Water in abundance, water in short supply
On World Water Day, we are reminded of the central role of water in the context of climate change and adaptation
Published in 21 Mar 2025
Written by Marussia Whately
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A simple way to define most extreme weather events could be summed up in the two statements in the title of this article. Just think of prolonged droughts and their consequences, such as supply problems, dry springs, and parched rivers where you can walk on the riverbed. At the other extreme are the heavy storms that result in rivers overflowing, widespread flooding, and cities under water. These occurrences have become much more frequent in recent years.
7 out of every 10 municipal emergency decrees in the last 11 years have been due to disasters caused by water, according to the National Confederation of Municipalities (with data from the Civil Defense of municipalities, states, and the Government). The annual average number of declarations of emergencies due to drought and rain between 2020 and 2023 was 40% higher than in the previous period, from 2016 to 2019.
According to data from the National Sanitation Information System (SINISA), released in mid-March, 30,575 occurrences of impactful hydrological events (flash floods, flooding and inundations) were identified in Brazil in 2023 alone. In addition, more than 2.2 million homes in Brazil are subject to flooding.
If water is central to the context of climate change, the structures that capture, channel, treat, distribute and drain water are also vital. It is therefore essential to include sanitation (water, sewage, solid waste management and urban drainage) in dialogues on climate change.
World Water Day (March 22) is an opportunity to understand how sanitation in Brazilian cities is badly prepared to deal with the current context of more violent and frequent events. Public authorities throughout Brazil need to wake up to this new normal. Natural disasters with unpredictable effects happen, but we must not deal with them only with emergency measures. We must be prepared to adapt to a world where these events will become increasingly frequent.
Around the world, adaptation approaches and strategies to prevent extreme events provide us with ideas and possibilities that make cities more malleable and receptive to water, capable of receiving an impactful event and quickly returning to their original form, without leaving a trail of destruction and death after the storm passes.
The concept of resilience is paramount here, and our urban spaces need to become more resilient, as advocated by the recent IAS publication, “Adaptation and Sanitation – For a sector resilient to climate change”..
In China, sponge cities, capable of absorbing more rainwater, are multiplying. For Chinese architect Kongjian Yu, from Peking University, “Floods are not enemies, and we can be friends with them by using ancient wisdom.” In New York, the climate adaptation plan launched in 2007 requires that each resident have at least one park or green area within a maximum ten-minute walk.
In turn, smart water management helps to prepare for periods of shortage. In Tokyo careful checking of 27,000 kilometres of pipes was able to reduce water loss from an average of 20% to less than 3%. In Madrid, a drought monitoring system, available online to the population, helps to prepare for and implement necessary measures.
Examples around the world teach us that there are possible solutions, but for them to actually take place, it is necessary to build political will and prioritize sanitation as a structuring factor in the adaptation of cities. It is worth remembering that the Brazilian federal government's Climate Adaptation Plan is currently under public consultation, and this is an opportunity to reinforce sanitation in the strategies that are planned.
Now is the time to foster creative ideas and solutions so that sanitation in cities is up to the challenge. It is not a case of reinventing the wheel but rather understanding and respecting the many ways in which water flows through us.
Marussia Whately is an architect and urban planner and coordinated the Water Alliance during the water crisis in São Paulo. She is the executive director of the Water and Sanitation Institute (IAS).