Pressured by overconsumption and climate change, water shortages are 'trending to become widespread', posing 'imminent risk' of a global water crisis, warns UN report released Tuesday, the eve of World Water Day.
Some two billion people are deprived of access to drinking water and 3.6 billion do not have access to safely managed sanitation services, underlines the report of UN-Water and UNESCO , a few hours before the opening of a rare UN conference on water in New York.
In France, drought is hitting the territory hard. Here is a selection of images.
The Agly River in the Pyrénées-Orientales has been dry for over two months. This is a record level of drought since 1959 in the department.
The shore of Lake Serre-Ponçon, in the Hautes-Alpes, an artificial lake widely used for the production of electricity, is striking for its lack of water.
In Savoie, here in Arêches-Beaufort, skiers have to carry their skis in the face of the lack of snow. The ground is scorched by the drought that is also hitting the Alps.
In Clonas-sur-Varèze, in Isère, the fields are burned as in the middle of summer. The water tables are already too low in the department.
The shore of the Loire, near Rosiers-sur-Loire, looks like an American desert.
The Vinca dam lake, in the Pyrénées-Orientales. Walkers can hike where they normally could not in the dead of winter.
This photograph shows part of the dry lake of Montbel, in the south-west of France.
