How can we build climate resilience in water management?

Last year, water-related disasters such as flash floods, landslides and tropical cyclones caused over 8,700 deaths, displaced 40 million people and racked up more than 550 billion US dollars in damages. This is indicative of what we can expect for a future with an intensified global hydrological cycle. With global warming of 2-4°Celsius, the number of people facing physical water scarcity could be between three and four billion.

Water security for all is affected by climate change, which acts in concert with land use changes and important demographic and economic changes. Water demand is growing due to (urban) population increases, economic growth and associated higher demand for water-intensive products. 

The agricultural sector uses the most water, challenged by the “need to feed” and to optimise water and land use. Drivers of reduced availability at critical times and places include the deterioration of water quality by wastewater discharged into waterways without treatment, ecosystem degradation and climate change, with the increasingly variable patterns of rainfall, warming and loss of glaciers. All these ingredients of crises (as well as ways to avoid them) were summarised by the Global Commission on the Economics of Water in their comprehensive 2024 report.

Often, climate change and its cascading impacts appear to be too big to handle, beyond control. But there are solutions that can help people and governments be better prepared for water-related risks. What are those solutions? Water is a key area of Helvetas work. Below, we take a deep dive into how we and our partners are addressing current and future water security challenges.

Existing strategies to adapt and build climate resilience in water

Helvetas seeks to make people, especially those traditionally left behind, more water and food secure, and to set them on a pathway to climate and disaster resilience and sustainably managed natural resources. In our water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) and water governance work, we support public, civic and private actors in enhancing capacities needed to contribute to sustainable, resilient and equitable WASH and irrigation services, as well as to practise integrated water resources management.

Ensuring climate and disaster resilience in water management and water-related services is key for sustainable development. But how can we bring it into practice?
Three basic strategies exist to meet water needs as climate variability and the frequency of extremes rise:

1. Ensure equity in supply and efficiency in demand by seeing to it that water is supplied to all users when needed, in the amounts needed and at the quality needed, with the definition of “need” incorporating efficiency and use considerations.
2. Increase water storage, from soil to watershed, with the aim to buffer fluctuations in water availability.
3. Reduce water-related risks by avoiding damage to livelihoods, infrastructure and the environment as hydrologic systems fluctuate.

Climate change is already impacting the water sector, which is still far from having its house in order, particularly in relation to the Sustainable Development Goal 6 targets. Addressing water-related risks often requires tackling these “old” issues first — or at least simultaneously — across three interconnected levels:

• Integrated water resources management principles and water governance structures to decide on who gets what water, when and how, should be in place and work for the interests of the poorest and most vulnerable stakeholders.
• Institutions need to gather data and be risk-informed, prepared and capable of planning ahead and investing in resilient systems and resource management.
• People need to be empowered to act through information, knowledge, assets, practices and voice in decision-making on access and management.

Principles to follow for a water-secure future

To address water availability, quality and equity, principles of integrated water resources management need to be put into practice. This has proven to be a tough and slow but fundamental process that is needed as the basis for climate-resilient development.

Increasing access to climate-resilient WASH services demands strengthening the institutional, technical, organisational and financial capacities of the institutions that are responsible for service delivery, from the local to the national level.
We need to build awareness and understanding around how climate change affects water users, their water supply systems, livelihoods and the water resource management they depend on. Through this, actions can be identified and promoted at scale that make water access endure over time, bringing greater water and food security for all.

This is an abridged version of an article by Bernita Dornboos, Helvetas, Head of Water, Food, and Climate; Contact

See full text at the Helvetas website