A new study using data from a pair of gravity-measuring NASA satellites finds that large parts of the arid Middle East region lost freshwater reserves rapidly during the past decade.
"[This] data show an alarming rate of decrease in total water storage in the Tigris and Euphrates river basins, which currently have the second fastest rate of groundwater storage loss on Earth, after India," said Jay Famiglietti, principal investigator of the study and a hydrologist and professor at UC Irvine. "The rate was especially striking after the 2007 drought. Meanwhile, demand for freshwater continues to rise, and the region does not coordinate its water management because of different interpretations of international laws."
Tags: water, environment, consumption, resources, environment depend, Middle East, Iraq.
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Water is a big issue in an arid area. The fact that we can measure the amount of groundwater present in an area with a satellite is amazing to me. The issue of water rights and control in this region will someday over take that of oil rights and use in my opinion. Once people get used to free flowing water to use on demand it will cause problems politically when these sources of ground water inevitably dry up.