China’s capital of Beijing is literally sinking into the ground, a recent study found. The sinking is happening because of the city’s depleted groundwater, with central districts the most severely affected. China requires around 3.5 billion liters of water each year. Water management has been a struggle for the world’s most populous country, with droughts causing billions of dollars in damage and leaving many citizens and animals without drinking water in southern China a few years ago.
— source thinkprogress.org | 2016