Members repeatedly identified climate change as a key factor in scarcity of water resources, often aggravating issues of water management.

Water resource scarcity is a reality for many poor communities, exacerbated by growing pressures from increasing population, the needs of industry and industrial farming. The conflicting demands require management. Although individual events such as droughts cannot be attributed to climate change, people’s ability to manage resource problems can be severely compromised by the increased frequency of extreme climatic events that are the consequence of climate change. It is therefore clear that these two themes are integrally linked. Challenges are especially acute in flood-prone areas of South Asia and drought-prone areas of Africa.

“Climate change is the most urgent issue. We are already a victim in terms of freshwater supplies, sanitation and environment” (FANSA member).

“Water and Climate Change is becoming a burning issue worldwide, thus FAN International would be in a good position to capture [and disseminate] knowledge about this issue and can contribute [to] its regional networks” (FANSA member).