India's extensive groundwater resources are also rapidly being depleted, with 58% of wells in the drier north-west India experiencing declining water levels.
The declining water levels took further pressure off emergency crews and residents who had been braced since last week for potentially catastrophic floods.
Not surprisingly, critics have questioned the agencies' science, although it is hard to see how the suckerfish would not be harmed by declining water levels.
Officials said conditions that had triggered Sunday's operation – declining water levels in the cave, the readiness of rescuers and the physical and mental health of the stranded boys – were the same on Monday morning and the rescue had commenced five hours earlier than expected.
Yield estimates have to address not only decreasing water availability, as manifested by declining water levels, but also deterioration of water quality caused by, e.g., seawater intrusion or agrochemical use.
Furthermore, it directly connected climate change to ongoing environmental issues such as declining water levels, worsening storms and deadly wildfires.
Groundwater presents yet another paradox of price: Rising energy costs and declining water levels in troubled aquifers such as the Ogallala in the U.S. Great Plains have helped motivate many farmers to use less water.
The Dead Sea has been threatened since the mid-twentieth century by declining water levels, at a rate of over one meter per year.
As the flood situation started improving with declining water levels in major rivers, people are now returning to their homes, but they need shelter, safe drinking water, sanitation and livelihood options due to loss of homes, damage safe water and sanitation facilities, embankments and outbreak of water-borne diseases.
