Climate Change Impacts On Water Resources Environmental Sciences Essay

Scientific records and projections prove the elevated risk of vulnerable freshwater resources being harshly impacted by climate change, with considerable resulting effects, especially for Small Islands Developing States (SIDS) like Mauritius. Adaptation measures to respond to those climatic impacts on water would require an integrated water resources management which includes obtaining the perception of the society’s understanding of the issue. This paper aims at analysing the perception of a category of the Mauritian society, namely the working personnel, with regard to awareness as well as understanding of climate change and its impacts on water resources. The results of the study show that the educational level of respondents has an impact on both their awareness and understanding of climate change and the negative effects it has on our water resources. Those findings can be of help to policy-makers engaged in the effective selection and implementation of realistic and targeted water-related adaptation measures all throughout the island.

Keywords: Climate Change Impacts, Adaptation, Water Resources, Small Islands Developing States, Public Perception, Educational Level.

Introduction

Climate Change, its Impacts and the Global Response

Climate change is viewed by natural scientists as “perhaps the preeminent environmental risk confronting the world in the 21st century” (Leiserowitz, 2007) and the most debated environmental issue in the political ecology field in the last two decades (Whitanage, et al., 2009). The key source of global warming is generally viewed as being an accumulation of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, with resulting greenhouse effect (Yadollahie, 2010). There is much scientific proof of occurrence of considerable global warming, and recent warming, which has already brought alterations in the earth’s climate, can be attributed to human activities, according to the Royal Society (2005). The undeniable responsibility of human activities in this matter has since 1992 been expressed by the United Nation Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) when defining climate change as “a change of climate which is attributed directly or indirectly to human activity that alters the composition of the global atmosphere and which is in addition to natural climate variability observed over comparable time periods” (UNFCCC, 1992). This analysis is supported by Rosenzweig, et al., (2007) who claim that “the consistency of observed significant changes in physical and biological systems and observed significant warming across the globe very likely cannot be explained entirely by natural variability or other confounding non-climate factors”.

The Royal Society (2005) emphasizes that though projected climate changes will generate both favourable and adverse effects in various sectors ranging from agriculture to human health, “larger and faster the changes in climate, the more likely it is that adverse effects will dominate.” Along the same line, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) provides scientific evidence of strong effects of recent climate change on many aspects of both natural and managed systems, with consequent changes in several areas including coastal zones (Rosenzweig, et al., 2007). The IPCC (2007) further explains that projected changes will be in climate variables such as precipitation, temperature, sea level and concentrations of atmospheric carbon dioxide and emphasizes that impacts of those changes would be felt mainly on coastal systems and low-lying areas, health, freshwater resources and their management, ecosystems, industry, settlement and society, food, fibre and forest products (IPCC., 2007).

Signed in 1992 by virtually all nations of the world as a response to the issue that increase the levels of greenhouse gases are being caused by human activities, the UNFCCC treaty is referred to as being the first agreement to address climate change, with commitments to establish national action plans for voluntary reduction of greenhouse gas emissions to agreed levels, as a start to global warming mitigation (Fletcher and Parker, 2007). Due to the fact that several countries were not being able to reduce their gas emissions, the parties to the UNFCCC treaty moved from voluntary measures to the Kyoto protocol, “which establishes legally binding, mandatory emissions reductions” (Fletcher & Parker, 2007), relevant to 38 developed countries listed in the protocol as Annex 1. The Kyoto protocol, which has been agreed to towards the end of 1997 and has entered into force in February 2005, has been signed and ratified by 187 nations as at November 2009 (UNFCCC, 2009), including more than sixty percent of the developed countries listed at its Annex 1.

Those developed countries that have ratified the treaty are bound to implement national measures to lessen their greenhouse gas emissions in addition to making use of three market-based mechanisms introduced in the Kyoto protocol, namely, International Emissions Trading, the Clean Development Mechanism, and Joint Implementation (Bashmakov, et al., 2001).

‘International Emissions Trading’ implies that signatory Annex 1 countries can trade part of agreed emission quotas among themselves, while in the ‘Clean Development Mechanism’, Annex 1 countries can help develop reduced emissions projects within Non Annex 1 countries, explicitly developing countries, to help them attain sustainable development and in return, the helping countries beneficiate from the so generated certified emission reductions. With regard to ‘Joint Implementation’, Annex I countries can help to implement reduced emissions project in another Annex I country and thus receive emission reduction units, which can be used by the investor countries to attain the required limitation of emissions (Bashmakov, et al.2001).

