GENEVA — The U.N. weather agency has declared 2023 the driest year in over 30 years for the world’s rivers, as record-breaking temperatures drastically reduced water flows and sparked prolonged droughts in many regions.
The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) highlighted a significant loss of glacier mass feeding rivers in various countries, marking the largest decline in the past 50 years. This alarming trend raises concerns about long-term water security for millions of people globally.
“Water is the canary in the coalmine of climate change. We are receiving distress signals through increasingly extreme rainfall, floods, and droughts that have devastating impacts on lives, ecosystems, and economies,” stated WMO Secretary-General Celeste Saulo, during the report’s release on Monday.
She pointed out that rising temperatures have caused the hydrological cycle to become “more erratic and unpredictable,” leading to situations of both excessive and insufficient water through droughts and floods.
According to figures from UN Water, approximately 3.6 billion people experience inadequate access to water for at least one month each year, with projections indicating this number could escalate to 5 billion by 2050.
The year 2023 was officially the hottest on record, and the summer experienced unprecedented high temperatures, raising concerns about the possibility of a new record in 2024.
“In the last 33 years of data, we have never witnessed such a vast area globally experiencing such extreme dry conditions,” remarked Stefan Uhlenbrook, director of hydrology, water, and cryosphere at the WMO.
WMO called for enhanced data collection and sharing to provide clarity on water resources, enabling countries and communities to implement effective response strategies.
The report noted that regions including the southern United States, Central America, and several South American nations experienced severe drought conditions, with some areas reporting the lowest water levels ever recorded in the Amazon and Lake Titicaca, located on the border of Peru and Bolivia.
WMO confirmed that half of the world faced dry river flow conditions last year.
