Study finds sharp decline of groundwater reservoir levels

Even if Switzerland is not generally threatened by water shortages, falling groundwater levels are also a problem in the country. Keystone / Gian Ehrenzeller

According to a new study with Swiss involvement, the rate at which levels in groundwater reservoirs has been falling has accelerated over the last two decades.

However, the study published on Wednesday in the scientific journal Nature also shows that natural reservoirs can recover with appropriate measures. For the study, the research team from Switzerland, the United Kingdom the US and Saudi Arabia analysed data from 170,000 groundwater monitoring wells from around 1,700 groundwater systems around the world over the last 40 years.

The data shows that sharp declines in groundwater levels are widespread in the 21st century, as the researchers wrote in the study. According to the study, the level of around one in ten aquifers, a groundwater-bearing rock layer, fell by half a metre or more per year. In around one in three aquifers, the decline has accelerated over the last four decades. According to the study, dry regions where intensive agriculture is practised are particularly affected.

Switzerland also affected

Even if Switzerland is not generally threatened by water shortages, falling groundwater levels are also a problem in this country, said the co-author of the study, Hansjörg Seybold, from the federal technology institute ETH Zurich, when asked by the Keystone-SDA news agency.

+ What Switzerland is doing to prevent water disputes

One example of this is the aquifer in Geneva, which supplies around 700,000 people in the canton and neighbouring France with drinking water. Between 1960 and 1970, its level fell drastically because water was pumped out in an uncoordinated manner in both Switzerland and France, Seybold explained. As a result, some wells dried up.

“However, the Geneva aquifer is also a good example of how politics and transnational cooperation can stabilise groundwater resources,” said Seybold. The two countries had agreed to add water from the River Arve to the natural groundwater reservoir in order to preserve the shared water supplies. According to Seybold, this has stabilised the groundwater level.

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