Researchers mapped the areas where future global conflict is most likely to break out as a result of climate change-fueled water shortages.
Researchers said the areas most likely to be hit by ‘hydro-political’ issues are those with already stressed water basins.
They believe water-related conflict or cooperation is likely to develop in the next 50 to 100 years as a result of climate change and population growth.
‘Competition over limited water resources is one of the main concerns for the coming decades,’ the scientists explained.
First, we wanted to highlight the factors which lead to either political cooperation or tensions in transboundary river basins,’ Fabio Farinosi, the lead author of the study, said in a statement.
‘And second, we wanted to map and monitor the likelihood of these kinds of interactions over space and time and under changing socio-economic conditions.’
They then studied the links with freshwater ability, climate stress, human pressure on water resources and socio-economic conditions.
Researchers identified five primary hotspots, including the Nile, Ganges-Brahmaputra, Indus, Tigris-Euphrates and Colorado rivers – all of which are areas with ‘already water stressed basins.’
However, not every hotspot for water scarcity will be rife with conflict.
According to the landmark report from the International Panel on Climate Change, we will need to close down hundreds of coal-fired power stations and rapidly switch to using renewable energy.

KARACHI: ‘Consecutive droughts, climate change, shortage of water, mismanagement of local natural resources, population growth, dependence on rain-fed agriculture, less importance given to livestock management on scientific basis are the main causes of food insecurity in Thar’ This was said by speakers on the occasion of World Food Day which was observed on Tuesday.
Amber attributed the food insecurity in arid and semi-arid areas of Sindh to consecutive droughts, shortage of water, mismanagement of local natural resources, population growth, dependency on rain fed agriculture and less importance given to livestock management on scientific basis.
Woman community activist, Fatima said that Thari people were facing the issue of food shortage due to scanty monsoon rains.
She said that pre-drought, the Thari populace used to harvest wild fruits and vegetables, dry them and store them for later.
She demanded that the government of Sindh launch a special campaign for drought resistant trees plantation in Thar and women be given the task of nurturing those saplings on a paid basis.
“People in Thar rely on livestock for sustenance.
If there is no livestock, people will lose access to milk, butter and yogurt and that would worsen the malnutrition issue,” explained Sand.
He also urged the government to initiative development activities in remote villages of Thar in order to generate employment for the locals.
Jhaman Das said that food items available in local market of Thar were low quality products.
“As a result, people of Thar suffer from health conditions,” he shared.

The world faces extreme heat, drought, floods and poverty if global warming passes the 1.5C mark, a major UN report has found.
Global warming should be limited to 1.5C above pre-industrial levels rather than 2C to ensure the impacts of climate change are less extreme, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report says.
Sea level rises would be 10cm lower with a 1.5C temperature rise compared to 2C by 2100, while there would be worse impacts on coral reefs and the Arctic at higher temperatures.
The world has seen 1C of warming so far, with consequences such as more extreme weather already being felt, and there is more to come as temperatures continue to rise, the report says.
It warns that every fraction of additional warming could worsen the impact.
The report says this goal is possible but will require fast and far-reaching changes to power generation, industry, transport, buildings and potential shifts in lifestyle such as eating less meat.
It will also require action to take excess carbon emissions out of the atmosphere.
Promises made by countries to cut their emissions up to 2030 will not limit global warming to 1.5C even if action is massively scaled up after the end of the next decade, the report warns.
Prof Corinne Le Quere, from the University of East Anglia, said: "For the UK, this means a rapid switch to renewable energy and electric cars, insulating our homes, planting trees, where possible walking or cycling and eating well – more plants and less meat – and developing an industry to capture carbon and store it underground.
"We need to extend this kind of progress on renewables to other areas."

