News Earth

Many but not all of the world’s aquifers are losing water

There is recovery in some areas, probably due to improved regional water management

Picture of land slumping near Tehran, Iran.

Decades of drought as well as excessive water pumping in parched Iran is causing the land to sink in many parts of the country, such as in Malard (shown in 2019), just west of Tehran.

AP Photo

By Carolyn Gramling

The world’s precious stash of subterranean freshwater is shrinking — and in nearly a third of aquifers, that loss has been speeding up in the last couple of decades, researchers report in the Jan.