Water and Climate Change

Water scarcity is becoming one of the main threats of this century. Population growth, increasing water, energy and food demands, low water use efficiencies, and high losses are some of the reasons behind the water crisis worldwide. More than 2.3 billion people are currently living in water-stressed countries and 733 million in highly critical areas. In the Global South, additional pressure is coming from a lack of water management infrastructure, non-adequate sources of drinking water and insufficient sanitation services, unsustainable groundwater withdrawal and unpreparedness to disaster’s risks and climate change impacts. In this brief contribution, we first tackle the main challenges of water resource management in the developing countries of the Global South, focusing on Sub-Saharan Africa. Beside water scarcity facts, we highlight how these are worsened in transboundary river basins, where cooperation and political agreements are hard to be achieved. The solutions in our hands are sustainable and integrated water management of the multiple uses of water, along with adequate mitigation and adaptation actions to climate change. Afterwards, we describe the expected climate impacts and why the African country is particularly vulnerable to climate change. Finally, an interesting study with a focus on Mozambique is presented, as it shapes well the hard facts in the region, but it also sheds a light on the right direction to take in supporting regional development and cooperative water management