GCCA the Hidden Crisis Reduced
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WATER The hidden climate crisis Martin Atkin “An approach to climate change that recognizes the importance of water can combat both the causes and impacts of climate change.” - UN Climate Change WATER: THE HIDDEN CLIMATE CRISIS Water is one of nature’s great paradoxes. Society Network on Water and Sanitation Essential for life on earth, we suffer if there’s (ANEW) told a recent online conference on not enough and we suffer if there’s too much. accelerating action on water and climate at Climate change is increasingly upsetting this COP26. “These women and girls, and their delicate balance. More and more people face daughters’ daughters, will be locked into a life water insecurity both from extreme drought of ill-health, violence and poverty if we fail to and extreme flooding. address the water crisis.” The data is alarming. Half the world’s Covid-19 has highlighted the gross population live in water-scarce areas. By inequalities of water scarcity. “It’s shocking 2025, two-thirds may face water shortages. that right now, forty percent of the global More than two billion people have no safe, population does not have enough water to do clean, easily accessible water supply. 800 adequate hand washing,” says Betsy Otto, million people - most of them women and Director of the Global Water Program at the girls - have to walk more than a kilometre World Resources Institute (WRI). According from their homes to fetch water. Global water to the International Food Policy Research demand has been rising by one percent a year Institute (IFPRI), “In many communities since the 1980s. around the world, a lack of water supply and sanitation deprives people of their most basic “Sixty-three percent of Africa’s population do protections against the spread of the virus.” not have access to basic water services and cannot protect themselves from Covid-19; women and girls spend 200 million hours a 800 million people - most of them day collecting water,” Sareen Malik, Executive Secretary of the African Civil women and girls - have to walk more than a kilometre from their homes to fetch water. “The reality is that we are not living within our ecological limits when it comes to fresh water.” - Betsy Otto, WRI Even before the impacts of climate change Behind the global water crisis is a triple- drives conflicts in, for example, Africa’s Sahel and the pandemic, fresh water was a scarce whammy of drought, floods and pollution. region, Yemen, Syria and India, to name just a commodity, representing just three percent of “First, there’s water scarcity and overuse of few. all the water on the planet. Of that, less than a water in relation to available supply. When third is available as surface or groundwater - droughts hit, that chronic condition becomes The World Economic Forum ranks the water the rest is in the form of snow and ice and acute. Secondly, there’s too much water - crisis in the top five global risks, noting that may not be readily available. “The water we’re seeing a documented increase in the “In 2017 alone, water was a major factor in crisis doesn’t get the same level of attention as frequency and intensity of storms, causing conflict in at least 45 countries…water-related climate change, the pandemic or global more flooding. And finally, we are polluting a insecurity can easily exacerbate tensions and economic disruption,” says Otto. lot of the fresh water that we do have, making friction within and between countries.” it unusable. The only real way to get a handle on these extremes of drought and flooding is As with so many climate change impacts, it’s “It’s a hidden crisis, to get a handle on climate change - we have to frequently smallholders and subsistence we don’t always think avoid the unmanageable and manage the farmers in developing countries who are hit about where our water unavoidable. “We’re facing a future more dire hardest. Seventy percent of global water comes from and how than I want to contemplate on many levels, demand is for agriculture, much of it wasted much we use. But the water being one of them.” on outdated irrigation techniques and thirsty reality is that we are crops. “We need to be clear about which crops not living within our As if that wasn’t enough, growing demand for we should growing where,” says Otto. “For ecological limits water exacerbates existing tensions between example, as important as crops like cotton and when it comes to ethnic groups, rural and urban communities, sugar might be for foreign trade, they use a lot fresh water.” and between people and governments. of water and may not make sense where water According to the World Water Conflict is in short supply.” - Betsy Otto Chronology, clashes over water have risen significantly since the 1990s. Water