Falling Water Tables, Falling Harvests

Scores of countries are overpumping aquifers as they struggle to satisfy their growing water needs. The drilling of millions of irrigation wells has pushed water withdrawals beyond recharge rates, in effect leading to groundwater mining. The failure of governments to limit pumping to the sustainable yield of aquifers means that water tables are now falling in countries that contain more than half the world

Falling water tables are already adversely affecting harvests in some countries, including China, which rivals the United States as the world