According to the European Drought Observatory, more than a third of the continent is currently under a drought warning, with 10% experiencing severe drought.
EurEau, the European federation of national drinking water service providers, has estimated that the continent loses about 20-25% of its drinking water just because of leaks from pipes.In Spain there have been concerns about strawberry farmers in the south of the country impacting the Donana wetlands, which is an important and fragile eco-system.In England and Wales for example we use about 14bn litres of water a day.
The National Audit Office has predicted that we will need an extra 4bn per day by 2050 to counter the growing risk of drought from climate change.Lots of parts of Europe have always experienced natural cycles of drought, but climate change is a force that is making things much worse.Generally higher temperatures mean there is more evaporation from the ground, rivers and lakes, reducing available water.
On top of that scientists say climate change is making extreme events like heatwaves more likely, more intense, and longer in duration. This bakes the ground hard, so water from intense rainfall flows over it rather than soaks in - which can increase the risk of flash flooding., which may be using cookies and other technologies. To show you this content, we need your permission to use cookies. You can use the buttons below to amend your preferences to enablecookies or to allow those cookies just once.
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