The World Drought Atlas was launched by the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) and the European Commission Joint Research Centre on December 2, 2024.
- The report was released at the UNCCD parties16th meeting at Riyadh.
Salient features
- Around 75 per cent of the population will be affected by drought by 2050. The report advocated for better understanding of drought-related crop failure in the country, as India has the highest number of people (more than 25 million) employed in the agricultural sector.
- It predicted a huge loss of soybean yield due to droughts in India. It reminded of the ‘Day Zero’ in Chennai in 2019. A mismanagement of water resources and rampant urbanisation has resulted in water crisis in the city, which receives more than 1,400 millimetres of rainfall annually on an average.
- Currently, about 2.3 billion people live under water stress, with numbers expected to rise, especially in Africa.
- Droughts affect people and economies both directly and indirectly, with the most vulnerable populations bearing the heaviest burden. For those who rely on local water sources for drinking water, agriculture, hydropower, or river transport droughts’ impacts are immediately visible.
- Currently, about 2.3 billion people live under water stress, with numbers expected to rise, especially in Africa.
- Drought presents serious risks to human health also in urbanised areas, like cities, towns and semi-urban regions, where nearly 80% of the world’s population resides.
- The World Drought Atlas points to significant future reductions in crop yields, especially if mitigation targets to limit global warming are not achieved.
