Istanbul:
The world's leaders need to act immediately to build defences against water-related disasters like floods and droughts as much as they need to step up efforts in managing demand and bolstering supply.
Experts at the ongoing 5th World Water Forum have called for governments to act now to prevent water-related catastrophes, which have claimed thousands of lives across the world, and may already be multiplying due to climate change.
A high-level expert panel has identified six specific priorities and 40 action guidelines to prevent, prepare for, manage and recover from water-related disasters. The panel has called upon governments of all nations to endorse and adopt these measures immediately.
Changes in the earth's climate are making water related disasters more frequent as well as brutal, inflicting a rising toll in lives and damage across countries. In 2008 alone, 321 disasters reportedly killed over 235,000 people, affected 211 million others and cost a staggering $181 billion in direct and indirect damages.
For a developing country like India which has abundant water resources and a long coastline, the threat of water related disasters is very real. Every year, hundreds of people across the country are reportedly killed due to floods and droughts, and millions of dollars worth of goods and property is damaged, extracting a heavy toll on the country's economy.
A recent study conducted by Purdue University in the United States had warned that water availability and agricultural production across India, Bangladesh, Nepal and Pakistan could get severely affected by delayed onset of the South Asia monsoon, which could be weakened and delayed due to climate change.
Global warming could delay the start of the summer monsoon by five to 15 days within the next century and significantly reduce rainfall in much of South Asia. Rising global temperatures could lead to an eastward shift in monsoon circulation which could result in more rainfall over the Indian Ocean, Myanmar and Bangladesh but less over Pakistan, India and Nepal, the study found.
The findings of the study are significant given the fact that summer monsoons are responsible for approximately 75 per cent of the total annual rainfall in the region. For a country like India, the summer monsoons being as much as 90 per cent water supply, particularly for the agriculture sector.
",Global warming is intensifying these disasters,", said the World Meteorological Organisation's director (climate and water department) Avinash Tyagi. Over the last century, temperatures had risen by 0.74 degrees Celsius (1.3 degrees Fahrenheit), but particularly in the past 50 years, they have accelerated sharply.
This has coincided with changes in rainfall and snowfall, leading in turn to the now sadly familiar images of parched fields and flooded streets, he said.
Scientists were making efforts to fill gaps in their knowledge, but feared the worst is yet to come when climate change shifts up a gear. ",The projections point to the 21st century as the century of floods or the century of droughts. But, it could as well be a century of floods and drought, a mixture of extremes",, said Tyagi.
Scientists said climate-related disturbances like drought, hurricanes, floods and heatwave are on the rise, from Hurricane Katrina in the United States to Australia's 1000 year drought. While, natural hazards are inevitable, high death and destruction are not, the panel said.
Water is life but the excess or absence of water is also a threat to life, warned Korean Prime Minister Han Seung-soo. ",The growing occurrence of extreme weather conditions has increased the risk of water-related disasters both in terms of their frequency and severity. Numerous lives have been taken away and societies and economies are suffering from the damaging effects if the disasters",, said Han.
The Korean Prime Minister was among the panel which launched a report -- Prevention and Action to minimize death and destruction: Building resilience toward sustainable development -- at the Forum.
The report urges nations to act on six priorities: galvanising and mobilising before disasters strike, prioritising systems to forecast, inform, alert and evacuate, incorporate disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation as integral to development planning, improve disaster response, provide safe water and toilets quickly when disaster/conflicts strikes, and work together on cross cutting initiatives such as data sharing, vital analyses and responses by delta states.
Disclaimer: Girish Chadha is a freelance journalist and NDTV.com takes no responsibility for the views expressed in the article. The article published does not in anyway reflect the opinion of NDTV.com.)