The water vs climate change paradox

Most of the effects of climate change are felt through water. Disruptive and unpredictable weather patterns cause more droughts and floods, rising sea levels, and environmental contamination. As a result, farmers’ abilities to save their crops, access to clean drinking water, and community protection from extreme weather events are all under stress. We cannot address climate change without considering its effects on water.

To ensure that communities are resilient to water scarcity, managers at all levels – from the city to the transboundary river basin – must develop integrated water and climate policies, while leveraging data and informed decision-making. Yet, many stakeholders cannot provide effective and sustainable solutions due to a lack of data on current and future resource availability, drinking water supply, and food and energy demand. According to the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), sixty percent of all countries report declining hydrological monitoring capabilities, and more than half do not have quality water data management systems. A widening information gap makes it more difficult to maximize the use and reuse of water resources.

The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) supports countries in Latin America and the Caribbean to combat this trend. In Chile, the IDB promotes scientific research and participatory bottom-up pilots to determine the robustness of potential adaptation paths under different climate, environmental, and societal uncertainties. These initiatives define and prioritize robust local Action Strategies (AS) against high uncertainty scenarios. Read more…