The United Nations warns of a global drought

New York-Sana

The United Nations has warned of a global drought that may affect three-quarters of the Earth's population by 2050.

The German newspaper Der Spiegel today quoted the United Nations as saying in its latest report that "the percentage of drought in the last two decades has increased on Earth by 29 percent," noting that developing countries are the regions that suffer the most from drought problems, including the African Sahel regions, where the consequences of drought there Due to severe water shortage, soil degradation and continuous desertification.

The United Nations report added that these problems have begun to increase more in other countries of the world, which calls for alarm in Europe as well, where currently about 3.6 billion people live in areas suffering from water shortages for at least one month annually, pointing out that by 2050, That figure rises to three quarters of the world's population.

For his part, the Executive Secretary of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification Ibrahim Thiaw said, "Global warming is likely to exacerbate the situation in many regions of the world and that drought is one of the biggest threats to sustainable development."

For his part, Johann Flaspart, State Secretary at the German Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development, said during the fifteenth annual conference of the parties to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification in Abidjan: “The world loses every year an area of ​​fertile soil the size of Bulgaria. We must stop this. Without fertile soil We will not have food.”

The report indicated that Europe also witnessed 45 major droughts in the last century, affecting millions of people and causing a total economic loss of $27.8 billion, while about 15 percent of Europe and about 17 percent of the European Union population are affected by drought. The European Union and the United Kingdom are now 9 billion euros a year due to drought.

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