The planet’s hydrological cycle has become unbalanced due to climate change, putting the long-term access to water of millions of people at risk, according to a report from the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) presented this Thursday.
The information analyzed by experts from this specialized United Nations agency It also confirmed that melting ice, snow and glaciers are increasing the risk of flooding..
“The glaciers and the ice sheet are retreating before our eyes,” said WMO Secretary General Petteri Taalas, clarifying that this situation is related to rising temperatures, since a warmer atmosphere retains more moisture.
The presence of more moisture in the atmosphere causes, according to the WMO, an increase in episodes of intense rain and flooding, but also greater evaporation, which causes soils to dry quickly and generate more extreme droughts.
The vast majority of disasters are related to water, so the management and monitoring of water resources is at the center of the global early warning initiative for all,” said the head of the organization, which brings together the knowledge and information collected by national meteorological offices around the world.
Despite these risks, the WMO argued that “very little” is known about the real state of freshwater sources and that the lack of measures does not allow for rapid and effective action.
The organization advocated the urgent need to improve data sharing, collaboration between countries and the assessment and financing of water resourcesthat governments should consider as an investment to enable their societies to face extremes of water surplus or scarcity.
The report also contains information on other hydrological variables, such as groundwater, evaporation, flows, terrestrial water storage, soil moisture, cryosphere (frozen water), reservoir flows and hydrological disasters.
Petteri Taalas also added that a group of countries had been selected for priority early warning action, and that all of these countries were affected by major floods or droughts in 2022, but did not have adequate hydrological data to guide policy decisions.
According to the UN, Currently, 3.6 billion people do not have adequate access to water for at least one month a year. and this figure is expected to rise to more than five billion by 2050.
Source: Observadora
