Local communities in Gilgit-Baltistan in northern Pakistan are turning to the Indigenous practice of glacier grafting as water shortages take hold. The world’s highest peaks are located in the Himalaya and Karakoram mountain ranges, part of a vast mountain belt stretching across Asia. But beneath their grandeur lie some of the planet’s most fragile ecosystems. […]
The average global sea surface temperature outside polar regions reached 21.1°C on Saturday. The world’s oceans have reached their highest daily temperature on record, with global sea surface temperatures hitting 21.1°C on 22 August – a new high made particularly striking by the time of year, according to the European Union’s climate change data. The […]
Gulf countries are keen to grow their industrial base and are pouring hundreds of billions into data centres and AI infrastructure to write the next chapter of their new-age economies. However, none of that is possible without the very basic resource: water. The UAE, the Arab world’s second-largest economy, is leading the race for AI investment. The capital, […]
As Europe braces for yet another heatwave this week, many of the continent’s major rivers are already running at exceptionally low levels, raising concerns that flows could slow even further before the end of the summer. Analysis by The National of data from the Copernicus European Flood Awareness System shows that river flows across much of Europe have remained well below […]
A summer of blistering heatwaves has resulted in record low water levels in Europe, curtailing river transport and drastically reducing electricity generation. Europe’s two great rivers, the Rhine and the Danube, have been seriously affected, resulting in a water-cooled nuclear power plant operating at just 10 per cent capacity and cargo being moved by rail instead. The […]
The UAE and Senegal aim to make implementation the focus of this year’s UN Water Conference, calling for faster action by governments, financial institutions and the private sector to address the worsening global water crisis, a senior Emirati official has said. The UN Water Conference, which will be held in Abu Dhabi from December 8 to […]
The world is approaching the 2030 deadline for the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals on water security still off-track. About 5.5 billion globally people still lack safely managed drinking water or sanitation. Water-related risks are intensifying across regions, driven by climate variability, rising demand and environmental degradation. Droughts, floods and water stress are placing growing pressure on food […]
The world is “living beyond our hydrological means”, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said on Monday, warning that overconsumption, pollution and climate change are pushing water supplies towards an irreversible decline. Mr Guterres made the comments while addressing ministers at the opening of the High-Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development in New York, urging governments to use […]
Global water scarcity has reached a new and potentially irreversible stage, an era of “bankruptcy” driven by decades of overuse, groundwater depletion and climate change, UN experts warned on Monday. Kaveh Madani, lead author of Global Water Bankruptcy: Living Beyond our Hydrological Means in the Post-Crisis Era, told reporters at UN headquarters in New York that this issue matters […]
For some 300 kilometres, groundwater flows underground between France, Germany and Switzerland. It is Europe’s largest groundwater reserve, yet a new study reveals it is heavily polluted. From Frankfurt to Basel, deep underground lies a treasure that supplies more than five million people in the region with drinking water. It is Europe’s largest groundwater reserve. […]
