Syria has lost more stored water than drought-famous Iran
Total water storage, country average, cm of water against the 2004–09 average, yearly means 2003 and 2025.
- 1. Egypt is set to outgrow Japan in 2027, then Russia
- 2. In 2025, Suez Canal traffic was under half its record
- 3. Egypt exports more fresh oranges than any other country
- 4. Egypt is the world's biggest wheat buyer
- 5. Saudi Arabia has more desalination capacity than the entire US
- 6. Three in four UAE residents are international migrants
- 7. Only America draws more new foreign projects than the UAE
- 8. Algeria outspends all of sub-Saharan Africa on its military
- 9. Women in MENA now outpace men at university
- 10. Dubai's airport handles more international travellers than Heathrow
- 11. The UAE sold more goods abroad than France in 2025
- 12. Oil now makes less than a third of Saudi power
- 13. Egypt now owes Russia more than any other government
- 14. Two-thirds of young Jordanian women in the workforce are jobless
- 15. Baghdad's mobile internet overtook Erbil's
- 16. Morocco climbed to second in world fertiliser exports
- 17. Algiers now has North Africa's fastest home internet
- 18. Saudi imports from China now top the Group of Seven
- 19. Syria has lost more stored water than drought-famous Iran
- 20. Chicken gives Egyptians twice the calories beef does
- 21. More young Tunisian men than women neither work nor study
Syria's fall in stored water from 2003 to 2025, from +5.7 to −27.9 cm.
Iran over the same years, the country famous for its water crisis.
Syria's fall ranks behind only Chile among 92 large countries outside the ice sheets; Chile's includes melting Patagonian ice.
the numbers & method
| 2003 (cm) | 2025 (cm) | |
|---|---|---|
| Syria | 5.7 | -27.9 |
| Iran | 1.3 | -26.0 |
| Tunisia | 0.1 | -21.6 |
| Afghanistan | -1.3 | -17.6 |
| Chile, incl. ice | 11.7 | -40.2 |
Claim types Estimate
NASA/JPL GRACE and GRACE-FO Mascon CRI RL06.3Mv04, PO.DAAC, DOI 10.5067/TEMSC-3JC634. Total water storage anomaly (groundwater, soil moisture, lakes, snow and ice) against the 2004.0–2009.999 mean, cm equivalent water thickness. Country means of the monthly grid computed by progrss (Natural Earth 50m country mask, countries of 150,000 km² or more), then yearly means; 2003 has 11 of 12 months. Ranking among 92 countries: Greenland and Norway (ice-sheet and glacier loss) excluded; Chile's fall includes Patagonian icefield loss. Native resolution 3° mascons: neighbouring countries blur; coastal leakage uncorrected. Cite Watkins et al. (2015) and Wiese et al.; GRACE/GRACE-FO Mascon data are available at http://grace.jpl.nasa.gov. NASA open data.
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