As climate change accelerates a global water crisis, rainfall variability is expected to be one of the contributing forces in future migration, according to a new World Bank report. It reveals that it is a lack of water, rather than too much, that has a greater impact on migration.

The report, Ebb and Flow, examines the link between water and migration, and the implications for economic development. Researchers say that water deficits were linked to ten percent of the increase in total migration within countries between 1970 and 2000. By the end of this century, worsening droughts are projected to affect about 700 million people. Seventeen countries that are home to 25 percent of the world population already face high levels of water stress. 

Climate shocks have a disproportionate impact on the developing world, with more than 85 percent of people affected living in low- or middle-income countries. Yet, say the report authors, it is often the poor who cannot afford to leave. The report finds that residents of poor countries are four times less likely to move than residents of […]