Water industry must act on climate change adaptation

Sam Bond in edie.net: Regardless of what we do to reduce our future impact on the climate, greenhouse gases already built up in the atmosphere mean that some change is inevitable - and the water industry is likely to feel the effects more than most. With climate models predicting more frequent and more severe extreme weather events such as drought and deluge, it's easy to see that the water sector will need to adapt.

Mike Keil, head of climate change at Ofwat, spoke to edie about the issues - and how he intends to discuss them when he speaks at IWEX next week. "Water is clearly a crucial area," he said. …He acknowledged insurance is often seen as the sector that will be most affected as extreme whether events increase in frequency and severity. But on a day-to-day basis and changes needed for infrastructure, he argued, water is probably the biggest.

…"There has been quite a focus on carbon - we've always said we need to get the balance right," he said. "We need to keep our eye on the ball and not ignore the need for adaptation, we've got guaranteed change for the next three or four decades no matter what we do about emissions….

Victorian water tower and reservoir, opened in December 1898 by John Dixon who was at the time the chairman of the council. Shot by Michael Patterson, Wikimedia Commons via Geograph UK, under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license