Fresh water is disappearing at an unprecedented rate across the planet.

Freshwater is depleting at an alarming rate. Climate change and overexploitation of aquifers are drastically reducing freshwater reserves and simultaneously contributing to sea level rise. This is according to a new study by researchers at Arizona State University, which shows how continents have suffered unprecedented freshwater loss since 2002, thus threatening water availability for the world's population. The details of the study were published in the journal Science Advances .

The loss of fresh water

To estimate changes in the total amount of water mass stored on the continents, including rivers, groundwater, glaciers, and ice sheets, researchers reviewed over a decade of data from the US-German Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) and GRACE-Follow On (GRACE-FO) satellite missions. From their analyses, the team found that drastic reductions in freshwater occurred between 2002 and 2024. Specifically, they found that drought-prone areas are not only becoming increasingly arid, a trend predicted by climate change, but are also expanding by more than 800,000 square kilometers per year , an area the size of the United Kingdom and France combined.

The 4 mega-arid regions

The team also identified four "mega-arid" regions that create the so-called drought zone. These include northern Canada and Russia, where the loss is caused by melting glaciers, permafrost, and reduced snow. In the other two regions, however, it is primarily due to aquifer depletion. These include the southwestern United States, much of Central America, and a region stretching from Western Europe and North Africa to northern India and China. The researchers found that aquifer depletion accounts for 68% of the overall decline in water supplies . "It's staggering how much non-renewable water we're losing," said Hrishikesh A. Chandanpurkar , one of the study's authors. "Glaciers and deep aquifers are like ancient trust funds. Instead of using them only in times of need, such as a prolonged drought, we take them for granted. Furthermore, we fail to replenish aquifers during wet years, thus facing imminent freshwater bankruptcy."

Rising oceans

The negative implications of all this for freshwater availability are staggering. Seventy-five percent of the world's population lives in 101 countries that have lost freshwater over the past 22 years. The United Nations predicts that the world's population will continue to grow for the next 50 to 60 years, while freshwater availability is dramatically declining. Furthermore, according to the new study's findings, since 2015, water loss from the continents has caused sea levels to rise more than the melting of the Antarctic or Greenland ice sheets, raising the oceans by just under a millimeter per year. "These findings send perhaps the most concerning message yet about the impact of climate change on our water resources," said co-author Jay Famiglietti . "Continents are drying out, freshwater availability is declining, and sea level rise is accelerating. The consequences of continued overexploitation of aquifers could jeopardize food and water security for billions of people around the world."