Water, Natural Disasters and Climate Change
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90% of natural disasters are caused by water- and climate-related hazards, such as floods, droughts, hurricanes, storm surges, and landslides.
Photo by Dean Souglass
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Access to Clean Water a Key to Survival After Indonesian Earthquake
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Water is a key variable in the causes and impacts of many natural disasters. In fact, 90 percent of disaster events are caused by water/climate-related hazards, such as floods, droughts, hurricanes, storm surges, and landslides. Many of these so-called “natural” disasters, however, are avoidable -- caused or exacerbated by poor management of land and water resources, or inadequate disaster planning, preparation, and response. As climate change increases the frequency and intensity of extreme weather, the number of water-related disasters is expected to rise.
To adapt to and mitigate the impact of natural disasters, climate variability, and global climate change, USAID works with developing countries on the following:
- Risk Planning
By helping countries integrate risk reduction to droughts and floods into water resources management plans, USAID can help reduce the number of extreme weather events that turn in to disasters.
- Disaster Forecasting
Advanced warning of impending natural disasters can dramatically reduce their impact on human health, economies, and the environment. By assisting developing nations with the installation and management of disaster monitoring and warning systems, USAID helps save lives, money and resources.
- Reducing Vulnerability
USAID works to ensure that inappropriate land-use zoning and perverse subsidies for disaster insurance are replaced with measures and incentives that promote risk and vulnerability reduction and the restoration of healthy ecosystems.
- Responding to Disasters
USAID helps to reestablish functioning water supply and sanitation systems as a critical component of effective and timely responses to natural disasters.
- In Honduras, USAID provided disaster preparedness training for over 1,700 emergency responders, and helped to create or strengthen municipal emergency committees responsible for vulnerability assessment and planning. These efforts were expanded upon in La Ceiba, a Caribbean coastal city where coastal erosion and flooding are of growing concern.
- One of the poorest countries in Africa, Mali, faces severe challenges for its agricultural production in the face of climate change and increasingly scarce water resources. USAID assisted a stakeholder process in the Sikasso region to undertake vulnerability assessment of the agricultural sector in the context of future climate change scenarios and their impact on water resources.
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