Danger of groundwater contamination widely underestimated because of shortcuts for aquifer recharge

Groundwater pollution threatens human and ecosystem health in many areas around the globe. Shortcuts to the groundwater through concentrated recharge are known to transmit short-lived pollutants into carbonate aquifers endangering water quality of around a quarter of the world population. However, the large-scale impact of such concentrated recharge on water quality remains poorly understood. Here we apply a continental-scale model to quantify the danger of groundwater contamination by degradable pollutants through concentrated recharge in carbonate rock regions. We show that in regions where concentrated recharge takes place, the percentage of non-degraded pollutants in groundwater recharge increases from