Water Scarcity Crisis
5 September 2019
This year’s was the third hottest summer in Germany since the beginning of regular meteorological records in 1881, according to preliminary data from the Federal Meteorological Service.
Based on an analysis that took into account forecasts for the last two days of August, the average temperature for the season was 19.2 degrees Celsius, 2.9 degrees above the long-term average.
This summer brought a new record high with an extremely strong heat wave, during which, from 24 to 26 July, temperatures rose above 40 degrees Celsius for three consecutive days, and a new historic record of 42.6 degrees was measured, which is more than 2 degrees above the previous record of 40.3 degrees, recorded in August 2015.
This summer has not only been exceptionally warm but also dry in Germany, with an average of 175 millimetres of rain per square metre, which is 27 percent below the usual 239 millimetres. A number of regions suffered severe drought: in a wide stretch from North Rhine-Westphalia to the southern part of Brandenburg, rainfall was only a half, in places only a third of the long-term average.
The national average of sunny hours was 755, up 25 percent from the usual level, and making the summer of 2019 the fourth sunniest summer since 1951.
Source: MTI – Hungarian News Agency
In 2011, Laguna de Aculeo, one of the country’s favourite bathing resorts, still covered 12 square kilometres, and the lake was 6 metres deep – but since then, it has completely dried out.
The problem of the water shortages caused by global warming is much more complex than we have thought. In some parts of Africa, people not only need to face thirst but also the fact that the regions impacted by drought emit a quantity of carbon dioxide equivalent to the emissions of two hundred million cars each year.
According to a new report by the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) that focuses on the interaction between climate change, desertification and food security, if present land use habits are maintained, the planet’s capacity to produce food will drop drastically.
The EU is contributing a further 50 million euro to alleviate drought damage in a number of Eastern and Central African countries. According to estimates, more than 4 million children and about 3 million pregnant women and breastfeeding mothers are undernourished in the region.
According to a report from the World Resources Institute, 17 countries are facing extremely high water stress, from India through Israel to Botswana. Many of the countries in question – which, collectively, are home to a quarter of the world’s population – are in the Middle East and North Africa.
Drought in the South African country that largely relies on hydroelectric power is causing not only shortages of drinking water but also power outages of up to 16 hours a day in the capital.
The water yield of the River Nile is becoming increasingly erratic as a result of climate change, which may have very grave consequences for Egypt.
Unprecedented droughts, heat waves claiming more than a hundred lives: the summer of 2019 has made it clear for the whole world that India is in big trouble. How will climate change shape the future of the country?
Climate change is increasingly making itself felt in Europe, too: flash floods, heat waves, droughts and forest fires are on the rise on the continent.
Water shortages represent one of the most severe consequences of global warming, impacting growing numbers of people. In 2018, the Cape Town water crisis made global news. This year so far, the situation is the worst in India: millions are struggling to get water day after day.