KUALA LUMPUR – Economic losses caused by drought in China will rocket to tens of billions of dollars per year if global warming breaches the limits set by governments in a 2015 agreement to tackle climate change, scientists said.
Under the Paris climate pact, almost 200 nations agreed to limit global temperature rise to “well below” 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial times, and pursue efforts to keep it to 1.5 C (2.7 F).
The planet has already heated up by about 1 C. An international team of researchers analyzed drought-related losses in 31 Chinese provinces and cities over the last 30 years, and looked at the potential social and economic impacts should global temperatures exceed the Paris limits.
In China, annual economic losses due to drought were an average $7 billion per year between 1984 and 2017, but global warming of 1.5 C could see that figure rise to $47 billion annually, said the study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences journal.
A global temperature increase of 2 C could see China’s drought losses jump to about $84 billion each year, it added.
Areas that suffered most from drought over the last three decades were located in a southwest to northeast belt, including Inner Mongolia, Hunan, Yunnan, Hubei, Jilin, Anhui, Sichuan, Liaoning, Guizhou and Shandong.
“In this dry zone, there is a lot of poverty,” said Jiang Tong, a co-author of the study and researcher at the National Climate Center of the China Meteorological Administration.
Stepping up efforts to reduce carbon emissions — including cutting down on fossil-fuel use — is important to ensure temperature rise stays below 1.5 C, Jiang said.
Achieving that could reduce China’s annual drought losses by several tens of billions of dollars, he added.
To ease the impacts of drought, authorities can introduce early warning systems, help farmers grow drought-resistant crops and fodder, and improve irrigation systems, he added.

Despite more than three years of war, Yemen, the scene of the world’s largest humanitarian crisis, still struggles for its fair share of the world’s attention.
Since March 2015, the Saudi-UAE military alliance has carried out more than 16,000 air raids, almost one-third of which have struck non-military sites.
According to the UN, at least 10,000 people have been killed since the start of the conflict.
However, analysts say the number hasn’t been updated in years and the death toll is likely to be much higher.
According to UNICEF, more than 22 million Yemenis, 78 percent of the population, need humanitarian assistance every day.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), more than 1.8 million under the age of five children suffer from acute malnutrition, including 500,000 children who suffer from severe acute malnutrition.
Access to clean water and sanitation According to the UN agency OCHA, there is a strong possibility of a third wave of cholera due to contaminated food and drinking water brought about by the collapse of the public health system.
Cholera, which can kill within hours if left untreated, is caused by ingestion of food or water contaminated with the bacterium vibrio cholera.
Before the war, Yemen imported around 90 percent of its wheat and all of its rice to feed its population of about 28 million, and around 70 percent of these imports passed through Hodeidah.
Since the start of the war, the unemployment rate has shot above 50 percent, with nearly 50 percent of the population (PDF) now loving on less than two dollars a day.

The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) says more people have access to cell phones in Nigeria than they have access to toilets.
Quoting a 2018 report by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), the Chief of WASH (Water, Sanitation and Hygiene), UNICEF, Zaid Jurji, said 140 million people in Nigeria have cell phones, while only 97 million have access to improved sanitation.
Mr Jurji who spoke at a two-day media dialogue on European Union Niger Delta Water Project, in Port Harcourt on Monday, noted that the sanitation sector in Nigeria is severely under resourced, as sanitation is only 19 per cent of WASH budget.
He further added that only 39 per cent Nigerians use an improved toilet that is not shared by more than one household.
Over 46 million people still practice open defecation on Nigeria, with 32 percent living in rural areas and 12 percent in urban areas.
This figure is far from the Sustainable Development Goal 6 (SDG) target by 2030, which aims at achieving universal access to drinking water, sanitation and hygiene.
In his remarks, Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, who was represented by the principal information officer of the ministry, Toye Falayi, urged media partners to sustain advocacy for improve water sanitation and hygiene.

