Repeated drought conditions around the world have shockingly large and often hidden consequences, destroying enough farm produce to feed 81 million people every day for a year, according to a new report from the World Bank Group.
The report, ‘Uncharted Waters: The New Economics of Water Scarcity and Variability’ presents new evidence on how increasingly erratic rainfall impacts farms, firms and families. It also shows that although floods and storm surges pose major threats, droughts are “misery in slow motion,” with impacts deeper and longer lasting than previously believed.
“These impacts demonstrate why it is increasingly important that we treat water like the valuable, exhaustible, and degradable resource that it is,” said Guangzhe Chen, senior director of the World Bank’s Water Global Practice. “We need to better understand the impacts of water scarcity, which will become more severe due to growing populations and a changing climate.”
