New warning on groundwater should be taken seriously

A NEW research study published by the journal Nature last week has raised the alarm about groundwater supplies around the world, which it describes as “dropping quickly, often at accelerated rates.” With the country facing almost certain water shortages in at least some areas due to the El Niño, the warning should be taken seriously to prevent longer-term and perhaps even irreversible problems with water supplies.

The study was carried out by an international research team from the University of California at Santa Barbara and ETH Zurich in Switzerland and used a combination of satellite data and data from individual monitoring wells in more than 40 countries. The latest study was essentially a follow-up to a much larger UC Santa Barbara study published about two years ago, which had collected data from nearly 40 million wells worldwide.

The research results were not encouraging. The most recent study found that groundwater volumes are dropping faster in many places than the earlier research indicated, about half a meter per year on average, particularly in dry, cultivated lands — which also happen to be the source of most of the world’s food supply. The researchers suggested that this might be due to a feedback loop caused by the rapidly warming climate. Drought or dry conditions are being experienced by larger parts of the world more frequently, which in turn puts added pressure on groundwater supplies.

The researchers in both studies found that up to 20 percent of the wells surveyed are potentially in imminent danger of running dry due to their shallow depth, averaging only about 5 meters. They also found that most newer wells are not being built deeper than that, which means that in many areas — including parts of this country — new wells that are dug with the intention of relieving water supply problems could instead very likely go dry in a short period of time. There is actually a nearby example of this in the city of Imus in Cavite, where dozens of community wells that were built about eight years ago no longer function, with some of them having run dry within a year or two of being installed.

The news from the research is not all bad, fortunately. While groundwater levels on a global scale are worrisome, the research did reveal that many areas still have abundant water. Uncultivated land, of course, is largely protected from groundwater depletion, but even in areas that are farmed or otherwise inhabited, smart management of groundwater supplies has slowed or even reversed declines in some cases. Various methods have been used, depending on the local needs and resources available, including improved water conservation and recycling systems, agricultural methods such as more intensive crop rotation or switching to different crops altogether, diverting water from underutilized irrigation and flood-control dams, and even more complicated schemes to recharge aquifers by pumping water back into the ground.

All this information seems particularly relevant as the government begins to take measures to ensure water supplies during the expected El Niño-induced dry spell. One particular point the new research seems to emphasize is that, whatever those measures, they definitely should not include the construction of new water wells. Solving what will be a short-term problem in that way could very well have permanent negative consequences.

Along the same lines, the government should mount an aggressive campaign to monitor and stop illegal wells, as well as other forms of water wasting. Those who have visited America’s desert states, such as Nevada or Arizona, may recall seeing “water patrols,” officers whose sole job is to patrol neighborhoods looking for problems; they are effective, and the government might consider copying the practice. Arizona, in fact, despite being extremely arid, is one of the areas identified by recent research as having been able to slow the loss of groundwater.

And, of course, every citizen should be reminded to be thoughtful about his or her own water use and avoid waste and unnecessary consumption. Water resources are dangerously at risk, but it is clear that there are solutions, provided everyone works together and acts responsibly.

“New research has found that groundwater volumes around the world are ‘dropping quickly, often at accelerated rates,’ and they are dropping faster in places that happen to be the source of most of the world’s food supply.