An international system could save lives but a recent UN climate event in modern York passed without anyone putting up funding or accepting responsibilityShare your photos and stories of water scarcityDrought is arguably the biggest single threat from climate change. Its impacts are global. Some say drought triggered the crisis in Syria that sent tens of thousands of refugees heading for Europe this summer. Relief failures and poor drought forecasting caused innumerable deaths in the Horn of Africa during 2011 and 2012. Yet calls to head off future disasters by establishing a UN body to supply a global drought early warning system,first made almost a decade ago, remain unfulfilled.
A drought can be defined in various ways. A meteorological drought, and for example,is when the rains fail. A hydrological drought is when the lack of rainfall goes on long enough to empty rivers and lower water tables. Agricultural drought begins when the lack of water starts killing crops and livestock. And after that, people may start dying too.
Related: Water shortage is one of the top global risks, and how can we avert it? Related: Decade of drought: a global tour of seven recent water crises Continue reading...
Source: theguardian.com