The world is losing an estimated 324 trillion litres (85.6 trillion gallons) of freshwater each year, enough to meet the needs of 280 million people annually, according to a 2025 World Bank report.
This persistent loss of freshwater, known as “continental drying,” is driven by worsening droughts and unsustainable land and water practices.
To raise public awareness about desertification and drought and promote action to restore degraded land, the UN has marked June 17 as the World Day to Combat Desertification and Drought.
In the following story, Al Jazeera examines 10 examples of shrinking lakes, rivers and dams across the world.
Spanning some 4,900km (3,030 miles), the Parana River is South America’s second-longest river, after the Amazon, and serves as a vital commercial artery connecting Brazil, Paraguay, and Argentina.
Driven by multi-year droughts, a comparison of 1990 and 2026 satellite imagery shows how water levels at the port of Rosario have plummeted. This drastic shrinkage has disrupted grain shipping, reduced hydroelectric generation at the Itaipu Dam, and exposed expansive riverbed flats and newly formed islands.
Sitting at an altitude of 3,700 metres (12,000 feet), Lake Poope in Bolivia is one of the world’s most extreme examples of a disappearing high-altitude lake.
A comparison of 1984 and 2020 satellite imagery shows how what was once Bolivia’s second-largest lake, covering 1,000 square kilometres (390 square miles), has all but disappeared. Water diversions, drought, and warming caused it to largely dry up, turning it into a salt flat and destroying fisheries and Indigenous Uru livelihoods.
Located at the southwestern edge of the Okavango Delta in Botswana, Lake Ngami experiences wide swings between wetland and near-dry conditions depending on inflow from the Okavango system.
A comparison of 1984 and 2020 satellite imagery highlights its highly variable, climate-sensitive nature. Driven by severe droughts and fluctuating inflows from upstream channels, the lake nearly disappeared at its lowest point, turning productive fishing grounds and livestock pastures into a cracked basin before later entering a phase of partial recovery.
Located in Paine, near Santiago, the Aculeo Lagoon is a striking example of a lake that disappeared in recent decades due to prolonged drought and water stress.
A comparison of 2007 and 2026 satellite imagery shows how the once-popular recreational site that supported local communities has largely dried up.
Located in northwestern Iran, Lake Urmia was once the Middle East’s largest saltwater lake, covering nearly 6,000sq km (2,300sq miles) in the 1990s. It has since shrunk to about 581sq km (224sq miles), less than 10 percent of its former size.
Consecutive droughts, agricultural water use, river diversion, and groundwater extraction have transformed vast stretches of Lake Urmia into exposed salt flats.
Located in southern Iraq, the al-Chibayish Marshes are part of the wider Mesopotamian Wetlands, a UNESCO World Heritage Site fed by the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, and are among the most important wetland ecosystems in the Middle East.
A comparison of 1984 and 2020 satellite imagery shows major changes in the marshes. Severe drainage and drought caused widespread drying in the 1990s, but parts have since recovered in recent years due to increased rainfall and ongoing restoration efforts.
Ambovombe is a town in southern Madagascar, located in one of the country’s most climate-stressed and drought-prone regions.
A comparison of 1985 and 2020 satellite imagery highlights a severe ecological crisis in southern Madagascar driven by multiyear drought and rising temperatures. Strong red sandstorms and rainfall deficits have degraded water sources and farmland, damaging subsistence agriculture and livestock and contributing to widespread hardship and displacement.
Located near the edge of the Sahara, Lake Faguibine in northern Mali has largely disappeared in recent decades.
Historically fed by floodwaters from the Niger River, satellite images from 1984 to 2020 show how reduced flooding, drought, and sediment buildup caused the lake to shrink dramatically, leaving much of its basin dry and increasingly desertified.
Located on the Nevada-Arizona border, Lake Mead is the largest reservoir in the United States by capacity. Formed by the construction of Hoover Dam on the Colorado River in the 1930s, it is a critical source of water for millions of people across the US Southwest and parts of Mexico.
A comparison of 1984 and 2020 satellite imagery shows the reservoir’s dramatic decline as prolonged drought, rising temperatures, and heavy water demand caused water levels to fall sharply, exposing vast stretches of shoreline and previously submerged land.
Located in northwestern Uzbekistan, the South Aral Sea is part of one of the world’s worst human-caused environmental disasters.
A comparison of 1984 and 2020 satellite imagery shows the dramatic disappearance of the lake as decades of river diversions for irrigation caused one of the world’s largest environmental disasters, shrinking it by more than 90 percent and leaving vast stretches of former lakebed exposed.
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