Today's Edition
ABU DHABI (ALETIHAD)
Worldwide, some of the most widespread and damaging drought events in recorded history have occurred in recent years due to climate change and resource depletion.
This is according to a new report from the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), the US National Drought Mitigation Center (NDMC) and the International Drought Resilience Alliance on the global impacts of droughts from 2023 to 2025.
“Drought is a silent killer. It creeps in, drains resources, and devastates lives in slow motion. Its scars run deep,” said UNCCD Executive Secretary Ibrahim Thiaw.
“This is not a dry spell,” stressed Dr. Mark Svoboda, report co-author and NDMC Director. “This is a slow-moving global catastrophe, the worst I’ve ever seen. This report underscores the need for systematic monitoring of how drought affects lives, livelihoods, and the health of the ecosystems that we all depend on.”
According to the report, as 90 million people face acute hunger across Eastern and Southern Africa, some areas in the region have been experiencing the worst drought ever recorded.
In the Amazon Basin, record-low river levels in 2023 and 2024 led to mass deaths of fish and endangered dolphins, disrupted drinking water supplies and created transport challenges for hundreds of thousands. Ongoing deforestation and fires also threaten to shift the Amazon from a carbon sink to a carbon source.
Declining water levels in the Panama Canal slashed transit by more than one-third, leading to major global trade disruptions.
Call for Cooperation
The report listed several recommendations to help combat this crisis, including stronger early warning systems, real-time drought and drought impact monitoring, and nature-based solutions such as watershed restoration and indigenous crop use.
It also called for more resilient infrastructure – including off-grid energy and alternative water supply systems – and global cooperation, particularly regarding transboundary river basins and trade routes.
