Global river levels are at their lowest in more than three decades

One of the main tributaries of the Amazon River, the Negro River, at the port of Manaus, has dropped to its lowest level ever recorded (12.66 m), the Brazilian geological agency said on October 4. This is the lowest level since measurements began 122 years ago. The water level is decreasing at a rate of about 17.8 cm/day.

The WMO report, “The State of Global Water Resources 2023”, found that rivers globally were “characterized by drier than normal to normal conditions” last year, compared with volume data. water flowing through the river at any time since 1991.

According to the report, data 45% of the world’s rivers were found to have water flow below or much lower than normal levels. While many countries in eastern Africa have experienced devastating floods. The report said the heavy rainfall that led to the flooding “may have been caused by the El Niño phenomenon”. Human-caused climate change is one of the causes of extreme weather phenomena.

WMO Secretary-General Celeste Saulo said in a statement: “Due to rising temperatures, the hydrological cycle has accelerated. It has also become more erratic and unpredictable, and we are facing growing problems of too much or too little water”.

“Water is a warning signal of climate change. We receive an urgent signal in the form of increasingly extreme rainfall, floods and droughts that cause severe damage to lives, ecosystems and economies Melting ice and glaciers are threatening long-term water security for millions of people,” Ms. Saulo said, saying that people need to take urgent actions to limit this situation.

Accordingly, urgent action is being called for to research and better understand what is happening to the world’s freshwater resources. Although the WMO report is considered comprehensive, much data is missing due to lack of observations or sharing, with Africa, South America and Asia underrepresented.

Ms. Saulo said that “too little is known about the true state of the world’s freshwater resources”, and that it is difficult to “manage what cannot be measured”. Therefore, it is necessary to improve monitoring, data sharing, and cross-border cooperation in this field.

According to World Weather Attribution (WWA), climate change is fueling extreme weather events. Linking climate change to individual droughts is quite difficult. Water availability depends on many factors other than temperature and rainfall, with natural weather systems also playing an important part. That was the case with the drought in southern Africa in early 2024. But heat from climate change could worsen the drought by drying out the soil, leading to rapid warming of the air above. and the heat becomes more intense.

During hot weather, demand for water increases, especially from farmers, placing an additional burden on water supplies. In many parts of East Africa, the rainy season was absent from 2020 to 2022 as the region experienced its worst drought in 40 years, leaving 1.2 million people in Somalia homeless. Climate change makes this type of drought at least 100 times more likely.