The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) says more people have access to cell phones in Nigeria than they have access to toilets.
Quoting a 2018 report by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), the Chief of WASH (Water, Sanitation and Hygiene), UNICEF, Zaid Jurji, said 140 million people in Nigeria have cell phones, while only 97 million have access to improved sanitation.
Mr Jurji who spoke at a two-day media dialogue on European Union Niger Delta Water Project, in Port Harcourt on Monday, noted that the sanitation sector in Nigeria is severely under resourced, as sanitation is only 19 per cent of WASH budget.
He further added that only 39 per cent Nigerians use an improved toilet that is not shared by more than one household.
Over 46 million people still practice open defecation on Nigeria, with 32 percent living in rural areas and 12 percent in urban areas.
This figure is far from the Sustainable Development Goal 6 (SDG) target by 2030, which aims at achieving universal access to drinking water, sanitation and hygiene.
In his remarks, Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, who was represented by the principal information officer of the ministry, Toye Falayi, urged media partners to sustain advocacy for improve water sanitation and hygiene.

Aa Aa GENEVA (Reuters) – A total of 275,000 people have been displaced by drought in western Afghanistan – 52,000 more than the number uprooted by conflict this year – with over two million threatened by the effects of water shortages, the United Nations said.
Reports from the U.N. and aid charities described farmers lacking seeds to sow following crop failures in some areas and livestock dying for the want of anything to eat.
In a regular update, the U.N. humanitarian office reported that 120,000 people fleeing the drought arrived in Qala-e-Naw city in Badghis province in the week to Sept. 9.
It estimated 2.2 million Afghans would be affected by the drought this year.
The U.N. cited an assessment by aid charity World Vision International that 99 percent of people in Badghis said their food situation was worse or a lot worse than a year ago.
"The assessment also indicates that most farmers lost last season’s harvest and nearly all of them lack seeds for new planting season," the U.N. report said, noting reports that about 40 per cent of livestock has been lost in Badghis due to a lack of pasture and fodder.
The Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS NET), a U.S. funded food security monitoring service, said in a report on Aug. 31 that the number of Afghans in a food "crisis" was atypically high.
In Badghis and Faryab provinces, emergency outcomes are expected to emerge in January, FEWS NET said.
(Reporting by Tom Miles; editing by David Stamp) euronews provides breaking news articles from reuters as a service to its readers, but does not edit the articles it publishes.
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In Sanni-Otin community in Odo-Otin Local government area of the state, some 32 kilometres from Oke Ila, the story was no different.
The water scarcity in the state was not limited to Ifedayo and Odo-Otin local government areas creating an active emergency.
A Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) Specialist with the United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF), Mr Moustapha Niang said 57 million Nigerians do not have access to safe water supply and that more than half of these numbers live in rural areas.
“Water scarcity was making life difficult in this community.
Mrs Asimotu Jolayemi, a petty trader, also lives in the community.
Prior to that, the state government provided water through the state water corporation.
But this was not enough to go around the state.
The General Manager of the Osun Rural Water and Environmental Sanitation Agency (RUWESA), Mr Adiatu Olaposi said 480 hand pumps and solar boreholes have been provided in the communities in Odo-Otin, Ifedayo and Ayedaade Local Government Areas and 129 others are ongoing and that the projects would provide portable water for about 60,000 people in the state.
Found at the foot of a borehole pumping water into her container, Mrs Idowu said she and her family had been considering leaving the community before the intervention.
“Unlike before, I’m not wasting time going to the stream to fetch water again.

Development can be sustainable, it can be green.
Holmgren, a former Swedish ambassador with extensive experience working in South Asia, among other regions, spoke to IPS about how South Asia can best address the serious gender imbalances in water access and the issue of sustainable water technology support from developed economies to developing countries.
For the region specifically, a fundamental aspect is how its countries govern their water accessibility.
It boils down to how institutions, not just governments but communities, industries at large govern water – how water systems are organised and allocated.
IPS: What is SIWI’s stand on the issue of sustainable water technology support from developed economies to developing countries?
It is true that new technology is developing fast, but a mix of this with traditional technology and local knowledge works well.
IPS: How can South Asia best address the serious gender imbalances in water access, bring more women into water governance in its patriarchal societies?
TH: It is important that those in power need encourage gender balance not in decision-making alone but in educational institutions.
Done on a large scale, it can bring tremendous change to people, livelihoods and societies at large.
Especially in South Asia’s growing urban sprawls, we must capture the flooding rainwater, store it in green water infrastructure for reuse; because grey cannot do it alone.