Looming water crisis requires urgent attention: WMO Report

GENEVA: United Nations World Meteorological Organisation published a report on Tuesday, October 5, saying that improved water management, monitoring and forecasting are needed against the looming global water crisis. The report titled ‘The State of Climate Services 2021: Water’ was coordinated by WMO and included inputs from over 20 international organisations, development agencies, and scientific institutions.

According to the report, frequency of water related disasters has increased since the year 2000. Flood-related disasters have risen by 134 per cent in comparison with the two previous decades. It added that most deaths and economic losses occurred in Asia where warning systems require strengthening. Petteri Taalas, Secretary General, WMO, said that increasing temperatures due to global warming are resulting in changes in global regional precipitation, which is leading to visible shifts in rainfall patterns and agricultural seasons. This is creating a major impact on food security and human health and well-being.  

Taalas recalled that extreme rainfall across the continent caused massive flooding in Japan, China, Indonesia, Nepal, Pakistan, and India over the last year. He said that it is not only the developing world that is bearing major disruption due to flooding and irregular rainfall patterns, but catastrophic flooding in Europe also had resulted in deaths of hundreds of people and widespread damage over the past year.

The report established that the number and duration of droughts have also increased by 29 per cent over the past two decades. Taalas said that lack of water is still a major cause of concern for many nations, especially Africa. With more than two billion people living in water-stressed countries and suffering lack of access to safe drinking water and sanitation, there is urgent need to open eyes to the looming water crisis in the world. The report called for improving water management, integrating water and climate policies, and scaling up investment in the sector. It said that current measures are fragmented and inadequate across the globe.