Changing Climate Threatening Development

MEXICO CITY - Droughts, floods, changing rain patterns and rising sea levels are threatening development in the world's poorest countries, experts and aid workers said Monday at an international water forum.

Regions including Africa and South Asia — home to most of the 1.1 billion people who live without clean water — will be among the hardest hit by changing weather patterns, experts at the 4th World Water Forum said. They blamed the threats largely on changes in the global climate.

"Droughts will worsen. We will see deforestation, forest fires, a loss of biodiversity and degradation of the environment," said Michel Jarraud, secretary-general of the