Global water sector news November 2013

Abstract

Global news Warmer world threatens 500 million people more with water scarcity More than 500 million people might face increasing water scarcity. This is according to studies published by scientists of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK). “We managed to quantify a number of crucial impacts of climate change on the global land area, ” says Dieter Gerten, lead author of one of the studies. Mean global warming of 2°C, the target set by the international community, is projected to expose an additional 8% of humankind to new or increased water scarcity. “If the population growth continues, by the end of our century under a business-as-usual scenario these figures would equate to well over one billion lives touched, ” Gerten points out. “This is on top of the more than one billion people already living in water-scarce regions today. ” Parts of Asia and North Africa, the Mediterranean and the Middle East are particularly vulnerable.

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