{"id":29267,"date":"2026-03-14T06:30:00","date_gmt":"2026-03-14T11:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ecoticias.com\/en\/?p=29267"},"modified":"2026-03-14T05:53:41","modified_gmt":"2026-03-14T10:53:41","slug":"goodbye-to-water-as-we-know-it-a-study-warns-that-74-of-regions-could-experience-unprecedented-shortages-by-2100","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ecoticias.com\/en\/goodbye-to-water-as-we-know-it-a-study-warns-that-74-of-regions-could-experience-unprecedented-shortages-by-2100\/29267\/","title":{"rendered":"Goodbye to water as we know it: a study warns that 74% of regions could experience unprecedented shortages by 2100"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Scientists are warning that the world\u2019s first wave of \u201cDay Zero Drought\u201d crises is no longer a distant scenario but a present and growing risk for this century. A new study finds that many regions, including the Mediterranean region, Southern Africa and parts of North America, could face unprecedented water scarcity<\/a> as early as the 2020s and 2030s, driven by human-caused climate change and rising water demand<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is a Day Zero Drought and why is it spreading?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

If \u201cDay Zero\u201d sounds familiar, it is because the term first entered the headlines when Cape Town<\/a> nearly had to turn off household taps during a multi-year drought. In the new work, researchers take that type of crisis global. They define \u201cDay Zero Drought\u201d as a compound event where several things go wrong at once over several years: reduced rainfall, falling river flows, booming water use and reservoirs that drain faster than they can refill. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In simple terms, it is when a region\u2019s total demand outstrips its total sustainable supply.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
\n
\n

Read More: Japan launches a wooden box into space as a \u201cstrange but brilliant solution\u201d to an increasingly serious problem, orbital debris, and proposes an idea that seems like science fiction, but seeks to prevent the future of space from becoming an unmanageable landfill<\/a><\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

To understand when this kind of crisis first becomes unavoidable in different places, the team ran one hundred climate simulations<\/a> under a high-emissions pathway. They calculated the \u201cTime of First Emergence\u201d for Day Zero Drought in each grid cell on the planet. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

By their estimates, about three quarters of drought-prone land areas will face unprecedented, drought-driven water scarcity<\/a> by 2100, and roughly one third of those areas could see their first event between 2020 and 2030. In about 14 percent of reservoirs in the global GRanD database<\/a>, the modeled droughts are severe and long enough to empty storage during that first Day Zero decade.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why are the Mediterranean, Southern Africa and the US at higher risk?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The bad news does not stop at the first crisis. The study finds that in many hotspots, especially the Mediterranean, southern Africa and western United States, Day Zero Droughts tend to last for years while the gap before the next one is often shorter than the drought itself. In some regions, more than half of future events have this pattern, leaving very little recovery time for aquifers, reservoirs, ecosystems and economies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
\n
\n

Read More: The archaeological discovery of the century: an Atlantis-like city discovered at the bottom of a lake<\/a><\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

For people, the numbers are sobering. The authors estimate that more than 753 million people, nearly 9 percent of today\u2019s global population, could be living in areas that experience their first Day Zero Drought, with city dwellers hit harder than rural communities. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Urban exposure peaks around a global warming level of about 1.5 degrees Celsius<\/a>, when roughly 488 million people are projected to be in newly affected zones. That includes large populations in the Mediterranean and rapidly growing regions of India, China and Australia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What can governments and communities do to avoid Day Zero?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

So what does this mean for the water that comes out of your kitchen faucet<\/a> or for the next summer\u2019s electric bill? When droughts last longer than the time needed to refill reservoirs, traditional \u201cwait for the next wet year\u201d strategies break down. The authors argue that societies need more proactive water planning, not just emergency restrictions. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
\n
\n

Read More: A four-month trial involving 208 men revealed that a daily capsule containing broccoli, turmeric, blueberries, and live bacteria could slow down worrying signs in the prostate<\/a><\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

That includes cutting waste across agriculture, industry and households, rethinking how reservoirs are operated, and investing in diversified supplies<\/a> such as desalination, rainwater harvesting and wastewater recycling, alongside better governance and community-driven conservation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the end of the day, the study suggests that keeping global warming as close as possible to 1.5 degrees, while curbing unsustainable water use, will go a long way toward avoiding the harshest Day Zero futures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The study was published in Nature Communications<\/a><\/em>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Scientists are warning that the world\u2019s first wave of \u201cDay Zero Drought\u201d crises is no longer a distant scenario but … <\/p>\n

Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":29268,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-29267","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-environment","resize-featured-image"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ecoticias.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29267","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ecoticias.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ecoticias.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ecoticias.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ecoticias.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29267"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.ecoticias.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29267\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29276,"href":"https:\/\/www.ecoticias.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29267\/revisions\/29276"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ecoticias.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29268"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ecoticias.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29267"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ecoticias.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29267"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ecoticias.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29267"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}