The volume of water in most of the world’s large lakes and reservoirs has declined since the early 1990s, mainly due to climate change, which has increased concerns about the availability of water for agriculture, l hydroelectricity and human consumption.
This is stated in a new study conducted by an international team of scientists.
They concluded that some of the world’s largest water sources, from the Caspian Sea between Europe and Asia to Lake Titicaca in South America, were losing water at a combined rate of 22 billion tons. per year for almost thirty years.
That’s about 17 times the volume of Lake Mead, the largest reservoir in the United States.
Fangfang Yao, a surface water hydrologist at the University of Virginia who led the study published in the journal Science, said the 56% decline in natural lakes is due to climate change and human consumption, “primarily “to global warming.
The study authors concluded that unsustainable human water consumption, changes in precipitation levels, sedimentation (deposition of particles in the water) and rising temperatures have led to lower lake levels. in the world.
Between 1992 and 2020, such a decrease was observed in 53% of the lakes.
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