- Water-related hazards account for 90 per cent of all natural hazards, and their frequency and intensity is generally rising. (4th UN World Water Development Report, 2012)
- Almost two billion people were affected by natural disasters in the last decade of the 20th century, 86 per cent of them by floods and droughts. (WHO: Water, sanitation and hygiene links to health, 2004)
- Droughts cause the most ill-health and death because they often trigger and exacerbate malnutrition and famine, and deny access to adequate water supplies. (WHO: Water, sanitation and hygiene links to health, 2004)
- According to the UN Global Assessment Report, since 1900 more than 11 million people have died as a consequence of drought and more than 2 billion have been affected by drought, more than any other physical hazard. (4th UN World Water Development Report, 2012)
- Flooding increases the ever-present health threat from contamination of drinking-water systems from inadequate sanitation, with industrial waste and by refuse dumps. (WHO: Water, sanitation and hygiene links to health, 2004)
- Globally, the number of great inland flood catastrophes was twice as large per decade between 1996 and 2005 as between 1950 and 1980, and economic losses were five times as great. The dominant drivers of these upward trends are socioeconomic factors, such as population growth, land use change and greater use of vulnerable areas.(3rd UN World Water Development Report, 2009)
- By 2050, rising populations in flood-prone lands, climate change, deforestation, loss of wetlands and rising sea levels are expected to increase the number of people vulnerable to flood disaster to 2 billion. (4th UN World Water Development Report, 2012)
- Current IPCC projections of rising temperatures and sea levels and increased intensity of droughts and storms suggest that substantial population displacements will take place within the next 30-50 years, particularly in coastal zones. (3rd UN World Water Development Report, 2009)
- A global temperature increase of 3-4°C could cause changed run-off patterns and glacial melt will force an additional 1.8 billion people to live in a water scarce environment by 2080. (UNDP: Human Development Report, 2007/2008)
- Land degradation is increasing. Nearly 2 billion hectares of land worldwide – an area twice the size of China – are already seriously degraded, some irreversibly. Globally, desertification, land degradation and drought (DLDD) affects 1.5 billion people who depend on degrading areas, and it is closely associated with poor, marginalized and politically weak citizens. (4th UN World Water Development Report, 2012)
- A study of 141 countries found that more women than men die from natural hazards, and that this disparity is linked most strongly to women’s unequal socio-economic status. (4th UN World Water Development Report, 2012)
