3.6 billion people face inadequate access to water: WMO

Around 3.6 billion people currently face inadequate access to water for at least one month per year, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said in its State of Global Water Resources 2021 report.

The figure is projected to increase to more than five billion by 2050. The report published on Tuesday, November 29, assesses the effects of climate, environmental and societal change on the Earth’s water resources.

The report shows that due to the influence of climate change and a La Nina event (period cooling of ocean surface temperatures in the tropical Pacific), the year 2021 witnessed large areas drier than normal around the world.

According to WMO Secretary-General Petteri Taalas, though the impacts of climate change are often felt through water — such as more intense and frequent droughts, more extreme flooding, more erratic seasonal rainfall and accelerated melting of glaciers — there is still insufficient understanding of changes in the distribution, quantity and quality of freshwater resources.

The WMO report aims to fill this knowledge gap, which would be helpful in providing universal access in the next five years to early warnings of hazards, such as floods and droughts, he said.