State Of Climate Services Report 2021: WMO:
The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) released the State of Climate Services report 2021. It focuses on Terrestrial Water Storage.
- Earlier, on water day (22nd March), in a report released by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), one in five children worldwide reside in areas of high or extremely high water vulnerability.
Terrestrial Water Storage (TWS):
- TWS is the sum of all water on the land surface and in the subsurface, i.e. surface water, soil moisture, snow and ice and groundwater.
- Water is a key prerequisite for human development. But only 0.5% of water on Earth is usable and available as freshwater.
- Water resources across the world are under tremendous pressure due to human and naturally-induced stressors.
- These include population growth, urbanisation and decreasing availability of freshwater.
- Extreme weather events too have been responsible for the pressure on water resources realised across sectors and regions.
Global Scenario:
- TWS dropped at a rate of 1 cm per year in 20 years (2002-2021).
- The biggest losses have occurred in Antarctica and Greenland.
- But many highly populated, lower latitude locations have also experienced TWS losses.
