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Tendencies of global water resources
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The global warming leads to a shortage of freshwater.
The global
warming leads increasingly to droughts and torrential flood like rainfalls,
while continuous rainfalls are becoming rarer. Only a small portion of these torrential
rainfalls percolates into the groundwater – by far the most part flows back
into the seas via the rivers. Additionally, the mountains glaciers as a winter
water store for the summer melting water release are shrinking. In summary, this
leads to a decrease of the renewable continental water resources (rivers, seas
and groundwater): Freshwater is already scarce and will get scarcer and
scarcer. The deserts of the earth are growing fast...
To give an
example: The largest body of groundwater in the United States is the Ogallala
Aquifer. In the last 50 years, the amount of water that has been tapped from it
would take 500,000 years to replenish. The consequences are dramatically sunk
groundwater levels and the desertification of entire regions.
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| © INTAQUA AG |
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