Published October 07,2024
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The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) on Monday mentioned that the 12 months 2023 marked the “driest year” for world rivers in over three many years, signaling crucial adjustments in water availability in an period of rising demand.

According to WMO’s new report, the final 5 consecutive years have recorded widespread below-normal circumstances for river flows, with reservoir inflows following the same sample.
“This reduces the amount of water available for communities, agriculture and ecosystems, further stressing global water supplies,” the report mentioned.
It careworn that glaciers suffered the “largest mass loss ever registered” within the final 5 many years and mentioned that 2023 is the second consecutive 12 months during which all areas on the planet with glaciers reported ice loss.

With 2023 being the “hottest year” on document, the report mentioned, elevated temperatures and widespread dry circumstances contributed to extended droughts.
It, nevertheless, famous {that a} appreciable variety of flood incidents additionally occurred worldwide throughout the identical interval and mentioned that the prevalence of those excessive hydrological occasions was influenced by a variety of components, together with the transition from La Nina to El Nino circumstances in mid-2023, in addition to human-induced local weather change.

WMO Secretary-General Celeste Saulo mentioned: “Water is the canary in the coalmine of climate change. We receive distress signals in the form of increasingly extreme rainfall, floods and droughts which wreak a heavy toll on lives, ecosystems and economies. Melting ice and glaciers threaten long-term water security for many millions of people. And yet we are not taking the necessary urgent action.”
As a results of rising temperatures, not solely the hydrological cycle has accelerated however it has additionally grow to be “more erratic and unpredictable,” Saulo mentioned and warned that the world is going through “growing problems of either too much or too little water.”

“This report seeks to contribute to improved monitoring, data-sharing, cross-border collaboration and assessments,” she mentioned, including: “This is urgently needed.”

Currently, 3.6 billion individuals face insufficient entry to water a minimum of a month per 12 months and that is anticipated to extend to greater than 5 billion by 2050, in line with UN Water.
Source: www.anews.com.tr