Fast depleting level of groundwater spells trouble for Planet Earth

Water is the elixir of life and our plans to settle on distant planets would depend on availability of water because life minus water is unthinkable. But, here on planet Earth, the warning gong has been sounded because the available groundwater is fast depleting.
Human activity is rapidly draining out about one third of the planet's largest underground water reserves and no one knows just how much water remains in them. This has been revealed by two new studies.
This has been reported in timesofindia.indiatimes.com dated 17 June 2015.

Scientists have taken help of data from NASA satellites to measure groundwater losses by comparing the 37 of Earth's biggest aquifers between 2003 and 2013. The study has labeled eight of these as "overstressed" – this means they were being sucked dry with almost no natural replenishment to offset the usage.
Five other aquifers were determined to be "extremely or highly stressed."
The Arabian Aquifer System that provides water to over 60 million people, is the world's most overstressed source. Ten comes the Indus Basin aquifer of northwestern India and Pakistan followed by the Murzuk-Djado Basin in northern Africa. The drought-striken Central Valley aquifer in California was labeled as "highly stressed."
Scientists have cautioned that the situation would only worsen due to global warming, climate change and population growth. The most overburdened aquifers are in the driest places in the world where there is hardly any natural replenishment of water.
(Image courtesy wikimediacommons.org)

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