Earth's rivers running dry - 4th November 2024

The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) has called for urgent action on the world's freshwater supplies. According to the organisation's report, the planet's rivers are shrinking at the quickest pace in 30 years.

In 2023, vast areas of North, Central and South America were hit by droughts, with the Amazon and Mississippi rivers facing record low water levels. Far away in Asia, the Ganges and Mekong experienced similarly tough conditions.

China's Yangtze river is also drying up, with its bare river banks and bed visible in parts, and its smaller tributaries often empty. In 2022, a nationwide drought was declared for the first time in nine years. In Sichuan, a province where 80 percent of electricity is generated by hydropower, the weakening strength of the river led to factories being shut down for six days.

Elsewhere, it's been a related but different story, with serious flooding striking the east of Africa, New Zealand and the Philippines.

Human-provoked climate change is apparently worsening the impact of natural weather events such as El Niño and La Niña, making them increasingly difficult to predict.

The WMO's Secretary General, Celeste Saulo, describes these events as 'distress signals' that tell us about the planet's health, adding that such occurrences impact lives and ecosystems. She explains that the issue of too little or too much water is the result of increasing temperatures. The planet's freshwater supply is now at considerable risk. UN-Water has announced that 3.6 billion individuals currently have to cope with insufficient water for at least one month each year. That figure is expected to reach five billion by 2050.

The majority of the world's population relies on rivers for drinking water, irrigation, energy creation and transportation. Saulo is therefore demanding improved monitoring to better comprehend "The true state of the world's freshwater resources."