Asia remained the world’s most disaster-hit region from weather, climate and water-related hazards in 2023. Floods and storms caused the highest number of reported casualties and economic losses, whilst the impact of heatwaves became more severe, according to a new report from the World Meteorological Organization (WMO).
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The State of the Climate in Asia 2023 report highlighted the accelerating rate of key climate change indicators such as surface temperature, glacier retreat and sea level rise, which will have major repercussions for societies, economies and ecosystems in the region.
In 2023, sea-surface temperatures in the north-west Pacific Ocean were the highest on record. Even the Arctic Ocean suffered a marine heatwave.
A new report from the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) has laid bare the devastating environmental and economic consequences of the unlawful discharge of untreated wastewater from Israeli settlements into Palestinian lands in the occupied West Bank.
Two elderly Palestinian farmers observing their land in Beit Ummar, West Bank. Photo by Sherbel Dissi/ NRC
In both sites researched for the report, wastewater, including human sewage and animal waste, flowing from illegal Israeli settlements for long distances has damaged crops and knocked agricultural Palestinian lands out of use.
14 March 2024 (UNICEF)* — Most people know that you can’t survive without water. But the truth is slightly more nuanced. You need more than just water – you need SAFE water.
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UNICEF/UN0211984/Noorani
You also need safe toilets to keep the environment clean, and as well as soap and water to stop the spread of disease.
Find out more about why safe water, sanitation and hygiene are so important:
In a region scarred by years of wars and displacement, climate change and water scarcity have become yet another threat for fragile contexts in Middle East and North Africa.
Dried reeds in the marshes of southern Iraq. Photo: Fareed Baram/NRC
In this region, populations’ ability to cope with the impacts of climate change is limited, thereby aggravating their overall vulnerability.
(UN News)* — As the UN Security Council was slated to meet for a third consecutive day on Wednesday [] in a new push for consensus to pause the fighting in Gaza, the head of the UN Children’s Fund UNICEF warned that without safe water, “many more children” will soon die from disease.
“Access to sufficient amounts of clean water is a matter of life and death…children in Gaza have barely a drop to drink,” saidUNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell.
“Children and their families are having to use water from unsafe sources that are highly salinated or polluted. Without safe water, many more children will die from deprivation and disease in the coming days.”
Gaza Humanitarian Disaster Heralds ‘Breakdown’ of Society
(UN News)* — As intense Israeli bombardment of Gaza and fighting with Palestinian armed groups continued to impede aid operations, reports on the ground of children begging for water and people cutting down telephone poles for firewood indicated that “society is about to break down”, UN humanitarians said on Friday [].
WHO occupied Palestinian Territory | Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza. WHO warns that hospitals in the Gaza Strip are at a breaking point.
(UN News)* — Gaza is on the brink of running out of food, water, electricity and critical supplies, UN humanitarians warned on Thursday 12 October 2023].
No aid can come in from the outside for the 2.3 million residents of the sealed-off enclave, and some 220,000 displaced people are sheltering in schools run by the UN agency for Palestine refugees, UNRWA.
Whether – like in Derna – it’s too much water leading to floods, or too little water causing droughts, or polluted water resulting in health risks, addressing the dangers that water poses can save lives.
As climate change intensifies these threats, there is an urgent need for action.
Climate-induced water insecurity poses one of the biggest threats to humanity and will lead to more hunger, disease and displacement.
Climate Change and Water Security. Oxfam‘s report “Water Dilemmas” highlights how a water security crisis, in large part driven by global heating from greenhouse gas emissions, will fuel hunger and disease and force more people to leave their homes. | Photo: Oxfamwash.org
Oxfam water engineers are having to drill deeper, more expensive and harder-to-maintain water boreholes used by some of the poorest communities around the world, more often now only to find dry, depleted or polluted reservoirs. | FrenchArabic
(UN News)* — Wastewater, long seen as an environmental and health hazard, possesses untapped potential as an alternative energy and clean water source to offset fertilizer use, the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) said on Wednesday [].
In its new report, Wastewater: Turning problem to solution, UNEP warned that only 11 per cent of treated wastewater is reused while around half of the world’s untreated wastewater still enters rivers, lakes and seas.
Furthermore, CO2 emissions from wastewater are substantial, hovering slightly below those from the global aviation industry.
HUMAN WRONGS WATCH 