This is an architectural researcher called Anthony Acciavati, who created this project titled ‘Groundwater Earth’.
He now explains what this project is about, which I am now translating into BSL.
Earth’s freshwater is mostly found in ice.
The next largest body of freshwater is stored underground in aquifers.
These are layers of porous rock and soil that hold water.
This can reach as deep as 4.8 km underground.
In cities, where water supply is non-existent, unreliable or often polluted, technology is used to extract groundwater.
We do this by drawing water from the aquifers through tube wells.
These tube wells are made of a perforated steel or plastic pipe, which is bored into the ground between 1.5 and 300 metres deep.
Even if a city has access to rainwater and rivers, it’s the tube wells that really help cities, communities, and businesses grow for industry, farming, construction, etc.
You will see three pillars. Each pillar shows three different sites across the world, where you can observe how water overdraft affects them in the long term.
Each pillar has a layer of city building but inverted – so it appears at the bottom!
The wire meshes represent different layers of rock or sediment called subsurface strata.
This is to show what happens when we use tube wells on the respective water tables in those areas.
The first pillar represents Jakarta in Indonesia.
Here, groundwater is being over-extracted, with the sea level rising.
This has placed the city in a perilous situation.
Saltwater from the sea is infiltrating freshwater reserves.
Jakarta is now the fastest-sinking city in the world.
The next pillar represents New Delhi in India.
There have been drastic changes in the depth of the water table in the area.
In the western parts of the city, the land is higher than in the east.
This makes underground water extraction a significantly more expensive endeavour in the west.
In contrast, on the eastern edge, where the water table is much shallower, it allows for cheaper extraction.
The final pillar represents the Phoenix-Tucson mega-region in USA.
In this area, there is a vast aquifer beneath the urban sprawl which the region relies on for water.
Thousands of tube wells have been built for farming and urban use, extracting water faster than it can be replenished.
In all three regions, the depleted aquifers are causing major subsidence.
Due to the compacting of dry soil, this leads to the gradual sinking of urban areas, and the emergence of sinkholes and kilometre-long fissures across the Earth’s surface.
Hydrologists estimate that nearly half of the global population drinks daily from groundwater, and that over half of the world’s irrigated crops rely on it.
This groundwater is rapidly depleting because we withdraw more and more for growing cities and agriculture.
Between 1970 and 2000, global groundwater volume dropped by 30 per cent.
In India, the US and China in some regions, groundwater levels fell by hundreds of metres.
As a result, between 1993 and 2010, the very tilt of planet Earth has shifted by 80 cm.
There is an invitation here to reflect on the delicate balance between technological advancement and environmental stewardship.
While the examples in these models may seem local, tube wells tap into something – groundwater – which is just as vital as the air we breathe.
This declining groundwater affects us all throughout the world.
Together, we must learn to see groundwater differently and value it more.