Last year was the hottest on record. It was also one of the wettest.Water-related disasters – including floods, droughts and storms – killed more than 8,700 people, forced some 40 million from their homes and cost the global economy more than US$550 billion, according to the 2024 Global Water Monitor report.From floods in Spain and Brazil, to heavy rain, landslides and typhoons in Bangladesh and India, the world saw a dramatic rise in extremes, with experts blaming climate change for the “intensity and frequency” found in many of the disasters.Scientists say climate change “increases the potential for extreme weather events” and predict more of the same in 2025.The extremities include flash floods, excessive rainfall, droughts and storms, with the Global South particularly exposed.Take West Africa, where heavy rains and floods killed more than 1,500 people and forced about a million to leave their homes. Scientists said the disasters were up to 20 per cent more intense because of human-driven climate change.The downpours also destroyed thousands of hectares of farmland in the region.Home to more than 400 million people, West Africa saw the largest number of its 15 countries report record-high annual soil moisture levels in 2024, sodden with the relentless rain and a run of floods.When soil is drenched with water and diluted, it becomes unsuitable for crops or cattle.In Nigeria, flooding and rain affected four-fifths of the country and destroyed more than 100,000 hectares of farmland, worsening food shortages.Even those parts of the world used to extreme wet weather worsened by a fast-warming planet broke alarming new records.According to the Global Water Monitor report, extreme rain events across the world were 52 per cent more common in 2024 than during the 1995-2005 period, and the highest daily rain count was up 7.8 per cent, too.Bangladesh, already one of the world’s wettest countries, experienced severe flooding and monsoons due to persistent heavy rain and water surges from neighbouring India, with whom it shares many rivers.The low-lying nation, home to 180 million people, saw the highest daily rainfall in 17 years, with an average of 103 mm, up from its standard rain count of 70-80 mm per day.More than half a million people in Bangladesh were displaced and power outages plunged millions into darkness.Financial losses were estimated at nearly US$500 million, and Dhaka was forced to ramp up grain imports after losing 1.1 million metric tons of rice to flooding.According to the Global Water Monitor, Bangladesh’s wet weather is becoming “increasingly erratic”.Despite generating just 0.03 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions, Bangladesh will fall victim to “intensifying monsoons and increased extreme weather events” as human-driven climate change continues to bite, the report said.This story was published with permission from Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, that
Mar. Gen 21st, 2025
