Global Aquifers - Earth's Ancient Groundwater: The Importance of this Critical Non-Renewable Resource

Agriculture is synonymous with freshwater. Population centers are also synonymous with freshwater. Human existence is synonymous with ample, available freshwater supplies.

Yet, I would bet that most of us do not realize the size and scale of the vast system of underground water repositories known as aquifers. Even more critical is to understand the growing threats to these non-renewable resources: pollution and depletion.

This post will introduce two links to understanding the scope, importance and threats to these once vast resources.

Each continent has a number of these large, underground bodies of water. Some are much larger than others. Some are more pure (less polluted/less saline) than others. Many have been continuously depleted over hundreds and thousands of years.

The first link highlights the origin of an effort to map the world's aquifer systems. In 2006, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) published a map of the 273 Shared Global Aquifers (groundwater resources which cross national boundaries).

Just click on either link (from Water for the Ages) in the first two sections of the introduction to: UNESCO Launches Global Aquifer Map (10/2008) to view a selection of files showing various resolutions of maps. These will be important visual guides to the numerous bodies of underground freshwater reserves.

The second link will open into a paper that discusses the need for a global effort to properly manage all of these threatened reserves: Towards a Global Transboundary Watercourse and Aquifer Agreement (GTWAA)

Though lengthy (26 pages), it contains a well-crafted review of the issues around all of global aquifers and will provide a very useful understanding of why they are important.