More than half of the world’s large lakes and reservoirs have shrunk since the early 1990s—due mainly to climate change and human consumption–intensifying concerns about water supply for agriculture, hydropower and human consumption. Some of the world’s most important freshwater sources lost water at a cumulative rate of about 22 gigatons a year for nearly three decades, equivalent to the U.S. total water use for all of 2015. Although the world’s arid areas are expected to become drier and wet areas wetter, there’s been significant water loss even in humid regions. Nearly 2 billion people worldwide are directly affected, and many regions have faced water shortages in recent years.
www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/may/19/more-than-half-of-the-worlds-lakes-have-shrunk-in-past-30-years-study-finds