MidEast rapidly losing freshwater - study

The Middle East’s freshwater reserves are drying up, according to a new study which researched the region during a seven-year period.

Scientists at the University of California, NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Centre, and the National Centre of Atmospheric Research found that parts of Turkey, Syria, Iraq and Iran along the Tigris and Euphrates river basins lost 117m acre feet (144 cubic kilometers) of its total stored freshwater.

The amount is almost equivalent to the total water in the Dead Sea, and the researchers claim pumping of groundwater from underground reservoirs  accounts for about 60 percent of the loss.

Read more: http://www.arabianbusiness.com/mideast-rapidly-losing-freshwater-study-489491.html