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Rank Territory Value189 Kazakhstan 0.23190 Niger 0.20191 United Arab Emirates 0.14192 Egypt 0.13193 Saudi Arabia 0.10194 Turkmenistan 0.08195 Algeria 0.07196 Djibouti 0.06197 Mauritania 0.03198 Libyan Arab Jamahiriya 0.03

MOST AND LEAST GROUNDWATER RECHARGE

Technical notes

© Copyright 2006 SASI Group (University of Sheffield) and Mark Newman (University of Michigan)

centimetres of water per year (cubic centimetres of water volume per square centimetre of land area)*

Rank Territory Value1 Costa Rica 732 Sierra Leone 703 Slovenia 674 Liberia 625 Philippines 606 Congo 587 Guyana 528 Suriname 519 Guinea-Bissau 5010 Colombia 49

Land area

Groundwater Recharge

www.worldmapper.org

Produced by the SASI group (Sheffield) and Mark Newman (Michigan)

“Groundwater is a vast and slow moving resource, whose volume greatly exceeds that of other available freshwater sources.” 

Groundwater is water that hasinfiltrated rocks, and moved deep intothe ground. Groundwater usuallytravels through permeable rocks, andsometimes forms underground rivers.

Nearly 70% of all freshwater isgroundwater, making it an importantwater source.

Groundwater recharge is when thewater stored below ground isreplenished. Each year 11 400 cubickilometres of surface freshwaterbecomes groundwater. In many placesthis is not enough to replenish waterbeing withdrawn.

Regionally South America has the

most groundwater recharge. Thelowest is in Japan.

• The data used here are from the United NationsEnvironment Programme, 2005.

• *No groundwater recharge was recorded inKuwait and Bahrain.

• See website for further information.

Territory size shows the proportion of worldwidegroundwater recharge occurring there.

Map 103

University of New South Wales Groundwater Centre , 2006

WORLD GROUNDWATER RECHARGE

Central Africa 8%Southeastern Africa 2%

Northern Africa 4%

South Asia 5%

Asia Pacific 10%

Middle East 8%East Asia 8%

South America 34%

Eastern Europe 2%

North America 16%Western Europe 4%

Japan 0.24%