About 3.6 billion people have problems accessing water for at least one month of the year, a figure that could rise to more than 5 billion by mid-century, says a report by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO).
The report on the availability of drinking water on the planet, released this Tuesday, is the first that the WMO dedicates specifically to water resources and highlights that in 2021 two thirds of the earth’s surface had river flows below the average for the last 30 years. while only a third were above or at average levels.
In a phase characterized by a growing demand for this liquid element and a limited supply, water is also related to 74% of natural disasters (droughts, floods, storms), says the document released by the United Nations agency United.
“The impacts of climate change tend to manifest themselves through water, with more intense and frequent droughts, more extreme floods, more irregular seasonal rains and acceleration of the melting of glaciers”, stressed the Secretary General of the WMO, Petteri Taalas, during the presentation of the report.
The study highlights as areas where the river flow was below average in 2021 the Río de la Plata and the south and southeast of the Amazon, in South America, or the basins of the Colorado, Missouri and Mississippi rivers, in North America.
In Africa, there were also below-average flows in the Niger, Volta, Nile and Congo rivers, while in Eurasia the same was true in the Siberian basins, other parts of Russia and Central Asia.
Instead, above-normal flows have been recorded in some North American basins, in the northern Amazon, southern African rivers (such as the Zambezi and the Orange), and others in China and India, countries that have recently suffered large floods .dimensions
Some of the areas where the water supply is at critical levels see their situation worsened by the overexploitation of groundwater, warns the report.
The document also analyzes the cryosphere, the ice at the poles, the mountains and the glaciers, which is the largest freshwater reserve in the world, since it is the source of rivers and supplies 1.9 billion people.
The WMO also warns of worrying melting in areas such as Alaska (North America), Patagonia (South America) or the Himalayas (Asia).
Source: TSF
