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UN Geneva Press Briefing - 10 September 2024
UN GENEVA PRESS BRIEFING
10 September 2024
Alessandra Vellucci, Director of the United Nations Information Service in Geneva, chaired a hybrid briefing, which was attended by the spokespersons of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, the Economic Commission for Europe, the World Health Organization, the International Labour Organization, and the United Nations Trade and Development.
Floods in Chad
Jens Laerke, for the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), informed that the number of people affected by torrential rains and severe floods across Chad had skyrocketed to nearly 1.5 million people. At least 340 people had been killed in the floods, according to the Chadian authorities. Tens of thousands of houses had been destroyed; more than 250,000 hectares of crops were flooded; and more than 60,000 heads of livestock had perished thus far. With farmland flooded and livestock drowned, there would be a lot less food available now and in the future in a country where 3.4 million people already faced acute hunger - the highest level of food insecurity ever recorded in Chad, a country of 19 million people.
UN agencies and NGO partners were supporting the Chadian authorities’ and responding with food and nutrition supplies, vaccinating children, surveilling water-borne diseases, building shelters and delivering tents, tarpaulins, and blankets. OCHA was supporting the coordination of this response and making sure data was collected and shared with responders, so they had the facts that they need to focus the relief effort. OCHA had also immediately raised a previous allocation from the UN’s emergency fund from USD 5 million to USD 8 million to support the response. Given the scope and scale of the disaster, more financial support would be needed: the Government’s own flood response plan, asking for nearly USD 100 million, was just 10 per cent funded. The UN-coordinated annual Humanitarian Response Plan, which required USD 1.1 billion, was 35 per cent funded, concluded Mr. Laerke.
Thomas Croll-Knight, for the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE), said that the floods in Chad were yet another example of water related disasters, which, exacerbated by climate change, were becoming increasingly frequent and intense.
In shared basins, working together across borders was fundamental to addressing these risks in the long term. Reinforcing transboundary cooperation helped countries to jointly develop and implement climate change adaptation strategies, which were key to reduce risks linked to flooding, drought, and other climate related events, which cost African countries between 2 percent and 9 percent of their GDP. The United Nations Water Convention supported this cooperation between countries, and Chad had been the first African country to join the UN Water Convention in 2018, which had since then been supporting the country to strengthen its water management at national level and across borders.
Zambia joins UN Water Convention
Thomas Croll-Knight, for the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE), informed that Zambia was the 55th country, and 12th from Africa, to join the Convention on the Protection and Use of Transboundary Watercourses and International Lakes (UN Water Convention). Zambia followed closely the accessions of Cote D’Ivoire and Zimbabwe in July, which further consolidated the strong momentum for water cooperation in Africa, where more than 90 percent of freshwater rivers, lakes and aquifers were shared by two or more countries. Over one third of all 153 countries that shared water with their neighbours were today parties to the UN Water Convention.
Zambia’s accession came ahead of the key global meeting on water cooperation, the 10th session of the Meeting of the Parties to the Water Convention, to be held in Ljubljana, Slovenia (23-25 October), which was expected to further catalyse the momentum for accession to the Convention across the world. The Convention required Parties to prevent, control and reduce negative impacts on water quality and quantity across borders, to use shared waters in a reasonable and equitable way, and to ensure their sustainable management through cooperation. Parties bordering the same transboundary waters are obliged to cooperate by concluding specific agreements and establishing joint bodies. The Convention had already been supporting Zambia to do just that said Mr. Croll-Knight.
UNECE’s press release is available here.
Situation in Gaza
Responding to questions, Jens Laerke, for the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), said that UNRWA had issued a statement related to an incident in Gaza the previous night, in which the Israeli Army had stopped a UN convoy on its way to northern Gaza for more than eight hours despite prior detailed coordination.
Also answering questions, Tarik Jašarević, for the World Health Organization (WHO), explained that the third phase of the polio vaccination campaign, in the north of Gaza, had started today. The previous day, a WHO mission carrying fuel for hospitals and vehicles for the polio campaign as well as campaign monitoring experts had been impeded. It had taken three hours for the mission to get greenlight to move followed by five hours at the holding point, after which the mission had to be aborted. WHO was trying to reach the north again today with fuel and for the medical evacuation of eight patients to the south. Over the previous week, the WHO had not been able to reach Al-Shifa in four consecutive days, with its requests being denied. There was no functioning deconfliction mechanism in place, he explained, which led to numerous missions being aborted. There was a lack of fuel in the north of Gaza; in the Indonesian hospital, for example, because of the lack of fuel, they had to stop certain services. Once again today, the WHO would try to bring fuel to Al-Shifa, said Mr. Jašarević, stressing the necessity of unrestricted, safe access. The number of denied access requests had doubled compared to previous months. WHO insisted that humanitarian pauses needed to be respected for the remainder of the polio vaccination campaign. Some 446,000 children had been vaccinated in the first two phases, which meant that some 200,000 more children, in the north of Gaza, remained to be vaccinated in the coming days. The second round of vaccination would then need to be conducted in four weeks.
Mr. Laerke, for OCHA, specified that in the month of August, there had been a total of 208 attempts to move convoys to the north of Gaza. Of those, 44 had been impeded (blocked or delayed on the ground), 72 had been flatly denied, and 18 had been withdrawn for logistical, security, or operational reasons.
