Transcript Vision 2020 - Stakeholder Forum

Water, sanitation service delivery
and climate change: Policy
implications
Dr Guy Howard, DFID
Introduction
• Resilience of services – technology and
management approaches – to CC critical
• Policy and operational needs shorter time
horizon for predicted climate changes
– 20-30 year time horizons
• Vision 2030 study water & sanitation
resilience
Some clear conclusions
• Very few technologies are resilient to all
climate changes
– Management systems are key
• If we took CC into account would see
significant reduction in global coverage
• Risk that CC will reverse coverage unless
we take action
• But, adaptations available and is do-able!
Key findings technologies
Water supply
Technology
Resilience
Tubewells
High
Technology
Resilience
Pit latrines
High
Septic tanks
Low-medium
Low
Modified
sewerage
Medium
Medium
Conventional
sewerage
Low-medium
Low
Sewage
treatment
Low-medium
Dug wells
Low
Protected springs
Low-medium
Household roof
rainwater
Treatment
processes
Piped water
Sanitation
How resilient is management?
Water supply
• Management approach is
critical to resilience
– Makes urban piped water
systems potentially highly
resilience
– Makes communitymanaged systems much
less resilient
• Need much greater
centralised support for
decentralised
infrastructure
Sanitation
• Management appears to
be less important
• Pit latrines still potentially
highly resilient despite
weak management
• Sewerage often does not
benefit from adequate
funding
• But need to develop
urban sanitation
management
Centralise or decentralise?
• Decentralisation of technology will hedge
drought and floods risks (avoid critical points)
• Stronger centralised support functions required
for decentralised infrastructure
• Post 2015 targets need greater ambition
– At-house piped water supply
– Unclear how many such supplies be delivered via
piped systems
– Are alternatives (self-supply) viable?
Monitoring needs to change
Category
Technologies/approach
Potentially resilience to all expected
climate changes
Utility piped water supply (including treatment
systems)
Tubewells
Pit latrines
Low-flush septic systems
Potentially resilience to most climate
changes
Protected springs
Community-managed piped supplies
High-volume septic systems
Conventional and unconventional sewers
Potentially resilience to restricted
climate changes
Rainwater harvesting
Dug wells
Water resources
• Need better understanding of water
resource base and climate impacts
– Groundwater particularly important
– Linking climate and hydrology models
– Management responses
• Need to document autonomous
adaptations and not rely solely on experts
Key Conclusions
1. Need climate-smart policy and planning
2. Need to translate potential resilience into
actual resilience
3. Despite uncertainty, sufficient knowledge
for policy and planning in most regions
4. Need to resolve key knowledge gaps
5. Adapting to climate change may provide
opportunities to improve sector delivery