In the United States, 20 percent of annual economic damage from extreme weather events is caused by droughts and floods, but hydroclimatic disasters — those caused by changes in the water cycle — are expected to hit poor communities in particular and the ecosystems that suffer from them as well. Very few resources and they are highly exploited.
For example, the UN has said that poverty-stricken Somalia is experiencing its longest and worst drought, causing millions of livestock deaths and widespread famine.
Venezuela, a country that has suffered from political and economic crises for years, was forced to cut off power across the country in April 2016 because drought caused the water level of the Gori Dam to drop sharply.
A phenomenon that also occurs frequently in certain regions is the sudden transition between severe drought and unprecedented floods, which is called “weather lightning”.
The study also proposes a number of solutions to improve water management in an increasingly warming world, such as using water from floods to replenish depleted aquifers and improving the health of farmland so that soils can absorb more water and store more carbon.
The study, conducted by Matthew Rudel and his Goddard colleague Billing Lee, is published in the journal natural water. Sources: Press releases from IPS, Associated Press, AFP and Belgian news agencies.