Announcements
Catherine Huissoud, for the United Nations Trade and Development (UNCTAD), informed that on 12 September at 2:30 pm, UNCTAD would launch of its "Developments in the Economy of the Occupied Palestinian Territory" report. Speakers would be Pedro Manuel Moreno, UN Trade and Development Deputy Secretary-General, Mutasim Elagraa, UNCTAD Coordinator for Assistance to the Palestinian People, and Rami Alazzeh, Economist at UNCTAD. Data used in the report were from up to the end of June 2024.
Zeina Awad, for the International Labour Organization (ILO), informed that on 12 September at 10:30 am, the ILO would present its World Social Protection Report 2024-26: Universal social protection for climate action and a just transition. The report would include fresh data and analysis, including from the most vulnerable countries in the world. Speakers would be Mia Seppo, ILO Assistant Director-General, and Shahra Razavi, Director of the ILO’s Universal Social Protection Department. The executive summary of the report in several languages, link to the full report in English, and the press release would be shared today, all under embargo until 12 September at 11:30 am.
Alessandra Vellucci, for the United Nations Information Service (UNIS), informed that, ahead of the Summit of the Future, on 11 September, at 4:30 pm. Geneva time, there would be a hybrid press briefing with Guy Ryder, UN Under Secretary-General for Policy and lead for the Summit of the Future. Connection details had been shared with the journalists.
The Committee on the Rights of the Child would conclude on 13 September at 5 pm its 97th session and issue its concluding observations on the six countries reviewed during this session: Bahrain, Turkmenistan, Mexico, Argentina, Israel, and Armenia.
The Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights was concluding this morning its review of the report of Iceland. This afternoon, it would begin consideration of the report of Poland.
The Conference on Disarmament was holding this morning a plenary public meeting. The Conference would officially close its annual session on 13 September and adopt its annual report.
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As world’s water reserves change, countries must prepare for a new reality: WMO
New data showing that rivers were at their lowest level for decades last year provides further evidence that the climate crisis is real and countries must act immediately to protect themselves from the increasing threat to communities and livelihoods, the UN World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said on Thursday.
The key findings from WMO’s State of Global Water Resources 2025 report covering the hydrological cycle and extreme events in the five-year period to last year:
- 2025 was one of driest years for river discharge in 35 years
- Past seven years have seen abnorfmal river flows
- Water storage on Earth’s land surface has decreased in past decade
- Widespread glacier loss across all regions for fourth consecutive year
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Highlighting the long-term decline in the Earth’s freshwater storage and glacier melt, WMO Secretary-General Celeste Saulo explained that the planet’s water reserves used to act as a planetary “savings account” that absorbed the occasional dry season, avoiding a water crisis. “One of the central stories of the 2025 report is what is happening to that savings account? And the simple answer is that we are depleting it,” she told journalists in Geneva.
Groundwater reserves are equally stretched and have been in decline since 2014, WMO’s report states, with nearly two-thirds of monitored wells worldwide showing levels lower than the historical norm and indicating a shift “further toward deficit…not recovery”.
“At the same time, we are seeing more water-related disasters,” Ms. Saulo said, while also stressing that the currently strengthening El Niño “will increase the risk of drought in some areas, and flooding in others”.
Glaciers disappearing
In 2025, for the fourth consecutive year, every major glaciated region on Earth lost ice mass, leading to short-term hazards including floods and long-term water insecurity, according to WMO.
Responding to a question about whether the changing global water cycle might have contributed to the deadly Nepal-China flooding disaster, Ms. Saulo explained that melting ice and rock was just one factor in the chain of events that ultimately sent a massive and deadly wall of water and debris downstream on 26 August, killing at least 1,367 people.
“You asked if it could happen again? Absolutely; the problem in this region is that there’s 63,700 glaciers at the last count,” she told a Press Conference in Geneva. “Even if you’re looking with remote sensing with satellites at these glaciers, you might see some faults, you might see some slight shifting, that does not mean necessarily catastrophic collapse. So, in order to plan for this, it’s very, very difficult. But the international community is looking very hard at ways in which we can bring people together to solve some of these monitoring issues.”
Data indicates that glaciers shrank between 2023 and 2025 with cumulative losses of 1,400 gigatonnes of water – or about one third of annual fresh water needs.
Every major glacier region on Earth lost ice for the fourth consecutive year.
“All 19 glacier regions around the globe lost ice; in Central Asia, Iceland, the Russian Arctic and western Canada and the United States, it was among the three worst years on record,” said Wayne Jenkinson, WMO’s Director of Hydrology and Cryosphere.
Some regions with smaller glaciers such as Central Europe, the Caucasus, the western Canada and the United States may already have reached “peak water”, Mr. Jenkinson warned.
“After this point, the glacier gives less meltwater each year simply because there is less ice left to melt. That matters for every community downstream that relies on water during hot, dry summers,” he explained.
Narelle van der Wel, WMO’s Head of Cryosphere Monitoring, Predictions and Services, stressed that while some further glacier loss is unavoidable, the eventual scale of the decline is not predetermined.
“Some glacier loss is inevitable, but total loss of glaciers is not yet inevitable,” she said, pointing to emissions reductions as central to limiting future losses.
Preparing for moving baselines
The report does not attribute every observed change to climate change alone. WMO says pressure on water resources and natural variability also contribute.
Mr. Jenkinson said governments need to prepare for “moving baselines” as historical patterns become less reliable.
“The situation 30 years ago is not where we are today,” he said. Countries, he added, need to prepare “for those changes that have really already arrived”.
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