Wettest place on Earth - 31 January 2020

Meghalaya, the Northeast Indian state home to two of the wettest places on Earth, includes the village of Mawsynram, officially the rainiest place on the planet. Staggeringly, it receives almost 12 metres of rainfall annually.

Yet despite playing host to such unmatched downpours, Mawsynram’s record doesn’t translate into a plentiful water supply for its villagers. Erratic weather patterns caused by climate change have produced both floods and drought within a single 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."

In a bid to mitigate these threats, villagers carefully practise water collection and storage. Meanwhile, authorities are attempting to engage locals in reservoir construction and maintenance, aiming to foster more responsible water usage through such measures.

However, deforestation is exacerbating climate change in Mawsynram, which has been evidenced by reduced monsoon rain and higher temperatures in recent years.

In a situation echoed across much of India, extremely high water stress endangers both national development and the health of hundreds of millions of people, according to a World Resources Institute report.