The Kyoto protocol is seen as a political and a technical failure as well as a “symbolically important expression of concern about climate change” (Prins and Rayner, 2008), and since the Kyoto Protocol regime expires in 2012, there might be in their point of view only a “slender window of opportunity to radically rethink our objectives and operations” (Prins & Rayner, 2007). Further to the end of the commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol, the latest Conference of Parties (COP) to the UNFCCC held in Copenhagen, Denmark in December 2009, included on its agenda a discussion on an international climate agreement, with the Copenhagen Accord as outcome. Though consensus has not been reached at that Copenhagen Summit or COP15, with the Accord being finally not adopted, it is believed that only the future will tell whether that Accord would “evolve into a subsequent agreement or arrangement that is sufficiently robust to motivate meaningful action on climate change” (Stavins & Stowe, 2010). The above cited view is nevertheless not shared by Yadollahie (2010) as he deems the result of the Copenhagen Summit to be disappointing, believing that no significant step has been made, and considers that the whole world now looks forward to the new COP to be held in Mexico at the end of 2010.

Impacts of Climate Change on Water Resources

There are a good deal of scientific records and climate projections to prove the elevated risk of vulnerable water resources being harshly impacted by climate change, with considerable resulting effects. The researchers of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) go further stating that the negative impacts, such as salinisation of coastal aquifers, droughts and floods affecting water quality and exacerbating water pollution, “are expected to outweigh the benefits” (Bates, et al., 2008).

The Need for Adaptation

To fight climate change, the UNFCCC (1992) recommends mitigation, with measures to lessen human activities that generate green house gases, and adaptation, which tries to reduce vulnerability to impacts of climate change. Mitigation only is insufficient and thus adaptation is essential given that even if action is being taken now to considerably reduce greenhouse gases, the climate system generally reacts slowly to changes in greenhouse gas concentrations, with further changes in climate being consequently unavoidable (Royalsociety.org, 2005). Stavins and Stowe (2010) highlight the introduction in the Copenhagen Accord of the necessity for developed countries to provide financial and other resources to support adaptation actions in least developed countries, including small islands.

Concerning adaptation in regard to the water resources, an integrated water resources management, though still in its early years, is recommended by Bates et al.(2008) as a tool in seeking adaptation measures, subject to reshaping planning processes and the inclusion of the society’s views as some of the strategies to ensure implementation success.

Climate Change and SIDS

Small island developing States (SIDS), of which Mauritius is a member, have numerous problems and specific characteristics that increase their vulnerability, resulting in a situation where “adverse effects of climate change and sea-level rise represent the most immediate threats” regarding sustainable development (UNDP, 2009). Mauritius is about to experience substantial economic loss, humanitarian stresses and environmental degradation due to climate change impacts such as “sea-level rise, increasing temperatures, an increase in the intensity of tropical cyclones and increasingly variable rainfall” (UNDP, n.d.) with important sectors most likely to be affected by climate change impacts being coastal resources, agriculture, water resources, fisheries, health, biodiversity, land-use change and forestry. Bates, et al (2008) further observe that “under most climate change scenarios, water resources in small islands are likely to be seriously compromised”.

As a reaction to this critical situation which SIDS are facing, a number of adaptation projects are being implemented, the main one being the National adaptation programmes of action (NAPAs) executed by UN agencies (Graham, 2007).There are also other projects supported by financial institutions and other development assistance agencies. Adaptation costs are very high and are financed for instance by the Global Environment Facility (GEF) Trust Fund, which is recognized by the UNFCCC (2005) as being “One of the principal channels of support for small island developing States (SIDS) in the area of climate change”. Some more sources of funding are the Special Climate Change Fund (SCCF) whereby “Adaptation activities to address the adverse effects of climate change have top priority for funding”, the Least Developed Countries Fund (LDCF), and The Adaptation Fund under the Kyoto Protocol, for financing adaptation projects in developing countries that are Parties to the Kyoto Protocol (Graham, 2007).

