Groundwater, the source of life for two billion people, is diminishing almost everywhere in the world, says a recent study by the United Nations Environment Programme (Unep).
So much water has been pumped from beneath Mexico City that some buildings have sunk 2m. The water table under the high plains in the American Midwest has fallen on average by 3m a decade. So much has been extracted from southern Florida that the aquifers are at risk of flooding by sea water.
Twelve cities of more than 10-million people — including Bangkok, Shanghai, London and Calcutta — rely on underground water reserves.
”Some two billion people and as much as 40% of agriculture is at least partly reliant on these hidden stores,” says Klaus Toepfer, executive director of Unep. ”Groundwater also supplements river flows, springs and wetlands vital for rural and urban communities and wildlife. Most of the world’s freshwaters are found below ground.”
The world’s population has more than doubled in the past 60 years; water is used heavily by both industry and agriculture. About 450-million people in 29 countries live with chronic water shortages. One person in six cannot rely on safe drinking water.
More than two billion people have no adequate sanitation. Water-borne diseases kill a child every eight seconds, and are behind 80% of all illness and death in the developing world.
Most of all, water means food. The worry is that the people most at risk — small farmers in poor rural districts — will be the first to suffer as wells dry and water tables sink.
”We need to learn how to value water,” said Kofi Annan, the UN Secretary General. ”While in some instances that may mean making users pay a realistic price, it must never mean depriving already marginalised people of this resource.” — Â