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Internally displaced Somali woman Habiba Bile stands near the carcass of her dead livestock following severe droughts near Dollow, Gedo Region, Somalia, May 26, 2022. REUTERS/Feisal Omar

How does climate change affect water security?

Updated: March 22, 2023

Water security is eroding around the world as climate change and nature loss disrupt rainfall and melt glaciers, and as populations grow, leading to growing demand for food. But what can be done to shore up water security and prevent these problems, ranging from rising hunger and health threats to falling hydropower production and losses of economic and social stability?

Featured

Clouds are seen over the Amazon rainforest near Novo Progresso, southeast of Para state, Brazil, November 5, 2018. REUTERS/Ricardo Moraes
Climate RisksWater warning: Economic stability threatened by vanishing rainfall
A view of Nepal’s Liping market, hit by a glacial lake outburst flood in 2016 near the border with China. Photo taken December 25, 2016
Climate RisksWithout cross-border flood alerts, disaster risk grows in Nepal

Latest

Children stand by their family jerrycans as they wait for their turn to collect water at a borehole following a prolonged drought near the Kenya-Ethiopia border in Kubdishan, in Mandera region, Kenya September 1, 2022. REUTERS/Thomas Mukoya
Climate RisksWhat is water scarcity?
Kam Thon harvests river weed, or khai, in the Mekong River along the Thai-Laos border. February 6, 2023. Thomson Reuters Foundation/Rina Chandran
Just TransitionChina's Mekong dams turn Thai fishing villages into 'ghost towns'
Gunawan installing nets to protect the plant seeds on his land which had been eroded by the Bener Dam project in Guntur, Purworejo Regency, Indonesia, December 18, 2022. Thomson Reuters Foundation/Asad Asnawi.
Climate RisksIndonesia banks on dams to tackle water crisis - but at what cost?
Indus River in Ladakh which flows to Pakistan, June 3, 2018
Climate RisksCould focus on climate ease water woes between India and Pakistan?
A fisherman casts his net into the waters of Shatt al-Arab near the southern city of Basra, 420 km (260 miles) southeast of Baghdad March 15, 2011
Climate RisksDecline of the Tigris spells doom for Iraqi fishermen
Mamdouh Othman works the land where he and his brother grow corn, olives and cucumber and where a shortage of Nile water caused them to lose half their summer harvest this year, in El-Shawashna village, Egypt, August 21, 2022
Climate RisksEgypt's farmers fear rising social tensions over scarce water
A woman, Maria Juárez, fills a container with water at her house in Monterrey, Nuevo Leon, Mexico. May 15, 2022. Thomson Reuters Foundation/Diana Baptista
Climate JusticeAs taps run dry, Mexican drought fuels anger over water inequality

More In Focus

Children study in a classroom in this illustration photo. The photo shows signs of heat in schools: a melting clock and school sign, a sign reading 37 degrees and a thermometer. One child holds a notepad over his head, one drinks water, and two others study at their desk. Thomson Reuters Foundation/Mayo Akin-Oteniya
Too hot to learn? How extreme heat affects the world's schools

Updated: August 11, 2025

A woman drinks water from a mug on a hot summer day in New Delhi, India June 9, 2023
What risks do we face because of rising heat?

Updated: July 25, 2025

A demonstrator holds a sign at a Rise Up for Trans Youth! event in New York City, U.S., February 8, 2025. REUTERS/Christian Monterrosa
Pride in backlash? LGBTQ+ rights at a crossroads

Updated: June 06, 2025

Rohingya children eat from jars with the USAID logo on them, at a refugee camp in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh, February 11, 2025. REUTERS/Ro Yassin Abdumonab
USAID freeze: Millions in need and global aid system in turmoil

Updated: April 28, 2025