The “Asian water tower” is losing 24 billion tonnes of groundwater every year
Researchers have used satellite data and AI to determine that groundwater in High Mountain Asia is depleting by 24 billion tonnes annually. The study identifies human irrigation and climate change as the primary drivers of this significant water loss.
Why it matters
This region provides essential water for hundreds of millions of people, and its depletion threatens the long-term stability of farming and ecosystems across Asia.
Groundwater reserves beneath High Mountain Asia (HMA), often called the "Asian Water Tower," are shrinking at an alarming pace, according to a new satellite-based study. The region provides water that supports farming, cities, and ecosystems across more than a dozen downstream countries, making it a critical resource for hundreds of millions of people. Researchers estimate that groundwater storage is declining by about 24.2 billion tonnes each year.
The research was led by Prof. Shudong Wang of the Aerospace Information Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (AIRCAS). The team sought to overcome two major obstacles to understanding groundwater in the region: limited on-the-ground data and the extremely complex mountainous landscape. The findings were recently published in Environmental Research Letters .
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