Water: the most precious and most endangered resource Earth has to offer. It was at the center of an event titled “Shocks and Stressors: Water’s Essential Role in Addressing Climate Change and Disaster Risk,” a discussion led by water-related climate experts from around the world. This panel emphasized the importance of an interdisciplinary approach to water issues, arguing that water resource management, disaster risk reduction (DRR), and climate change adaptation (CCA) should not be viewed separately, but rather as inextricable from one another.
Since 1990, over 90% of natural disasters have been water-related, according to Dr. Anil Mishra of UNESCO’s International Hydrological Programme. Specifically, floods have made up 47% of all weather-related disasters since 1995. Dr. Kenzo Hiroki of Japan’s National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies added that in the last 20 years, the world has lost $2.7 trillion due to climate disasters, and 70% of those financial losses came from water-related disasters. What’s more, when these disasters occur, low-income communities experience on average 43 deaths per million, while high-income communities experience 9 deaths per million; poor communities have almost five times the death rate of wealthy ones.
Water disasters are happening, and they are happening more often than ever. Their frequency is increasing at a more rapid rate than that of geological disasters (think earthquakes, volcanoes, sinkholes, and landslides). Sea level is expected to rise around the world, causing saline water intrusion into fresh water that millions depend on for drinking and agriculture. Rainfall will continue to become more unpredictable globally. Massive storms and flooding will occur with greater frequency, contaminating clean water systems and cutting off millions from viable water sources.
What is unacceptable is that 87% of official development assistance (ODA) is invested in response and reconstruction after natural disasters, while only 13% is invested in prevention of damage to infrastructure and communities. The only way to avoid catastrophic damages and deaths from water-related disasters in the future is to integrate the policies and frameworks of water resource management, DRR, and CCA. Water management affects outcomes of inevitable climate change events; disaster risk reduction inherently involves resource management and strategy; climate change adaptation is necessary to reduce risk in disaster scenarios. These three components cannot achieve their full potential without the others to bolster and inform them; this is what governments at every level must realize in order to avoid humanitarian disaster on an unprecedented scale.