WHAT THE EVIDENCE SAYS
The joint statement says about 70% of the world’s major aquifers show long-term decline and calls for better data, decision tools, governance and international cooperation. It explicitly links groundwater to food security, ecosystems, rural economies and climate resilience.
WHY IT MATTERS / OUR READ
The signal is institutional rather than a new ecological result: groundwater is being reframed as a governed ecological asset whose depletion connects surface waters, land subsidence, food production and adaptation.
CAVEATS / UNCERTAINTY
This is an advocacy and governance statement synthesizing existing reports, not a new primary global aquifer analysis. Its headline statistics inherit the assumptions and uncertainty of the cited World Bank and UN University assessments.
SOURCE
IUCN / EDF / IWMI
View original evidence ↗