Climate change has hit the world’s oceans hard, UN weather experts said on Monday, in a call for lifesaving monitoring and early warning services that were interrupted by COVID-19 to be ramped up again, to protect shipping and coastal communities at risk.

The UN is marking World Water Day on Monday with a global conversation on how people value the lifegiving resource in different parts of the world.

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) is leading three Green Climate Fund (GCF) projects in these countries to increase water use efficiency in food production and to boost rural communities’ access to water resources.

Globally, over 3 billion people are at risk of disease because the water quality of their rivers, lakes and groundwater is unknown, due to a lack of data.

When ride hailing company Bolt set out to design its own shared scooter, part of a push into lightweight urban transit, engineers had one overarching goal: make it eco-friendly.

Access to water is not just about “liquid in a bottle” but instead touches on universal issues such as dignity, opportunity and equality, the UN General Assembly President said on Thursday.

The UN weather agency on Thursday cautioned that the current onset of warmer temperatures in the northern hemisphere should not be used as a trigger to relax measures to halt the spread of coronavirus.

Over the analyzed period, Asia was the most hard-hit region, with overall economic losses adding up to a staggering $49 billion, followed by Africa at $30 billion, and Latin America and Caribbean at $29 billion.

The Janssen COVID-19 vaccine was publicly approved for international use on Wednesday by UN health agency expert advisory board, SAGE.

Severe disruptions in health services due to the COVID-19 pandemic may have resulted in an additional 239,000 child and maternal deaths in South Asia last year, United Nations agencies said on Wednesday.