Water is crucial to life, and climate change challenges sustainable water sources and supply.
The World Water Council team discusses this in their paper, “Water Infrastructure for Climate Adaptation, The Opportunity to Scale-Up Funding and Financing.”
Sectors and organisations believe that protecting and building resilience to water infrastructure and making them adaptable to climate change need funding and financing. Both the built and nature-based systems require financial capital.
The paper discusses how funding and financing can be achieved through initiatives like the Green Climate Fund and China’s Belt and Road Initiative.
It also mentions other funding and financing mechanisms that fund water infrastructure projects, especially in developing countries that require it the most.
The report defines “Water Infrastructure for Climate Adaptation (WI4A)” as the “new term to help bound and foreground a necessary discourse on scaling up action in water infrastructure to support climate adaptation.”
These are investments in building new water infrastructure or upgrading existing ones to be more adaptable and resilient to climate change.
Climate change will impact the water supply, and we know that countries with less resilient water infrastructure and resources will suffer the most.
According to the report, the world is not on track to ensure a sustainable water supply for everyone. Billions of people still lack safe and clean drinking water while pollution rises and water demands stress water resources.
Furthermore, the report says that investing in water infrastructure is critical to adapting to climate change.
Management structures and policies should be in place to meet the changing demands, rise in uncertainty, changes in the seasonal characteristics and amounts of precipitation and evaporation, and increased frequency and intensity of natural hazards.
It’s interesting to read the WI4A’s discussion on the various funding and financing options, the opportunity to integrate water infrastructure agendas into existing climate initiatives, and funding institutions helping countries, particularly developing ones, to have a resilient and adaptable infrastructure in place.
Click on the image below to read the full report:
