Running out of water

Well, Cape Town didn’t in the end.

Now satellite data from NASA on fresh water reserves has identified dozens of regions around the world at high risk, including the Middle East, the Caspian sea, northern India and north east China.

Out of 34 regions where there has been the greatest change in fresh water availability, human activity is the primary cause in 14 and climate is the primary cause in 8.

The Financial Times on 17th May noted that “prolonged droughts in California, eastern Brazil and the Middle East led to depleted groundwater reserves.”

An author of the study has concluded that “water insecurity is much closer than we think.”

When I was in Hong Kong last week, one of the regional newspapers charted the levels of water in all of Hong Kong’s reservoirs because of low rainfall in May. Reassuringly, it was raining as I left for the airport.