Numerous SIDS have already submitted their NAPA documents to the UNFCCC, wherein the water resources sector is of major importance. Those NAPA documents propose adaptation measures as follows:

Improve water harnessing, collection and storage infrastructures by building reservoirs and dams, encouraging use of individual water-saving devices and promoting safe rainwater harvesting through ground catchment and roof catchment systems,

Elaboration of decentralized management plans on water production and distribution infrastructures,

Elaboration and implementation of legislation and regulation,

Design and construction of suitable sewage treatment and disposal systems to safeguard water resources,

Establishing modeling maps and an information and monitoring system on water resources,

Institutionalization of management system, with the purpose of putting in practice the national politics of the water resources,

Reducing leakage in supply systems,

Carrying out participatory research on the knowledge of traditional practices of adaptation to the variations of the water cycle.

The above list of measures extracted from the UNFCCC database (UNFCCC, 2010a, b, c, d) can be used as a model for proposals of adaptation measures in Mauritius. Regardless of the broad range of adaptation options that could be successfully implemented in the SIDS, some fundamental constraints, categorized by the UNFCCC (2005) in three groups, limit the choices of options and their implementation. These constraints are specifically:

insufficient data or information and technical capacity for well-timed and successful adaptation planning, as a starting point for the design of adaptation policies, strategies and programmes;

the weakness of current institutions which have to be strengthened for effective implementation of adaptation measures; and

insufficient financial resources which will necessitate international assistance with regard to research on less costly adaptation measures (UNFCCC, 2005).

“Maladaptation, caused by governments underestimating, overestimating or mis-estimating the climate impact” (Graham, 2007), is also interpreted as a factor delaying the adaptation process.

Climate change, adaptation, and water resources management in Mauritius

In Mauritius, the Ministry of Energy and Public Utilities is responsible for implementation of water resources policies, and other organisations operating in the water sector are the Water Resources Unit, the Central Water Authority, the Irrigation Authority and the Waste Water Management Authority, each of them having specific responsibilities defined by existing Mauritian laws regarding water resources (Proag, 2006).

The impacts of climate change are already being felt in the island, as evidenced by the recent National Assessment Report prepared by the Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development when it reveals that “meteorological records clearly indicate the increase of average temperatures, rising sea levels, intermittent heavy rainfall causing flash floods and climate variability that deviate from past patterns.” (ROM, 2010). Mauritian water resources are vulnerable to climate change impacts, whereby one example is the risk run by boreholes situated near the Mauritian coasts of being contaminated by saltwater intrusion (UNFCCC, 2005).

In line with the pledge of the Mauritian Government in its 2010-2015 programme (2010) regarding climate change, the UNDP is currently implementing a two year project under the Africa Adaptation Program (AAP), aiming at integrating and mainstreaming climate change adaptation into the institutional framework, development policy, strategies and plans of the island. An output of the project is the implementation of climate-resilient policies and measures in priority sectors, inclusive of the water sector (UNDP, n.d.). Accordingly, a working group under the chairmanship of the Water Resources Unit has been set up at the level of the Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development, to look into the issue and come up with appropriate policies and measures that integrate climate change adaptation. The “Maurice Ile Durable” (MID) concept, a national project for sustainable development, also recognizes the negative impact of climate change on our water resources and recommends that “the MID initiative should serve to increase the preparedness of Mauritius to adapt to climate change as far as possible” (UNDP, 2009).

Since 2005, several assessments have been conducted to identify appropriate climate change adaptation and mitigation measures which are currently being implemented or in the pipeline (ROM, 2010). The report lists concrete climate related actions that have been or are being taken in the field of :

enhancement of climate change and sea level rise monitoring;

reduction of GHG emissions through energy efficiency and conservation as well as renewable energy investments; and

adaptation projects in the following sectors:

Agricultural sector,

Commissioning of Midlands Dam for irrigation of the northern plains.

Cultivation of drought resistant cultivars and trash blanketing of sugarcane fields.

Investment in hydroponics, protected cultures.

Improved livestock housing.

Coastal zone;

Land use change and forestry; and

Water resources sector:

a. An integrated plan for water resources development up to year 2040 has been prepared.

b. Surface water storage has been increased and new projects in pipeline include construction of dams at Bagatelle and Rivière des Anguilles.

c. Existing storage dams and feeder/irrigation canals have been rehabilitated to minimize seepage losses.

d. Capacity of potable water treatment plants has been extended.

Ongoing public awareness campaigns on water saving.

The report also highlights the emphasis that the Mauritian Government has laid on sensitization and awareness raising of the general public, through holding of regular sensitization and awareness campaigns for various target groups , as well as the publication of resource materials and broadcasting of regular programmes on television and radio.

