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Why is groundwater in the Arabian Desert difficult to replace?
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Arabian Desert
The Arabian Desert, the largest desert in Asia, covering an area of about 900,000 square miles (2,300,000 square km).
Groundwater in the Arabian Desert is difficult to replace primarily because it remains virtually unreplenished due to the region's extremely low rainfall.1
Much of the water currently being tapped from these underground supplies consists of ancient, Pleistocene-age water. Because the current climatic regime does not provide sufficient rechargeâthe process by which precipitation infiltrates the soil to replenish aquifersâthe extraction of this water is effectively a form of "groundwater mining". In such arid environments, the rate of water withdrawal significantly outpaces the natural replenishment process, meaning that development based on these aquifers is temporary at best.123