Map shows conflict potential of aquifers
While the map provides an important insight into the distribution of the world’s subterranean freshwater supplies, it has also revealed the potential for international
conflict: the exploitation of a trans-boundary aquifer in one country will affect the water supply of any other country that shares the aquifer.
The map has been published to coincide with the submission of a draft convention on transboundary aquifers to the General Assembly of the UN. It’s hoped that this will help
to avoid over-exploitation or pollution.
Many aquifers aren’t regularly replenished by rainfall and are therefore not renewable resources. Those in north Africa and on the Arabia peninsula, for example, were formed
more than 10,000 years ago, when the climate was considerably more humid, and could quickly become depleted.
Maxine Bulloch
January 2009
conflict: the exploitation of a trans-boundary aquifer in one country will affect the water supply of any other country that shares the aquifer.
The map has been published to coincide with the submission of a draft convention on transboundary aquifers to the General Assembly of the UN. It’s hoped that this will help
to avoid over-exploitation or pollution.
Many aquifers aren’t regularly replenished by rainfall and are therefore not renewable resources. Those in north Africa and on the Arabia peninsula, for example, were formed
more than 10,000 years ago, when the climate was considerably more humid, and could quickly become depleted.
Maxine Bulloch
January 2009
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