Apart from the State, non-governmental projects are also carried out, such as one project funded by GEF Small Grants Programme for period 2005-2006 and carried out by “Environmental Protection & Conservation Organisation” (EPCO) in coastal villages, with the aim of raising awareness about climate change science and working with local community to understand the impact of climate change, to identify vulnerability, prepare and implement adaptation plan (GEF, 2006). The implementation of the above project included a vulnerability assessment exercise in four coastal villages whereby water scarcity was identified as a key element affecting livelihood (World Water Forum, [WWF], 2009). Another aim of the project was to secure better quality and quantity of water in these villages, through education and training, awareness and preparedness as well as community-participation (WWF, 2009).One of the several findings of the project is that the public should be encouraged to change lifestyle so as to minimize utilization of water (WWF, 2009).

Public perception as a tool for effective implementation of adaptation measures

Understanding public perception is a key element in raising awareness and motivating behavioral changes in the population (Breton, et al., 2008). Lorenzoni and Pidgeon (2006, cited in Sola, et al., 2008), further insist on the fact that “To ignore the values and attitudes of the public when deciding on the management of climate risk may lead to problematic situations”.

Globally, the study of public perception on climate change is of major importance nowadays. International studies mention that majorities believe that the world’s climate is changing (Poortinga, et al., 2006) and citizens concern for climate change is growing (Leiserowitz, 2007). A study of public perceptions on climate change and adaptation in Sri Lanka even concludes that keeping local communities out of climate business will create unnecessary damage (Whitanage, et al., 2009).

At local level, some studies have been carried out involving public perception in the water resources sector. Focusing on the perception of Mauritians towards domestic water as a product of consumption, Sowdagur (2006) finds that a great majority of Mauritians are not willing to pay more and thus recommends that this fact be considered when deciding on water tariff policies. The study carried out by Madhoo (2006) estimates the budgetary impact of higher willingness to pay for residential water and demonstrates that “as long as lower prices are allocated to low income groups, it would be politically feasible to charge higher prices”, while in his works on awareness of water distribution costs, Proag (2007) concludes that not knowing the basic factors involved in producing and distributing water leads to people having a wrong perception about its cost and value.

The role of education in climate change awareness and understanding

With regard to environmental education, Potter (2010) believes that it “is a critical tool for engaging the public”, especially with the recent and strong focus on global warming and climate change. He thus suggests that new and more systemic environmental education legislation might be considered, together with “substantive increases in funding for national-level grants, educator training, and research initiatives” and “broadening the scope of strategic-level conversations to include sectors beyond the education community”.

A study carried out at the Rice University in USA recommends that although the subject of climate change is cared for by schools solely in classrooms and in a passive manner without related project work, discussions of solutions should be integrated with the science, “to provide a broader picture and to prevent students from becoming disengaged and fatalistic” (Johnson, 2009). Another study undertaken regarding the role of higher education as change agent for sustainability wraps up by saying that “institutions of higher education can be considered a stakeholder group with significant potential influence on society through many different mechanisms” ( Stephens et al., 2008). The same stand is adopted in the UK whereby a study performed in September 2008 to assess the current state of knowledge and understanding of the issues faced by the surveying profession with regard to climate change impact reveals that around 50 per cent of graduates considered that there was no, or little reference to the issue sustainability and the effects of climate change in their own programmes. The study concludes that “Whilst no one is suggesting that climate change should replace topics in existing syllabuses, based on the scientific evidence, it should be an integral part of any decision related to the built environment in order to achieve social, economic and environmental sustainability.”(Dent and Dalton, 2010). Regarding the role of the Hawaiian university with regard to climate change mitigation, a research done in 2008 highlights that “Universities are uniquely positioned within the climate change dialogue to act as resources for multi-disciplinary regional and global climate research, provide outstanding public education and outreach with credible and current information, and to serve as models of institutional and behavioral change.”(Coffman, 2008).

This paper summarises the perception of the working personnel on climate change, focusing on the target population’s awareness as well as understanding of the climate change problem and its impacts on local water resources. The study highlights that education level is a key factor influencing the level of awareness and understanding of respondents. The findings of this study may help policy makers to better design more effective adaptation measures specific to safeguarding the island’s water resources against climate change impacts and which would be understood by the Mauritian working personnel as well as receive their full support.