Every year on June 17, the world celebrates the World Day to Combat Desertification and Drought. But this year, this date is especially worrying for Ukraine: the country, which until recently was the “breadbasket of Europe,” risks losing fertile soil and running out of water.
Ukraine is among the leaders in rising temperatures
According to WWF-Ukraine, the situation is rapidly deteriorating due to a combination of climate change, war, and chronic depletion of natural resources.
According to the Ukrainian Hydrometeorological Center, over the past 30 years, the air temperature in Ukraine has increased by 1.2°C. This is one of the fastest warming rates in the world. In some regions of the country, heating over the past decade has reached 0.82°C, which significantly exceeds even the average European indicators.
2024 has become the warmest year in the history of meteorological observations — not only for Ukraine, but also for the whole world.
Record water shortage
At the same time, Ukraine is facing a critical shortage of water resources. In terms of water volume per capita, we are among the leaders of the anti-rating in Europe – only 1,000 cubic meters of local runoff per person per year. For comparison: in Canada – 94.3 thousand cubic meters, in the USA – 7.4 thousand.
“The main reason for this is global warming, exacerbated by greenhouse gas emissions,” explains the head of the “Water” department of WWF-Ukraine Oksana Konovalenko.
Droughts destroy crops and rivers
The southern regions – Odesa, Kherson, Mykolaiv and Zaporizhia regions – remain the most vulnerable. Here, droughts have already destroyed tens of thousands of hectares of crops. However, the problem is gradually spreading to the central and northern regions, where it was almost never observed before.
Due to changes in the distribution of precipitation, summer rains are turning into short showers that do not have time to replenish water reserves. Soils are drying up, rivers are becoming shallower, and the heat lasts for weeks.
What WWF-Ukraine is proposing: A rescue plan
To stop the catastrophe, WWF-Ukraine has proposed a Drought Management Plan. Among the key measures are:
early detection of droughts for rapid response by farmers and authorities;
restoration of floodplains and wetlands to accumulate moisture;
collection and reuse of “grey” water in the farm;
reuse of water for irrigation and industrial needs.
Although such plans have not yet been legally approved, WWF has already prepared the first projects for the Tisza, Prut, and Siret river basins. They could become the basis for an all-Ukrainian drought protection strategy.
