<div><span style="font-size: 1rem;">All regions of the world saw water extremes last year -- both floods and droughts -- and billions of people had insufficient freshwater, the United Nations said on Tuesday.</span><br></div><div><br></div><div>Large areas of the planet recorded drier than normal conditions in 2021, the UN's World Meteorological Organization said in its first annual State of Global Water Resources report.</div><div><br></div><div>The report assesses the effects of changes in the climate, environment and society on the Earth's freshwater resources -- limited supplies that are under growing demand -- so they can be managed better.</div><div><br></div><div>"The impacts of climate change are often felt through water -- more intense and frequent droughts, more extreme flooding, more erratic seasonal rainfall and accelerated melting of glaciers -- with cascading effects on economies, ecosystems and all aspects of our daily lives," said WMO head Petteri Taalas.</div><div><br></div><div>"And yet there is insufficient understanding of changes in the distribution, quantity and quality of freshwater resources."</div><div><br></div><div>Some 3.6 billion people face inadequate access to freshwater at least one month per year. That is forecast to rise to more than five billion by 2050, the report said.</div><div><br></div><div>Between 2001 and 2018, 74 percent of all natural disasters were water-related, according to UN studies.</div><div><br></div><div>In 2021, all regions saw devastating water extremes, the report said.</div><div><br></div><div>There were record-breaking floods in western Europe and the Amazon, while water levels in rivers in Paraguay and southern Brazil dropped to an all-time low.</div><div><br></div><div>The report assessed streamflow -- the volume of water flowing through a river -- over a 30-year period.</div><div><br></div><div>Drops in water volumes were twice as widespread as rises.</div><div><br></div><div>Major river basins in the Americas and central Africa saw water volumes shrink. Rivers in northern India and southern Africa saw above average increases.</div><div><br></div><div>- Frozen resources -</div><div>Terrestrial water storage -- all water on the land surface and in the subsurface -- shrank more than it grew, the report said.</div><div><br></div><div>Negative hotspots included Patagonia, the Ganges and Indus headwaters, and the southwestern United States.</div><div><br></div><div>"Some of the hotspots are exacerbated by (over-extraction) of groundwater for irrigation. The melting of snow and ice also has a significant impact in several areas, including Alaska, Patagonia and the Himalayas," the WMO said.</div><div><br></div><div>The world's biggest natural reservoir of freshwater is the cryosphere -- glaciers, snow cover, ice caps and permafrost -- and changes to this reservoir affect food production, health and the natural world, the report said.</div><div><br></div><div>Around 1.9 billion people live in areas where drinking water is supplied by glaciers and snow melt but these glaciers are melting increasingly fast, it stressed.</div><div><br></div><div>It urged authorities to speed up the introduction of drought and flood early warning systems to help reduce the impact of water extremes. - AFP&nbsp;</div><div><br></div><div>bnbd24/fas</div>