Our rivers are dying – and women are bearing the burden

Elif Shafak

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Climate crisis is, essentially, the story of water. It is a story of troubling extremes: floods and droughts. In the words of Emily Dickinson: “Water, is taught by thirst. Land-by the Oceans passed.”

That thirst is growing, as demand for fresh water will outstrip supply by 40% by the end of this decade, according to the Global Commission on the Economics of Water. Already half of the world’s population is experiencing water scarcity.

Since Dickinson died, in the 1880s, global mean sea level has risen between 21cm and 26cm. Today, with melting glaciers and heavier rainfall, the rate of the rise is accelerating and it has more than doubled in the past 30 years. These unprecedented shifts in our seas cause irreversible losses of vulnerable marine and island ecosystems, directly affecting the livelihoods of millions of people living in coastal areas and beyond. The UN Ocean Conference, starting tomorrow in Nice and co-hosted by the governments of France and Costa Rica, is being held against this background. It is one of our last chances to mobilise resources, action and knowledge to protect our planet as we reach the midway point of “the Ocean Decade”.