BHUBANESWAR, India: 'Drought is on the verge of becoming the next pandemic, and there is no vaccine to cure it.'

'Drought has directly affected 1.5 billion people so far this century, and this number will grow dramatically unless the world gets better at managing this risk,' said Mami Mizutori, the United Nations Secretary-General's special representative for disaster risk reduction (UNDRR). Mizutori was speaking before the launch of the Global Assessment Report on Disaster Risk Reduction's (GAR) Special Report on Drought 2021, released on June 17.