{"id":10391,"date":"2025-07-04T10:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-07-04T08:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bmbf-wax.de\/?p=10391"},"modified":"2025-07-02T15:27:48","modified_gmt":"2025-07-02T13:27:48","slug":"world-drought-atlas-the-global-water-crisis-requires-urgent-action","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bmbf-wax.de\/en\/world-drought-atlas-the-global-water-crisis-requires-urgent-action\/","title":{"rendered":"World Drought Atlas: The global water crisis requires urgent action"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

At the end of last year, the EU Joint Research Centre published an article on the global water crisis<\/a>. The EU Joint Research Centre, in collaboration with the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) and several global partners, launched the World Drought Atlas at COP16 in Riyadh. This tool compiles global data on droughts \u2013 past, present, and projected \u2013 highlighting the growing severity of drought as a systemic hazard driven by the climate crisis and unsustainable land and water use. Far from being isolated or seasonal events, droughts now impact economies, ecosystems, and public health across continents, affecting both rural and urban areas. Nearly 2.3 billion people already face water scarcity, with vulnerable regions in Africa and Asia being disproportionately affected.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Atlas emphasises that drought is more than just a lack of rainfall \u2013 it is a crisis that magnifies food insecurity, forces human migration, stresses health care systems, and can contribute to conflict and ecosystem collapse. Agricultural overuse (which consumes roughly 70% of freshwater), poor governance, and inequitable resource distribution are compounding these risks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Atlas calls for transformative, coordinated, and proactive action at all levels:<\/p>\n\n\n\n