Water May Be The Incipient Factor That Brings About Cataclysmic Climate Change

For sometime I have thought water will bring about our demise.This fear was reinforced this week by a study released by WaterAid, a global NGO.

The report titled, 'Water and Climate: Rising Risks for Urban Populations,' predicts there will be wild swings in water availability for many of the world's cities, from drought to wet, or from wet to drought.

Here are some of the more interesting findings of the report:

100 of the most populated cities will experience dramatic shifts in flooding and droughts posing a risk for urban populations and preventing communities accessing clean water worldwide.

Regional wetting hotspots are in Southern Asian cities, widespread drying throughout European cities, and ‘climate whiplash’ trends across four continents including Africa.

Almost 1 in 5 (15%) of cities studied emerge as experiencing ‘climate whiplash’ - intensification of both droughts and floods - whereas 20% of cities have seen a major flip from one extreme to the other. Cities in Southern Asia are becoming overwhelmingly flood-prone and European cities are exhibiting significant drying trends, all of which can impact people’s clean water access and water security.

From recent drought in cities like Madrid (Spain) and Cape Town (South Africa), to large-scale flooding across cities in Bangladesh and Pakistan, 90% of all climate disasters are driven by too little or too much water. WaterAid, the world’s leading water, sanitation and hygiene charity, warns that weather-related disasters such as flooding and drought have increased by 400% in last 50 years, putting major pressure on vital water access and sanitation systems and making it harder for communities and economies to prepare for, recover from and adapt to climate change.

20% of the cities studied are experiencing dramatic shifts to extreme wet or extreme dry conditions, referred to as ‘climate hazard flips'.  Approximately 13% are flipping toward a more extreme wet climate, while about 7% are flipping toward a more extreme dry climate. This amounts to over a quarter of a billion people across the world experiencing a major flip in their climate, including in cities such as Kano (Nigeria), Bogota (Colombia) and Cairo (Egypt), placing major pressure on access to safe and clean water.

“The threat of a global "Day Zero" looms large—what happens when the 4 billion people already facing water scarcity reach that breaking point, and the food, health, energy, nature, economies, and security that depend on it are pushed to the brink? 

Water is Sacred!