The WMF also called for immediate action to combatwater infiltration and structural deterioration at the cathedral church of St Michael in Coventry, England.
To try to combat the problem, the agency has twice released better-oxygenated water from Kielder Reservoir into the river in an effort to help salmon move out of the estuary and into the freshwater section of the river.
But Zafar Adeel of the United Nations University International Network on Water, Environment and Health, an expert on water management and a leading author of the report, warned that more needed to be done to combat desertification.