Wettest place on Earth - 31 January 2020

The state of Meghalaya in Northeast India is home to two of the wettest places on earth. The village of Mawsynram is officially the wettest. It has almost 12 metres of rain each year. But that doesn’t mean that the people of the village have more water than they need.

Climate change is making the weather unpredictable. It’s bringing floods and drought, sometimes in the same area.

Iaraphunlin Diengdoh is a local state government official: "Whatever rainfall that we receive throughout the year, but then it just flows off. We cannot tap them. We cannot even harness those waters. We don't have that proper system of harnessing the rain."

Villagers here collect and store water to try and limit the problems. The authorities want to include local people in building and repairing reservoirs, which it hopes will encourage the community to use water more responsibly.

Climate change also affects Mawsynram due to deforestation, less monsoon rain, and the hotter sun.

The situation is similar across India. A report has been written by the World Resources Institute, which warns India is facing extremely high water stress. This is putting national development and the health of hundreds of millions of people at risk.