Climate Change and Water and Sanitation: Likely Impacts and Emerging Trends for Action

Abstract

Climate change represents the most significant challenge of the twenty-first century and poses risks to water and sanitation services. Concerns for water supply include damage to infrastructure from flooding, loss of water sources due to declining rainfall and increasing demand, and changes in the water quality of water sources and within distribution of water. Sanitation concerns include damage and loss of services from floods and reduced carrying capacity of waters receiving wastewater. Key actions to reduce climate risks include the integration of measures of climate resilience into water safety plans, as well as improved accounting and management of water resources. Policy prescriptions on technologies for service delivery and changes in management models offer potential to reduce risks, particularly in low-income settings. Water and sanitation services contribute to greenhouse gas emissions. Choice of wastewater treatment technologies, improved pumping efficiency, use of renewable sources of energy, and within-system generation of energy offer potential for reducing emissions. Overall, greater attention and research are required to understand, plan for, and adapt to climate change in water and sanitation services. As with many other climate change adaptations, the likely benefits from no-regrets solutions are likely to outweigh the costs of investment.

Urban groundwater quality in sub-Saharan Africa: current status and implications for water security and public health

“…Several studies suggest there are greater risks of microbiological contamination due to either flooding conditions in African cities or due to the onset of the rainy season (Howard et al 2003;de Magny et al 2012;Sorensen et al 2015a, b) and links between disease outbreaks and El Niño years have been proposed (de Magny et al 2012;Olago et al 2007). There is a clear need for climate appropriate sanitation and water provision in rapidly expanding urban centres (Howard et al 2016). Any future increases in rainfall intensity may enhance groundwater recharge processes and may lead to more rapid degradation of water quality through enhanced transport of contaminants to the water table (Taylor et al 2009).…”

“…This poor waste management practice has led to the groundwater resources below many urban and peri-urban areas being put under considerable pressure from pollution loading with clear implications for groundwater quality and public health. This is compounded when current and future climate extremes and increased urbanisation are also considered, which may lead to increased flood risks and related disease outbreaks (McMichael et al 2006;Howard et al 2016). Per-capita usage is also predicted to rise in line with prosperity which will put additional stress on available groundwater resources, many of which are found on low yielding basement aquifers (MacDonald et al 2012).…”

The need for a standard approach to assessing the functionality of rural community water supplies

“…The development of groundwater resources by drilling boreholes and equipping them with handpumps has been fundamental to increased access to safe water across rural Africa and South Asia (MacDonald and Calow 2009;Howard et al 2016). Between 1990 and 2015, 1.2 billion people in South Asia and subSaharan Africa gained access to improved water sources from boreholes, wells and springs, more than halving the number of people reliant on unsafe supplies from rivers and ponds (JMP 2014).…”

Time series study of weather, water quality, and acute gastroenteritis at Water Safety Plan implementation sites in France and Spain

“…Owing to connections between waterborne disease risk and climate patterns, risk management approaches should consider potential hazards posed by climate change (Bartram et al, 2017; Beaudeau et al, 2011; Chhetri et al, 2017; Howard et al, 2016; Levy et al, 2016). Of the three locations studied, location 5 is subject to the greatest projected climate change and social sensitivity to climate change, due in part to flash floods and urban heat island effects (European Commission, European Environment Agency, 2018).…”