Ellen Phiddian
Cosmos science journalist
Lacking the drama of storm or fire, droughts often go under-noticed in the pantheon of natural disasters.
But they’re extremely destructive, with wide-ranging effects – from long-term changes to a continent’s water ecology, through to computer chip shortages.
And droughts are becoming more common as the climate warms. According to a new report by the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), 3 in 4 people will have been affected by drought by 2050.
The UNCCD’s new World Drought Atlas points out that droughts are among the most expensive and deadly global hazards.
“Droughts are one of the greatest challenges of the 21st century,” says Hugo Morán, State Secretary of Environment of Spain and co-chair of the International Drought Resilience Alliance.
“Climate change and the unsustainable management of land and water resources has made them more frequent and intense, affecting communities and ecosystems.”
The Atlas explores the effects of droughts through 5 areas: water supply, agriculture, hydropower, navigation, and ecosystems.
It uses case studies from around the world, such as Australia’s Millenium Drought, the Don Basin drought in Ukraine and Russia, and Day Zero in South Africa’s Cape Town and India’s Chennai – when both cities were at risk of running out of tap water.
The Atlas also has guidelines on ways to build resilience to drought. These include governance (such as pricing and warning schemes), land use (such as restoration and forestry), and water supply management (such as groundwater and wastewater).
Droughts have become 29% more common since the year 2000, according to the Atlas.
“[The Atlas] challenges us to go beyond temporary fixes and imagine systemic and dynamic solutions that not only reduce risks comprehensively, but also prioritise the most vulnerable,” says Shen Xiaomeng, director of the United Nations University’s Institute for Environment and Human Safety.