shortage A student at Angkor Chey High School, Cambodia, washes his hands with water piped in as part of an Acknowledging the increasingly urgent need to fix the global water crisis, the EU Global EU-funded project. Climate Change Alliance (GCCA+) has, since 2007, been helping some of the most climate vulnerable communities around the world to become more water secure. From solar-powered water pumps in Chad to nature-based farming in Timor Leste, from renovating wells in Niger to installing rainwater tanks on Pacific islands, hundreds of thousands of people now enjoy access to cleaner, safer water. In Cambodia, for example, staff and students at Angkor Chey High School in Kampot province can now enjoy running water thanks to the EU-funded Mainstreaming Climate Change in Education (MCCE) project. “We have installed a system to bring water into the school,” says Principal Top Thyda. “For the first time, we have water for toilets and hand- washing.” SEARCHING FOR SWEET WATER IN BANGLADESH “I was heavily pregnant and my feet were In the past, the residents of Manikkhali drew swollen, but I still had to walk a long way fresh water from the natural ponds every day carrying heavy containers of surrounding their village, but in recent years water,” recalls Mossamad Hanufa Begum the impacts of climate change have made it with a sigh. “My husband was at work all day, unfit to drink. Rivers dry up in the hot season, there was no-one else available to fetch water, while saline water intrusion has contaminated and the water in the ponds near our house was canals, ponds and crop fields. The problem is unusable.” particularly acute for women, who are traditionally responsible for keeping the Life is hard in Manikkhali, a small village in family home supplied with fresh water. A the the low-lying Barguna district of southern World Bank study links health problems Bangladesh. Home to the Sundarbans - one of during pregnancy and early childhood to the largest mangrove forests in the world - and drinking water contaminated by salt. bordered by the rivers and the sea of the Ganges delta, the region is highly vulnerable Now, however, the lives of villagers like to sea level rise, salt water contamination, Hanufa have been made easier thanks to new tropical storms and flooding. About 20 million EU-funded rainwater harvesting systems people in the coastal areas of Bangladesh are installed by the Local Climate Adaptive already affected by salinity in soils and Living facility (LoCAL), part of an €8 million drinking water, and around 70 percent of EU GCCA+ programme to help Bangladesh people in the region depend on pond water for cope with the worst impacts of climate drinking and domestic use because the ground change. water is too salty. Young women in Bangladesh queueing at a rainwater tank. Disease wasn’t the only risk. According Her friend Mossamad Rekha Begum “The parishads [local assemblies] have to UNICEF, women and girls faced agrees. “I had to wait for my husband to seen the positive affects of rainwater sexual harassment as they made the long fetch the water because it was difficult harvesting, and have now include trek to and from the nearest supply of for me to carry large amounts from far climate change in their planning and clean water. So far, 30 rainwater away. It was time consuming. We had to financing. The community has united to harvesting systems, each with a capacity get up very early to fetch the water make decisions and also to help of 1,000 litres of water, have been before he went to work. Now the maintain the plant.” installed in Manikkhali alone. Costing problem is solved." just €20 per household, more than 450 Local ownership of the scheme is key to poor families now have access to The rainwater harvesting project has the success of the project. “The scheme drinking water for the next ten to fifteen had other positive spin-offs. Villagers is maintained by a designated committee years. who were previously unaware of climate and the household members,” says Md. change and its impacts are now involved Farid Mia, Chair of the local union “We no longer have to carry in managing the scheme and exploring [council]. “The community and local contaminated water from far-flung other ways to become climate resilient. government take responsibility to clean, ponds,” says Mossamad Rina Begum, maintain, and repair any parts that are who also lives in Manikkhali village. damaged at their expense.” “Before, we had to be really careful to “This rainwater harvesting plant was a ration our water intake - and that left us real eye-opener!” says Hanufa. “The dehydrated and unwell. Now we don’t local authorities and communities are have to worry about that at all.” much more aware about the human impact of climate change, and how local solutions can build climate change resilience.