Drinking water vulnerability to climate change and alternatives for adaptation in coastal South and South East Asia
File(s)
Published version
Author(s)
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
Drinking water in much of Asia, particularly in coastal and rural settings, is
provided by a variety of sources, which are widely distributed and frequently managed at
an individual or local community level. Coastal and near-inland drinking water sources in
South and South East (SSE) Asia are vulnerable to contamination by seawater, most
dramatically from tropical cyclone induced storm surges. This paper assesses spatial
vulnerabilities to salinisation of drinking water sources due to meteorological variability
and climate change along the (ca. 6000 km) coastline of SSE Asia. The risks of increasing
climatic stresses are first considered, and then maps of relative vulnerability along the
entire coastline are developed, using data from global scale land surface models, along
with an overall vulnerability index. The results show that surface and near-surface
drinking water in the coastal areas of the mega-deltas in Vietnam and Bangladesh-India
are most vulnerable, putting more than 25 million people at risk of drinking ‘saline’ water.
Climate change is likely to exacerbate this problem, with adverse consequences for health,
such as prevalence of hypertension and cardiovascular diseases. There is a need for
identifying locations that are most at risk of salinisation in order for policy makers and
local officials to implement strategies for reducing these health impacts. To counter the
risks associated with these vulnerabilities, possible adaptation measures are also outlined.
provided by a variety of sources, which are widely distributed and frequently managed at
an individual or local community level. Coastal and near-inland drinking water sources in
South and South East (SSE) Asia are vulnerable to contamination by seawater, most
dramatically from tropical cyclone induced storm surges. This paper assesses spatial
vulnerabilities to salinisation of drinking water sources due to meteorological variability
and climate change along the (ca. 6000 km) coastline of SSE Asia. The risks of increasing
climatic stresses are first considered, and then maps of relative vulnerability along the
entire coastline are developed, using data from global scale land surface models, along
with an overall vulnerability index. The results show that surface and near-surface
drinking water in the coastal areas of the mega-deltas in Vietnam and Bangladesh-India
are most vulnerable, putting more than 25 million people at risk of drinking ‘saline’ water.
Climate change is likely to exacerbate this problem, with adverse consequences for health,
such as prevalence of hypertension and cardiovascular diseases. There is a need for
identifying locations that are most at risk of salinisation in order for policy makers and
local officials to implement strategies for reducing these health impacts. To counter the
risks associated with these vulnerabilities, possible adaptation measures are also outlined.
Date Issued
2016-02-24
Date Acceptance
2016-01-25
Citation
Climatic Change, 2016, 136 (2), pp.247-236
ISSN
0165-0009
Publisher
Springer
Start Page
247
End Page
236
Journal / Book Title
Climatic Change
Volume
136
Issue
2
Copyright Statement
© The Author(s) 2016. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made.
License URL
Sponsor
The Leverhulme Trust
Wellcome Trust
Grant Number
RPG_314
097816/Z/11/B
Subjects
Science & Technology
Life Sciences & Biomedicine
Physical Sciences
Environmental Sciences
Meteorology & Atmospheric Sciences
Environmental Sciences & Ecology
SEA-LEVEL RISE
RIVER DELTA
BANGLADESH
IMPACTS
REGION
ISSUES
INDEX
MD Multidisciplinary
Publication Status
Published