The global damage from drought in many countries in January-June amounted to at least $13.2 billion, Report informs referring to Nikkei.
According to experts, the countries of the European Union are now hit by the worst drought in the last 500 years. It also rages in the US, Pakistan and China. In China, due to the shallowing of rivers, electricity production at a number of hydroelectric power plants fell by almost 40%, the newspaper claims. In the province of Sichuan, the assembly plant of Toyota Motor Corporation was temporarily stopped.
Earlier in June, experts from Japan’s National Institute for Environmental Studies and the University of Tokyo published a report arguing that by the middle of this century, summer drought will not be the exception, but the norm for many areas, including the Mediterranean coast and many parts of South America.