![]() The 16 major aquifers in blue, by contrast, gained water during that period. ![]() There were 21 major groundwater basins - in red, orange, and yellow - that lost water faster than they could be recharged between 20. That's according to a 2015 paper in Water Resources Research. And, disturbingly, we don't even know how much water is left in these basins. Data from NASA's Grace satellites suggests that 13 of the world's 37 biggest aquifers are being seriously depleted by irrigation and other uses much faster than they can be recharged by rain or runoff. This groundwater is particularly valuable when rain is scarce or during droughts.īut that groundwater may not last forever. Or the Indus basin in Pakistan and India. Think of the Central Valley aquifer system in California. Some of the world's most important farming regions rely on freshwater from large underground aquifers that have filled up slowly over thousands of years.
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