global water crisis
Muhammad Salem Al Ali
October 07 2022
A recent study indicates, according to publications of the World Economic Forum, that natural disasters related to water, such as storms, floods, droughts and a lack of rain, could cost the global gross domestic product (GDP) 5.6 trillion dollars between 2022 and 2050, which made countries around the world feel The severity of the upcoming danger, and it is aware of the need to move and take urgent steps in order to fix what can be fixed to ensure the future of human societies.
What accelerates the pace in that direction is that no one is immune from what will happen, we are in one planet and what happens in one place will inevitably leave its effects in another place, and there is no difference here between developed and developing countries, nor between rich and poor, everyone is in this case alike.
The evidence is many and varied. In Pakistan, for example, severe floods in recent years have caused a lot of destruction, killing and displacing thousands of people, not to mention the death of millions of animals and the destruction of land and crops.
The strange thing here is that Pakistan contributes less than 1% of global greenhouse gas emissions, yet it is in the forefront of the countries most vulnerable to the effects of climate change, which confirms the fact of the above.
The repercussions of that crisis have begun to appear in different parts of the world. In China, for example, drought waves hit parts of the Yangtze River, through whose course there are the most fertile and most important agricultural lands in the country.
The decline in the levels of major European rivers such as the Rhine and Danube, as well as the Colorado River between the United States and Mexico, along with the scarcity of groundwater and rising temperatures, has disrupted agricultural production in Europe and the western United States;
In Africa, the crisis has become more pronounced, with one-fifth of the continent's population threatening to go hungry.
Our Arab countries also began to suffer, especially as they fall within the affected regions in the Middle East and North Africa. Because of the steady decline in rainfall, along with the dams and the increasing water projects in the upstream countries, the water level in the Tigris and Euphrates rivers decreased to less than half, and the area of Cultivated lands in both Iraq and Syria, until the rate of decline of the wheat crop in the latter to 75% compared to the past, while the barley crop has almost disappeared.
What the world needs today is a full realization that water is part of a natural cycle that has begun to malfunction, and it must, through its quest for a low-carbon economy in order to ward off climate repercussions, also focus its efforts on the challenges facing water systems as economic and social priorities and crucial elements in a way Achieving sustainable development programmes.
The solutions here must come in the form of fundamental, not temporary, transformations, and there is a need to direct investments and innovations towards integrated water management, especially with regard to advanced agricultural techniques and reducing the costs of seawater desalination, and working to recover water from new sources such as atmospheric moisture, in addition to related solutions By rationalizing consumption through smart city planning, developing sewage networks, and other solutions that can help reduce the effects of droughts and floods across the world.
In conclusion, everyone must be responsible, so let's wait for the United Nations Climate Summit to be held a month from now, and the United Nations Water Conference that will follow in March next year.
Founder of "Suhail Smart Solutions"
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