The quality of the world’s freshwater, the world’s most important resource, is deteriorating, but the problem is that the magnitude of the problem is difficult to assess due to a lack of indicators in countries with 3.7 billion people.
This is stated in the UN report, reports
“The poorest half of the world account for less than 3% of global water quality data,” the report says. The authors point out that these countries conducted only 4.5,000 lake water quality measurements out of 250,000 conducted worldwide.
UN analysts suggest that as a result of a lack of indicators and low levels of monitoring, by 2030 more than half of humanity will live in countries where there is insufficient data to make management decisions related to combating drought, flooding, exposure to sewage and agricultural runoff.
Judging by the analysis of the evolution of freshwater ecosystems, such data are needed. For example, between 2015 and 2019, 61% of countries identified at least one type of freshwater ecosystem, including rivers, lakes and aquifers, as degraded. And in the period 2017-2021, this percentage dropped to 31, which, as the report says, is a “positive trend”, since in 2015 projects under the UN Sustainable Development Goals were implemented.
But if we take into account “the introduction of new data available on water quality in recent observation periods”, the proportion of countries with degraded ecosystems is 50%, says the UN. This means that in half of the countries there is a decrease in river and surface flows, an increase in pollution and a decrease in the quality of water use. These are mainly countries in Africa, Central Asia and South-East Asia.
To improve the freshwater situation, the UN report recommends developing long-term government monitoring programs that involve the public in data collection.
Recall that Cursor wrote that due to climate changes associated with global warming, famous landmarks may disappear within the next 25 years.
