Mainstreaming Water Resilience in Asia and The Pacific

Water resilience is an unsurpassed challenge and opportunity in establishing a prosperous, inclusive, and sustainable Asia and the Pacific. It determines each country’s ability to prepare for, withstand, and thrive in the wake of grave water stresses brought on by disasters triggered by natural hazards and climate change. Water is the primary medium through which the impacts of climate change are felt. Over the past 50 years, natural hazards in Asia and the Pacific have affected 6.9 billion people and killed more than 2 million. Many of these were water-related disasters, such as floods and droughts.* The emergence of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic has also underscored the importance of water and sanitation provision and demonstrated how calamities compound the impacts on those without access to these services. Water solutions, therefore, are climate solutions. Resilient water management is central to achieving climate adaptation, managing and better preparing for natural and public health threats, and addressing water scarcity issues amid rapid population and economic growth in the region. This can be achieved through investments in policies, systems, infrastructure, people, and technology. This Asian Development Bank (ADB) guidance note provides specific actions and tools to scale up and mainstream resilience in ADB’s water sector operations based on six mutually reinforcing pillars: (i) accelerating upstream engagement and building developing member country demand; (ii) adopting a water community approach to developing member country water resilience capacity; (iii) strengthening ADB staff capacity to mainstream and deliver resilient projects; (iv) fostering knowledge, innovation, and partnerships; (v) mobilizing finance for water resilience; and (vi) spearheading digitalization for water security and resilience.