Climate change will lead to droughts and floods, according to report
Climate change will lead to drought in some parts of the country and floods in other areas, according to a report by the Washington-based Association of Metropolitan Water Agencies (AMWA). Either way, city and county water providers will have to take steps to keep their water supplies flowing.
According to AMWA’s Implications of Climate Change for Urban Water Utilities, the warming environment may lead to an acceleration of the hydrologic cycle of evaporation and precipitation, increased water contamination and damage to the ecosystem. In response, local government officials should perform vulnerability assessments on their water systems to determine immediate needs, reduce their greenhouse gas emissions and create regional plans to address the issue. “The national debate on climate change has so far been limited to the effects of greenhouse gases,” said AMWA Executive Director Diane VanDe Hei in a statement. “For community drinking water systems, climate change has broader implications. The question we ask is, ‘To what extent will our water supplies be affected?’”
The report is available at
www.amwa.net/cs/climatechange, along with other resources for utility managers and policy makers.