Germany Drought report sees global catastrophe progressing
According to a UN report, some of the most severe droughts with the greatest economic damage since records began have occurred since 2023.
02.07.2025, 15:26
SDA
"This is not a drought. This is a slow-moving global catastrophe, the worst I've ever seen," said one of the report's authors, Mark Svoboda, according to a statement from the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) in Bonn. UNCCD chief Ibrahim Thiaw said: "Drought is a silent killer." In Somalia alone, the government estimates that around 43,000 people died as a result of drought and hunger in 2022.
The report is called "Drought hotspots around the world, 2023-2025". A selection of the findings: British supermarkets experienced shortages in the supply of fruit and vegetables. In Spain, two dry years in a row caused the price of olive oil to double because the olive harvest had collapsed by 50 percent.
In Brazil, the water level in the Amazon fell to such an extent that fish and rare river dolphins died en masse. In the Panama Canal, the water level dropped to such an extent that at times a third fewer ships were able to pass through. In Thailand and India, sugar production suffered so badly from the drought that sugar became 8.9 percent more expensive in the USA. In Zimbabwe, around 100 elephants died of starvation and thirst in the second half of 2023. In Botswana, 2024 hippos were left out to dry.
Droughts increase the number of child marriages
According to the report, the ongoing droughts have particularly devastating consequences for women, children, the elderly, the chronically ill, livestock breeders and small farmers. In East Africa, the number of forced child marriages has more than doubled because families rely on dowries to survive, the report says. "Drought disproportionately affects those with the fewest resources," said co-author Kelly Helm Smith. "The nations of the world have the means and the knowledge to prevent much suffering. The question is whether we have the will."
