GENEVA — The UN weather agency reports that 2023 was the driest year for the world’s rivers in more than 30 years, as the record warm year caused water flows to dry up and contributed to prolonged droughts in some places.
The World Meteorological Organization also says glaciers that feed rivers in many countries have suffered the greatest mass loss in the past fifty years, warning that ice melt could threaten long-term water security for millions of people worldwide.
“Water is the canary in the coal mine of climate change. We are receiving distress signals in the form of increasingly extreme rainfall, floods and droughts that are taking a heavy toll on lives, ecosystems and economies,” said WMO Secretary General Celeste Saulo, who published the report on Monday.
She said rising temperatures have partly caused the hydrological cycle to become “more erratic and unpredictable” in ways that can produce “either too much or too little water,” through both drought and flooding.
The weather agency says, based on figures from UN Water, that some 3.6 billion people have insufficient access to water for at least one month a year – and that figure is expected to rise to 5 billion by 2050.
Facing the world the hottest year ever measured in 2023and this year’s summer was too the hottest summer ever – setting warning signals for a possible new annual record in 2024.
“In the (last) 33 years of data, we have never had such a large area of the world under such dry conditions,” said Stefan Uhlenbrook, director of hydrology, water and cryosphere at WMO.
The WMO called for improvements in data collection and sharing to help clarify the true picture of water resources and help countries and communities take action.
The report states that the southern United States, Central America and the South American countries of Argentina, Brazil, Peru and Uruguay experienced widespread drought and “the lowest water levels ever observed in the Amazon Basin and Lake Titicaca,” on the border between Peru and Bolivia.
The WMO said half the world experienced dry river flows last year.
