What has climate change got to do with water?
Our climate is changing at an alarming rate and it’s making it even harder for the world’s poorest people to get clean water. More frequent and extreme flooding is polluting fragile water sources; longer droughts are drying up springs. People need a reliable supply of water that keeps pumping through flood, drought and natural disaster. Because with clean water, they can stay disease free, go to school, earn a living and be better prepared for whatever the future brings.
Why is COP26 important?
Government leaders are coming together in Glasgow for the world’s biggest summit on climate change. The 26th session of the United Nations Conference of the Parties (COP26) takes place from 31 October to 12 November 2021.
During these 12 days, leaders will discuss how to tackle the climate crisis and try to agree on actions their countries must take. The decisions they make this year will set the course for climate change efforts for decades to come.
What is WaterAid doing at COP26?
We're running an exhibition for the public in the Green Zone, reminding everyone how central water is to the climate crisis and its solutions. We also have a small group of delegates in the Blue Zone, where negotiations with policymakers and politicians will happen.
Alongside a focus on cutting carbon emissions, governments need to do more to help people who are experiencing the effects of climate change right now. They need to make sure that people have a reliable source of clean water that keeps pumping through flood, drought and natural disaster.
That’s why we’re calling for governments to invest more in sustainable solutions so that the people who have been left furthest behind can still have clean water and decent toilets today, and long into the future.
Climate change can seem abstract and overwhelming, but it’s real and it’s happening now.
2019 was the hottest year on record, and the past decade was the warmest yet. Globally, temperatures are rising, which means the weather is becoming more extreme, resulting in either too much or too little water. In fact, a staggering 90% of all natural disasters are water-related, and they're massively impacting people's lives.
Before the spread of COVID-19, millions of people in developing communities were already struggling with a public health catastrophe. A shocking 1 in 10 people worldwide don't have clean water close to home, putting them under constant threat from waterborne diseases like cholera, which claims 120,000 lives every year. The more our climate changes, the more challenging this becomes.
Every day, already fragile water supplies are at even greater risk of disappearing completely.
The world has made huge progress in giving everyone, everywhere the clean water that is their right. Yet climate change threatens to set us back decades and push more people into extreme poverty.
READ ON: WATER AID CLIMATE CHANGE
SOURCE: WATER AID