UN warns drought may be the next pandemic, ‘and there’s no vaccine’ for it

Drought – like a virus – tends to last a long time, have a wide geographic reach and cause knock-on damage, a UN representative said

About 130 countries could face a greater risk of drought this century under a high-emissions scenario cited by the UN

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A tyre is wedged between cracks in dry earth at Nicasio Reservoir in Nicasio, California. Photo: AFP

Published: 9:26pm, 17 Jun 2021

Water scarcity and drought are set to wreak damage on a scale to rival the Covid-19 pandemic with risks growing rapidly as global temperatures rise, according to the United Nations.

“Drought is on the verge of becoming the next pandemic – and there is no vaccine to cure it,” Mami Mizutori, the UN’s special representative for disaster risk reduction, told an online press briefing ahead of the report’s release.

Already, droughts have triggered economic losses of at least US$124 billion and hit more than 1.5 billion people between 1998 and 2017, according to a UN report published on Thursday.

But even these figures, it said, are “most likely gross under-estimates”.

Cows drink water from the Lac d’Hongrin during a drought near Chateau d’Oex, Switzerland, on August 7, 2018. File photo: Reuters

Global warming has now intensified droughts in southern Europe and western Africa, the UN report said with “some confidence”. And the number of victims is set to “grow dramatically” unless the world acts, Mizutori said.

About 130 countries could face a greater risk of drought this century under a high-emissions scenario cited by the UN.