More than half of the world’s lakes have shrunk in past 30 years, study finds

Lakes and reservoirs have lost 22 gigatonnes a year since 1992, driven by factors including global heating and human consumption

More than half of the world’s large lakes and reservoirs have shrunk since the early 1990s – chiefly because of the climate crisis – intensifying concerns about water supply for agriculture, hydropower and human consumption, a study has found.

A team of international researchers reported that some of the world’s most important freshwater sources – from the Caspian Sea between Europe and Asia, to South America’s Lake Titicaca – lost water at a cumulative rate of about 22 gigatonnes a year for nearly three decades. That’s about 17 times the volume of Lake Mead, the United States’ largest reservoir.