According to the Bible, when the Euphrates River goes dry, great things are coming, possibly including the Second Coming of Jesus Christ and the Rapture. The sixth angel “poured out his bowl on the great river Euphrates, and the water was dried up to make the path ready for the kings from the East,” according to Revelation 16:12.
Well, not to sound dramatic or anything, but it appears like that time is nigh.
The Euphrates flows through modern-day Syria and Iraq before joining the Tigris and draining into the Persian Gulf.
The twin rivers have supported prosperous farming settlements and opulent cities for thousands of years in Mesopotamia, which is regarded as the birthplace of some of the world’s earliest cultures.
However, it has been clear for several decades that the Tigris-Euphrates waterway system is drying up. According to a government study from 2021, the rivers may dry up by 2040 as a result of dwindling water levels and droughts brought on by climate change.
The Tigris and Euphrates river basins have lost 144 cubic kilometers (34 cubic miles) of freshwater since 2003, according to data gathered by NASA’s twin Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) spacecraft in 2013.
The Tigris and Euphrates river basins currently have the second-fastest rate of groundwater storage loss on Earth, after India, according to GRACE data, which “show an alarming rate of decrease in total water storage,” according to Jay Famiglietti, principal investigator of the study and a hydrologist and professor at UC Irvine.
“Particularly remarkable was the rate in light of the 2007 drought. As a result of conflicting views of international law, the region’s water management is not coordinated, even though freshwater demand is still growing “according to Famiglietti.
The river system is already beginning to exhibit signs of stress, but a complete collapse would be catastrophic for the area. The Tigris-Euphrates is a source of water for millions of people in Turkey, Syria, and Iraq. International disputes over access to water are already escalating as the rivers begin to suffer. Governments have also been unable to come up with any real solutions as a result of these debates.
The twin rivers have supported prosperous farming settlements and opulent cities for thousands of years in Mesopotamia, which is regarded as the birthplace of some of the world’s earliest cultures.
However, it has been clear for several decades that the Tigris-Euphrates waterway system is drying up. According to a government study from 2021, the rivers may dry up by 2040 as a result of dwindling water levels and droughts brought on by climate change.
The Tigris and Euphrates river basins have lost 144 cubic kilometers (34 cubic miles) of freshwater since 2003, according to data gathered by NASA’s twin Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) spacecraft in 2013.
