Wettest place on Earth - 31 January 2020

Two of the wettest places in the world are in Northeast India. They are in the state of Meghalaya. A village called Mawsynram is the wettest place. It gets nearly 12 metres of rain each year.

The village gets more water than anywhere else, but it doesn't have enough.

There's unusual weather because of climate change. Sometimes there are floods and sometimes there isn't enough rain. This can happen in the same area.

Iaraphunlin Diengdoh is a local state government officer: "Whatever rainfall that we receive throughout the year, but then it just flows off. We cannot tap them. We cannot even harness those waters. We don't have that proper system of harnessing the rain."

People are trying to limit the problems. Villagers collect rainwater and the government builds reservoirs. It wants local people to help build and repair them. It hopes everyone will look after water more.

Climate change also affects Mawsynram because people have cut down a lot of the forest. There's less monsoon rain, and it's hotter.

The situation is the same across India. A report from the World Resources Institute says India doesn't have enough water. This high water stress is dangerous for national development and for hundreds of millions of people.