In the past year, rivers in large parts of the world carried less water than the long-term average. This was reported by the World Weather Organization (WMO) on Tuesday in its first report on the world’s freshwater resources. She speaks of a negative trend. In 2021, large parts of the world would have experienced drier periods than the long-term average.
The WMO investigated the discharge volumes of rivers. In 2021, the regions with a below-average discharge were twice as large as the regions with an above-average discharge. The benchmark for each area is the average over the past 30 years. For Europe, the report does not mention any major deviations from the average.
Climate change changes the water balance
Climate change is changing water management, but there is still too little information about the quality, quantity and distribution of freshwater reserves, says WMO Secretary General Petteri Taalas. This information is important for adaptation to climate change.
Few constant flow rates
For example, some regions of southeastern South America and the southern United States experienced below-average runoff volumes, as did the Niger, Volta, Nile, and Congo rivers in Africa and regions of eastern Russia and Central America. -Asia. More water flowed, including in the north of the North American continent and in China on the Amur River. In about a third of the global regions surveyed, the discharge was at about the level of the 30-year average.
The WMO has also looked at terrestrial water reservoirs, ie water reserves on land and in the ground. Compared to the average for the years 2002 to 2020, the trend was negative on the São Francisco River in Brazil, in Patagonia, in the southwestern United States, and on the headwaters of the Ganges and Indus in the Indian subcontinent. According to the trend, there should be more water in the Great Lakes region of the north of the US, in the East African Rift Valley and in the Niger Basin in Africa and in the northern Amazon.
Source: Krone
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