‘Give us enough water’ was the rallying cry for villagers who blocked a highway in the Indian village of Surajkaradi to protest the village’s dwindling water supply. The village’s main source of water, Narmada water, has not delivered water for the last two weeks. A lack of rainfall has left groundwater sources dry, leaving villagers dependent on alternative sources like Narmada.
Read more here: Villagers block highway, seek adequate water supply
PASO ROBLES, California – Two decades ago, the rolling hills of Paso Robles were mostly covered with golden grass and oak trees. Now the hills and valleys are blanketed with more than 32,000 acres of grapevines.
Surging demand for wine has brought an explosion of vineyards, and along with it heavy pumping of groundwater. With the water table dropping, many people have had to cope as their taps have sputtered and their wells have gone dry.
Read more here: California in overdraft
Around the world, the water crisis is worsening. Groundwater aquifers, which supply many people with potable water for human consumption and agriculture, are being depleted much faster than they are being replenished.
USA Today recently published a series on the groundwater depletion, looking at the global crisis with stories from around the world. The series includes research from NASA’s GRACE satellites, led by Professor Jay Famiglietti of the University of California, Irvine and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
Read more here: Pumped Dry
An analysis of U.S. aquifers shows that groundwater depletion is worsening and threatening the livelihood of the agricultural industry in the Midwest. Water is being pumped from underground aquifers faster than can be replenished by rain- and snow-fall.
Read more here: Pumped beyond limits, many U.S. aquifers in decline
ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates – As skyscrapers and gleaming towers rose with lightning speed across the United Arab Emirates over the past two decades, the Gulf nation’s thirst for water grew at an enormous rate — so much so that today, it threatens to dry up all of the country’s groundwater in as little as 15 years, experts say.
To quench that demand, cities across the seven emirates that make up the UAE rely on desalinated seawater to supply 98 per cent of their drinking water, but that comes with a tremendous environmental and fiscal cost.
Now, officials are looking at new technologies to cover that demand, while acknowledging the risks ahead.
Read more here: As parched United Arab Emirates runs out of groundwater, relying on sea poses its own risks
