Good afternoon and thank you very much for the opportunity to speak today.
I'm Professor Jay Famiglietti. From 2018 to 2022, I led the Global Institute for Water Security at the University of Saskatchewan, before returning to the United States and Arizona State University. My research team uses satellites to track how freshwater availability is changing around the world. Our team pioneered methods to use the NASA gravity recovery and climate experiment, or GRACE mission, to estimate groundwater storage changes from space. My comments today are based on over 25 years of experience with these data.
Our research has shown that, globally, freshwater availability has changed dramatically over the last 22 years. It is literally shrinking in the face of climate change and a growing population. In fact, the fresh water that runs off the continents from ice, permafrost and glacial melt, because of the over-exploitation of groundwater, now contributes more each year to sea level rise than the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets.
Because roughly 80% of the world’s water that is withdrawn from rivers, lakes, reservoirs and groundwater aquifers is used to produce food, this means that not only is the world’s water security at risk, but so too is its food security.
In graphics submitted in the written draft of this statement, there is a satellite-based map of trends in freshwater availability. The map is a major outcome of our research and NASA's GRACE mission. Some of its key features are broad, global patterns of high- and low-latitude areas getting wetter and mid-latitude areas getting drier. The map is dotted with hot spots for water insecurity—too little or too much water. These are places where, over the past two decades, glaciers are melting and flooding has been increasing, or places experiencing more prolonged drought so groundwater is being rapidly depleted.
A second graphic highlights the world’s major aquifer systems and shows that over half are past sustainability tipping points due to over-exploitation. Groundwater provides nearly half of the irrigation water that fuels food production—even more in times of drought. However, a profound lack of groundwater management around the world has allowed massive over-pumping to continue unabated. This map shows just the major aquifers. A very recent study shows that thousands of smaller aquifers are also being depleted. Both my work and the recent study show that, in some places, such as California’s Central Valley, the rates of depletion are accelerating.
Canada is not immune to these changes in freshwater storage. With its rapidly rising temperatures, its glaciers are quickly disappearing and its permafrost is melting. Over the last two decades, flood and drought frequency has been on the rise. Moreover, Canada is no stranger to groundwater depletion. It is now even happening in my old home province of Saskatchewan.
A third graphic shows that most of Canada’s river basins have been losing water for the last two decades. Averaging all the wetting and drying regions across Canada yields a net negative. Canada, like many nations in this warming world, has been losing water for the last 20 years.
If there is good news today, it's that Canada has everything it needs to prepare for a more variable water future, including threats to its groundwater, and implications for increasing fire severity and food production. I was proud to have led a group of dedicated researchers at the University of Saskatchewan, who continue to work with Canada’s government agencies, scores of stakeholders, and indigenous communities, in order to help chart a path toward a water- and food-secure nation. Conversations around integrated river basin planning and the need for national-scale flood, groundwater and water availability forecasting continue. These dialogues should be encouraged and supported.
There remains a need, however, for inclusive and just groundwater governance and management. Changing surface water availability means that groundwater, which already supplies about one-third of Canada’s drinking water, will become increasingly called upon to fill emerging gaps in surface water availability. Protection of Canada’s groundwater supply is paramount as a buffer against drought, for climate adaptation and resilience, and for sustainable food production.
Canada currently has an opportunity to include groundwater issues in the modernization of the Canada Water Act and the activities of the Canada water agency. I urge you to plan for a future in which Canada continues to thaw and dry and in which changing surface water availability will place increasing demands on its precious groundwater resources.
Thank you.