The UN has discussed extensive water disasters linked to the climate crisis. 

The United Nations Secretary-General, António Guterres, has warned that water is at the heart of the climate crisis, causing droughts, floods and sea level rise that are making the planet uninhabitable. 

Guterres spoke on the second day of the UN’s first water conference in almost 50 years, where many countries described their suffering from water disasters linked to human-made global heating. 

Last year, 40,000 people, half of them children, died from drought in Somalia, while floods hit a third of Pakistan. Agricultural yields have also dropped in Europe and China due to drought. 

On the final day of the conference, advocates and ministers from several countries urged the United Arab Emirates, which holds the presidency for Cop28, to include water in the four negotiating tracks - mitigation, adaptation, finance, and loss and damage - at the UN climate talks to be held in Dubai in November.

More details are accessible here.