World's Water Cycle in Chaos: Asia Hard Hit, SDG Goals at Risk
The world's water cycle is spiralling into chaos, with extreme weather events and unpredictable patterns causing widespread disruption and hardship. Asia and the Pacific have been particularly hard hit, as seen in 2024. The global community is falling short in meeting water and sanitation goals, while glacier melt contributes to sea-level rise.
In 2024, Asia and the Pacific faced a barrage of weather, climate, and water-related disasters. Meanwhile, the world is falling far behind in achieving Sustainable Development Goal 6 on water and sanitation by 2030. The situation is grim: 3.6 billion people already face inadequate access to water at least one month a year, a number expected to soar to over 5 billion by 2050.
Glaciers worldwide are melting at an alarming rate, with a staggering 450 gigatonnes lost in recent years. This contributes significantly to global sea-level rise. The planet's water cycle is veering off balance, with growing extremes of flood and drought. Two-thirds of the world's rivers now swing between these two extremes, indicating an increasingly unpredictable water cycle. Only about one-third of river basins recorded 'normal' hydrological conditions last year, while nearly 60 per cent swung to extremes.
The consequences of this water chaos are severe. In Asia and Southeast Asia, several countries suffered severe droughts in 2023 and 2024, negatively impacting rice and sugar cultivation. These droughts, along with other weather extremes, disrupted agricultural productivity in the 2023/2024 season. Globally, staple crops like rice, coffee, and sugar have seen disrupted production and supply chains, pushing prices up. Typhoon Yagi in 2024 killed over 850 people across Southeast Asia and left damages worth over US$16 billion. Urgent global action is needed to address this water crisis and prevent further devastation.
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