifers.”

Interestingly enough, it seems that about 80% of our planet underground water resources have a groundwater footprint much more reduced than their overall area, which basically means that, while some water sources are overexploited, others are left virtually untouched.

Tom Gleeson wishes to draw our attention to this situation and says that, “It’s not sustainable. We don’t know how long the aquifers will last.”

Hopefully, these new findings will soon lead to a better management of our underground water sources.