Topics Covered: Conservation, environmental pollution and degradation, environmental impact assessment.
WWF identifies 100 cities, including 30 in India, facing ‘severe water risk’ by 2050:
Context:
A hundred cities worldwide, including 30 in India, face the risk of ‘severe water scarcity’ by 2050, according to a recent report by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF).
The cities include:
- Global hubs such as: Beijing, Jakarta, Johannesburg, Istanbul, Hong Kong, Mecca and Rio de Janeiro.
- Indian Cities such as: Jaipur, Indore, Thane, Srinagar, Rajkot, Bengaluru etc.
More than half of the identified cities are from China and India.
What’s the concern and challenge?
The cities would face a ‘grave water risk’ by 2050 due to a dramatic increase in their population percentage to 51 per cent by 2050, from 17 per cent in 2020.
What needs to be done?
- Cities need to invest more in nature-based solutions and enhance the health of river basins, watersheds and wetlands to build resilience to water risks.
- To manage these initiatives, a public funding pool needed to be created in collaboration with the private sector to invest, reduce risk and generate returns and fuel sustainable economic growth.
- Cities also needed to support greater global efforts to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions to avoid reaching these scenarios.
InstaLinks:
Prelims Link:
- About WWF.
- Important Global Cities identified by WWF in its report.
- Key Indian Cities.
Mains Link:
What do you understand by water scarcity? Critically discuss the problem of water scarcity in India and its causes.
Sources: Down to Earth.
