Climate crisis is a water crisis

Without reliable access to clean, safe water, people in the poorest countries cannot get on with ordinary life, avoid disease, farm or cope with the increasing challenges posed by a warming planet.

Watch the following video showcasing the climate change realities in Bangladesh:

These challenges are also experienced through changes in the vast water systems that exist throughout the world. Record floods pollute water sources and destroy crops or homes, while longer and more frequent droughts dry up the springs many need to survive. This leaves the poorest communities to pick up the bill for a problem they did not cause and will increase unless all governments change their approach to water.

Worsening climate change will increase competition for water supplies and services and further stretch poorer governments’ abilities to respond to these changes. This will leave the poorest and most vulnerable with the least ability to claim their right to clean water for life. This is doubly unjust as they have done the least to create these problems.

Reliable access to clean, safe water is a basic human right, the bedrock of resilient communities and a key component of equitable, and sustainable development. To guarantee this, we must tackle climate change and ensure everyone can access clean water and other basic services. This, in turn, will help individuals and communities adapt to the unavoidable consequences that climate change is already having.

The good news is solutions are available, which we can implement if we work together quickly and efficiently. All governments must collaborate to ensure that access to clean water is a fundamental part of their strategies in addressing climate change. Following are some of the areas we are engaged in to drive adaptation and mitigation of climate impact in Bangladesh:

• WaterAid is working with governments, businesses, and communities to deliver the services needed every day, give those most in need a say in decisions and develop longer-term solutions to protect future access to water.
• WaterAid has implemented reverse osmosis plants, rainwater harvesting systems and has empowered women leaders in the climate hotspots to survive these changing adversities.
• WaterAid is working in urban centers to empower slum dwellers and climate migrants so that they have equitable access to safe drinking water, sanitation and hygiene.
• All our solutions empower our motto to leave no one behind by giving inclusive access to the elderly, women, and the differently-abled to ensure safeguarding for each individual.
• With changing climate comes emerging problems that require everyone’s attention. Join us in reaching out to these vulnerable people hardest hit by climate change.