About 3,600 million people have problems accessing water for at least one month a year, a number that could rise to more than 5,000 million by the middle of the century, according to 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 devotes specifically to water resources, highlighting that by 2021, two-thirds of the Earth’s surface had river discharges that were lower than the average over the past 30 years, while only a third were above or at the average level.
At a stage characterized by a growing demand for this liquid element and a limited supply, water is also associated with 74% of natural disasters (droughts, floods, storms), according to the document released by the agency of the United Nations.
“Climate change impacts are mostly manifested through water, with more intense and frequent droughts, more extreme floods, more irregular seasonal rains and acceleration of glacier melt,” stressed WMO Secretary General Petteri Taalas during the presentation of the report. .
The study highlights zones where river flow was below average in 2021 were the Río de la Plata and the south and southeastern Amazon, in South America, or the watersheds of the Colorado, Missouri, and Mississippi rivers, in North America.
In Africa, there was also below average flow in the rivers Niger, Volta, Nile and Congo, while in Eurasia the same happened in the basins of Siberia, other parts of Russia and Central Asia.
Conversely, in some basins in North America, in the northern Amazon, in rivers in southern Africa (such as the Zambezi and the Orange), and in others in China and India, countries that have recently experienced major flooding, higher-than-normal flows registered. measurements.
Some areas where water supplies are critical are seeing their situation worsened by overexploitation of groundwater, the report warns.
The paper also analyzes the cryosphere, the ice at the poles, mountains and glaciers, which is the world’s largest reserve of fresh water as it is the source of rivers and supplies 1,900 million people.
The WMO also warns of worrying ice melting in areas such as Alaska (North America), Patagonia (South America) or the Himalayas (Asia).
Source: DN
