Cape Town, South Africa has been in the news a lot lately. The region has suffered a devastating three-year drought, and the city’s reservoirs are close to running out of water. The city has so far avoided reaching “Day Zero,” when it would turn off taps and start rationing water for citizens, but the threat still looms.

What hasn’t received as much attention is the fact that reservoirs are shrinking in other parts of the world – such as in Morocco, India, Iraq and Spain.

Reservoir levels can fall for a number of reasons, including drought, water mismanagement, upstream land use and more. This lack of water can create ripple effects throughout society – from rising food prices to unemployment to political insecurity.

It’s hard to predict exactly what these effects will be, but there are certain indicators we can examine to get a sense of a country’s vulnerability. Here, we use WRI’s new Resource Watch platform to look at four shrinking reservoirs and the political, social and environmental dynamics that surround them.

To read more visit:  https://news.iwlearn.net/its-not-just-cape-town-4-shrinking-reservoirs-to-watch