Climate Change and Water Utilities
Frameworks for climate change adaptation that are currently being put to use in countries such as the United States, Australia, and South Africa reflect calculated policy design that could be used to inspire other utilities around the world. Assisting such processes are entities such as the Water Utility Climate Alliance (WUCA) of the United States and the Water Supply Association of Australia (WSAA), which are respectively funding research to identify approaches to develop decision support systems for utilities. Specific utilities such as the Public Utilities Board (Singapore), Melbourne Water (Australia) and Seattle Public Utilities (USA) have adopted a mixture of scientific approaches in conjunction with institutional reforms to assist in defining responses to climate associated risks. The norm, however, is that many utilities such as the Water and Sanitation Agency (Rawalpindi, Pakistan), Hyderabad Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board (India), Istanbul Water and Sewerage Administration (Turkey) and the Nairobi Water Company (Kenya) are concurrently coping with a range of existing problems that more often than not overshadow concerns of addressing climate change. Nonetheless many utilities, municipalities, and even national governments are taking action to improve water use efficiency, conserve water, and reduce system leakages on the demand side, without explicitly identifying these activities as being in
response to concerns about climate change. These efforts are important and will likely yield real benefits, regardless if they are designed and implemented specifically to address climate change. While certain actions being taken within such utilities may help to reduce their vulnerability due to climate change, there is a need for undertaking vulnerability assessments and related climate action plans for urban water utilities in general. Coping with factors associated with climate change will require concerted efforts of many stakeholders in the water sector and should compel increased development and implementation of:
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Monitoring and research on climate variability and change and related impacts on water utilities including the regulatory changes required to ease operational and financial burdens; Changes in traditional water and wastewater services operation and delivery reflecting variations of available water and costs of its provision; Technological changes that take the growing costs of water and its management into account; Acceptance of these changes and the cost burden borne by utilities and by the public they serve.
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