Adaptation of water resources management to climate change

The new type of uncertainty resulting from climate change means that past records, science,and expertise now provide a less secure basis for choice than in the past. The choices that need tobe made should be based on public participation and consent. This may result in a somewhatconfusing social process. Just as issues such as health care and genetically modified organisms havegenerated much debate, wide public discussions on how best to deal with climate change willprovide an opportunity to generate public and political support for sharing the burden (and thebenefits) of the impacts.“IT IS UNREALISTIC TO EXPECT THAT ADAPTATION WILL SIMPLYHAPPEN BECAUSE IT ‘SOUNDS LIKE THE RIGHT THING TO DO’.”Involving the public in this process will require building adaptation strategies and measuresaround the water manager’s and user’s current abilities. Endeavouring to overcome resistance tounpopular actions is unlikely to yield quick results. In addition, training will be needed to clarifyclimate change issues and introduce possible alternative adaptation measures. Demonstrationsand peer review of innovative measures can be extremely useful. Through training, stakeholders’commitment and a personal identification with the issues can be developed.Adapting water resources management to climate variability and change will need to bringshort-term as well as long-term benefits. Actions that promote near-term paybacks to the peopleinvolved will be important –it is unrealistic to expect that adaptation will simply happen becauseit “sounds like the right thing to do”. On the contrary, one major difficulty with the uncertaintyof climate change is that costly adaptation measures may prove to have been unnecessary whenthe climate does not change as expected. When discussing adaptation measures it will thereforebe important to focus on “no-regrets” or “win-win” solutions. These measures would providesignificant benefits even if climate change does not manifest itself in quite the ways predicted.IN HONDURAS, TRADITIONAL TECHNIQUES COULD BECOME THE STARTINGPOINT FOR EXPERIMENTATIONAn example of the sort of adaptation a coalition might support comes from the remote village ofGuarita in Honduras. The village was one of the few places in the region that successfully avoidedthe worst of the destruction wrought by Hurricane Mitch in 1998. The traditional Quezungal farmingmethod practised by the local villagers had protected the upper-catchment and reduced the loss ofcrops to only 10 per cent. Their traditional farming involves planting crops under trees whose rootsanchor the soil, pruning vegetation to provide nutrients to the soil and conserve soil water, andterracing to reduce soil erosion. Unfortunately, the methods taught at agricultural colleges andemployed in surrounding areas caused much damage, as they were suited more for cultivation ofplains rather than for farmland located on more hilly terrain. The traditional Quezungal methodavoids widespread slash-and-burn techniques and improves soil fertility. It is now being activelypromoted by the Government of Honduras in collaboration with the UN Food and AgricultureOrganisation (FAO). This example illustrates that building and supporting traditional knowledgeand techniques can be a valuable part of an adaptive management strategy for climate change. 3845