Study finds over 50 pct of lakes shrunk over last three decades, including in Mideast

More than half of the world’s largest lakes have declined over the past 30 years, driven by human water consumption and global warming, according to a study published in Science magazine.

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“Climate change and human activities increasingly threaten lakes that store 87 percent of Earth’s liquid surface fresh water,” the study said, adding that major water loss in lakes is occurring across most regions including the Middle East.

The Thursday research said that some of the world’s “critical freshwater sources” had lost water at around 22 gigatonnes per year for the last three decades.

It found “unsustainable water consumption” led to lakes including the Dead Sea drying up, as well as the Aral Sea between Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan in Asia, and the Salton Sea in California in the US.

Lakes in Afghanistan, Egypt and Mongolia were hit by rising temperatures, the study said, which can increase water loss to the atmosphere.

Droughts are also aggravating loss of water in reservoirs such as the Tigris and Euphrates Basin in Iran, Iraq, Syria and Turkey, as well as the Colorado River Basin.

The team of researchers measured changes in water levels in nearly 2,000 lakes across the world and based the report on satellite data collected between 1992 and 2020.

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