Climate Change Policy for a Resilient Water Sector 2023.

This Climate Change Policy for a Resilient Water Sector is a part of a set of policies developed by the Ministry of Water and Irrigation to set defined rules to manage the scarce water resources efficiently and sustainably. These new Policies lay out the measures and actions required to achieve the national goals for long-term water security. These result-oriented Policies are built upon and updated from previously adopted strategies, policies, and plans. The Policy is also in line with the Climate Change Policy (CCP) of 2022-2050, which guides to building of a climate resilient society that aims to be part of the global movement that aspires to reach carbon neutrality by 2050 in alignment with the objectives set under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. The document presents a range of water-related solutions, starting from hard (mostly infrastructure) solutions, and moving down towards softer, e.g., economic and capacity building, solutions, as follows (i) Water storage, using all options, e.g., dams and reservoirs, ponds, cisterns, aquifer recharge and groundwater storage, soil water storage; (ii) New water, water harvesting (in combination with supplementary irrigation for drought- and climate-proofing and increasing the water use efficiency of primarily rain fed agriculture), water transfers, wastewater collection/treatment/reuse, desalination (for climate mitigation purposes, this option needs to be based on renewable energy); (iii) Water quality protection and improvement, to increase water availability for unrestricted use; (iv) Virtual water through imports of water-intensive products; (v) Integrated water and land planning/management/zoning, water-smart land use (including urban planning), stop encroachment, loss of agricultural land, overgrazing, desertification, land degradation, erosion and reservoir sedimentation (including conservation agriculture and soil conservation for improved soil water storage and soil filtering capacity), protection of groundwater recharge areas from pollution and water, smart afforestation; (vi) Economic incentives for reducing water (and energy) use and for utilizing more renewable energy in the sector; (vii) Water and energy demand managed through technical measures, like infrastructure rehabilitation, reducing transmission losses, and using drought-resistant crops, or economic measures, such as water pricing and awareness campaigns to encourage behavioral changes; (viii) Improvements in water use efficiency, e.g., driven by demand-management or water re-allocations, also translated into energy savings; (ix) Improved climate data collection, monitoring, and early warning systems; (x) Training and capacity development, including (a) public awareness and behavioral change, through networks or in addition to collaborating with women led initiatives as they play key role in managing resources and protecting the environment within the home, neighborhoods and the local community, (b) engaging youth and PWDs, as mostly affected by impact of climate change and considered key active change agents in the climate change awareness, (c) building political will to address climate change, (d) mainstreaming climate expertise into water management, e.g., facilitating the use of climate data for planning and early warning, (e) training of experts for writing successful proposals to international climate funds. Given the expected decrease in total water availability that climate change brings to the region, particular emphasis needs to be placed on reducing demand.
To enhance the water sector's resilience to climate change, new criteria must be integrated with existing ones to systematically prioritize solutions, including factors such as (i) cost efficiency, measured by water savings, new water supply, or carbon emission reductions; (ii) feasibility, assessed by the availability of donor funding and inter-ministerial cooperation; (iii) urgency; (iv) job creation; (v) national potential to close the gap between water supply and demand; (vi) climate appropriateness, meaning the solution's suitability for the expected severity of climate change during its lifespan; (vii) synergies between climate adaptation and mitigation efforts. Using this integrated framework, an interdisciplinary team can prioritize a full range of solutions to help the water sector build resilience and meet national Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
The Annexes include the Adaptation Policy and Actions for the Water Sector, along with the Mitigation Policy and Actions for the Water Sector, which includes a list of interventions to be implemented in the short, medium, and long terms.