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CLIMATE CHANGE: Water Is the Missing Link in Copenhagen

Thalif Deen* - IPS/TerraViva

UNITED NATIONS, Dec 14 2009 (IPS) - When the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) announced the grim news that 2009 is likely to rank in the top 10 warmest on record, the U.N. agency also stressed last week the widespread water-related calamities caused by global warming.

China has suffered its worst drought in five decades. In East Africa, a drought has led to massive food shortages. In North America, Mexico experienced severe-to-exceptional drought conditions in September. And in central Argentina, a drought caused severe damage to agriculture, livestock and water resources.

The devastation caused by climate change is not only triggering droughts worldwide but also, ironically, a surfeit of water, mostly sparked by floods in Australia, Bangladesh and Burkina Faso, hurricanes in Central America, heavy rainfall and landslides in Colombia and winter storms in Spain and France.

Yet water has been marginalised during the two-week climate change negotiations in Copenhagen, scheduled to conclude Friday.

“Water is the primary medium through which climate change impacts will be felt by human populations and the environment,” said Karin Lexen of the Stockholm International Water Institute (SIWI), based in the Swedish capital.

She pointed out that changes in water availability and predictability of weather systems has put water at the heart of future development decision-making.

“Yet, water is barely mentioned in the draft negotiating text [at the talks in Copenhagen],” Lexen told TerraViva.

Asked why water is on the backburner, she said that some hesitate to include water references in the text since they regard water as a separate “sector” and think that adding water references would make the adaptation text “too detailed”.

“We disagree, since water is a cross-cutting issue, related to key issues like energy, forests, livelihoods, transboundary issues etc.,” she explained.

“We believe it is important to include references to water resource management in the text since it will be crucial to bridge climate and water communities in implementing adaptation strategies and programmes,” Lexen added.

Asked if there are any moves to bring water into the negotiating text, Lexen said that countries like Bangladesh, which are threatened by water-related effects of climate change, have been working actively to get water references into the text.

“The European Union (EU) has not been very interested in getting water into the text, even though individual countries like the Netherlands, Denmark and Germany have been much more interested and helpful,” she declared.

The WMO, in its report released last week, said that water levels in parts of the Gan River and the Xiangjian River in China were the lowest in the past 50 years.

In India, a poor monsoon season caused severe drought in 40 percent of the district.

The northwestern and northeastern parts of India were badly affected by one of the weakest monsoon seasons since 1972.

And in November, continuous heavy and intense rainfall in northeastern Argentina, southern Brazil and Uruguay caused flooding in many places, affecting more than 15,000 people, according to WMO.

Meanwhile, the Global Public Policy Network on Water Management (GPPN), a joint initiative of the Stakeholder Forum and SIWI, has been working to raise the profile of water in past climate change negotiations, leading up to Copenhagen.

In addition to bilateral meetings with government representatives, the GPPN has also coordinated a ‘Friends of Water’ informal government group that meets on the sidelines of climate change negotiations.

One of GPPN’s core messages reads: “Water is the primary medium through which climate change impacts will be felt by populations and the environment.”

Failure to integrate water management and climate change adaptation “will compromise efforts to build resilience and have potentially devastating impacts on people’s livelihoods.”

The GPPN also points out that resilience must be built into the water supply and sanitation sector, and effective water resources management must be implemented as an adaptation action prioritised through National Adaptation Programmes of Action.

Among GPPN’s top textual priorities is a direct reference to water security early on in the negotiating text.

“Adapting to climate change is, to a large extent, adapting to too much or too little water, and its central role for climate change adaptation must be acknowledged at this stage,” the group says.