Climate Change and Water Security

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Climate Change and Water Security
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The Global Water Crisis
The water crisis is here and present and affects
over a billion people The key driver is not a
scarcity of supply but an unequal distribution of
resources
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Climate Change and Water Resources

• Climate change threatens to alter established
  weather patterns and is set to accelerate.
• It is predicted to have the following affects on
  water resources
• Stresses
• regional rainfall patterns change (ie areas
  become drier, or wetter, on average)
• precipitation falls as rain at higher altitudes,
  glacial melt
• Shocks
• extreme events become more likely, for example
  droughts and floods- flooding has huge impact on
  sanitation facilities
• salinisation of groundwater / surface water due
  to sea level rise
• Source Stern Review Economics of Climate Change

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Impact on Water Security
Uncertainty of magnitude, location and timing of
effects increases unpredictability re security of
water supplies.

Water security access to water of sufficient
quantity and quality.
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Vulnerable and marginalised worst affected
Women, children, the elderly, disabled and those
living with HIV/AIDS are already badly affected
by a lack of access to sufficient quantities of
safe water.

Climate change threatens to exacerbate this
situation.
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Vulnerable and marginalised worst affected
Women, children, the elderly, disabled and those
living with HIV/AIDS are already badly affected
by a lack of access to sufficient quantities of
safe water.

Climate change threatens to exacerbate this
situation.
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Millennium Development Goals and Sustainability

Governments and agencies working on meeting the
Millennium Development Goal on water supply are
focused on coverage.
Local governments unaware of need to factor in
climate change while planning programmes need
for technical and financial resources.
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Adaptation and coping strategies
WaterAid focusing on helping communities mitigate
threats to water security as part of commitment
to promoting effective water resource management.

• Augmentation of existing supplies
• Mitigating contamination
• Pushing for regulation of uncontrolled
  abstraction
• Promoting the protection of water sources from
  pollution
• Stepping up data collection to boost
  understanding and facilitate decision making

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Augmentation of existing supplies
Rainwater harvesting in Uganda

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Watershed development
India land terracing and construction of water
retention structures


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Thank you www.wateraid.org