By Laurie Goering
Rapid population growth, combined with a hike in hot and dry years, is likely to dramatically increase the number of people suffering water scarcity on the upper River Nile, climate change scientists said on Wednesday.
By 2030, demand for Nile water will exceed supply, and by 2080, almost two-thirds of people living in the upper Nile basin could face water shortages in particularly hot and dry years, researchers from U.S.-based Dartmouth College predicted.
That could affect close to 250 million in the upper basin by 2080, researchers said.
A shortfall looms despite overall rainfall to the region growing as a result of global warming, they said in a study published in the journal Earth’s Future.
“The Nile basin is one of several fast-growing, predominately agricultural regions that is really on the brink of severe water scarcity…Read more>>
