Study: World Lakes Lose 22 Giga Tons of Freshwater Annually

A recent study revealed that more than half of the world's major lakes and reservoirs have shrunk since the beginning of the 1990s, mainly due to climate change and human consumption, which raises concerns about water supplies for agriculture, power generation, and human consumption.

According to the British newspaper The Guardian, a team of international researchers has stated that some of the most important freshwater resources in the world, from the Caspian Sea between Europe and Asia to Lake Titicaca in South America, have lost water at a cumulative rate of 22 giga tons per year, when Nearly three decades, equal to the total water use in the United States over all of 2015.

Hangfang Yao, a surface hydrologist at the University of Virginia who led the study published in the journal Science, said 56 percent of the decline in natural lakes was caused by a warming planet.

About two billion people around the world are directly affected by this, and many regions have faced water shortages in recent years.