ABU DHABI, March 19. /TASS/. About 3.6 billion people - almost half of the world's population - face insufficient access to water for at least one month a year, and this figure is expected to increase to 5 billion by 2050, World Meteorological Organization President Abdulla Al Mandous has said in an interview with TASS First Deputy Director-General Mikhail Gusman.

"Water is a very important issue. I think, it will come as a crisis. All of us try to arrange some management for that. I think we will have shortage of water," he said. Al Mandous believes that the acute shortage of fresh water forces the international community to explore different approaches to finding solutions that would help ensure water security.

According to the WMO's State of Global Water Resources 2022 report, available and usable freshwater makes up only 0.5% of the Earth's water resources threatened by climate change. Over the past 20 years, global water resources, including soil moisture, snow and ice, have been declining by 1 centimeter per year. According to the WMO, more than half of the world's catchment areas will experience deviations from normal river flow conditions in 2022. Climate change will further exacerbate these conditions, the report reads.

Faced with limited water resources, governments, international organizations, and private companies have focused in recent years on finding and developing alternative sources of water supply. The latter include rainwater harvesting, wastewater reuse and desalination, which can be part of an integrated approach to meeting global water needs.

"One of my strategy approaches as the WMO President is to find alternative sources of water. <...> We are looking at all the possibilities to find an alternative source of water," said Al Mandous.

Among the most promising methods of obtaining water from alternative sources, the WMO president named cloud seeding - a weather modification technology aimed at increasing precipitation. According to the WMO, cloud seeding is used to combat droughts and extreme weather in 56 countries. The UAE, one of the world leaders in artificial weather modification technology, launched a national research program for rainfall enhancement (UAE Research Program for Rain Enhancement Science, UAEREP) in 1990.

"It is a very important possibility that the UAE government is putting a lot of investment in to help the humanity to have a different source of water," stressed the WMO president, who also manages the UAE rainfall enhancement program and is a member of the national crisis and emergency management committee.

WMO profile

The World Meteorological Organization is a specialized agency within the UN system, with 193 countries and territories participating. It was established by a convention signed in 1947. The day when the Convention on the founding of the WMO entered into force - March 23, 1950 - is considered the organization’s date of establishment. It is the successor to the International Meteorological Organization, which had been in operation since 1873.

The WMO is engaged in monitoring of climatic and meteorological conditions around the world, as well as protection of the environment. Data collection work is carried out around the clock. The data collected is used to provide early warning of natural disasters, protect natural resources and public property through better risk management.