Improving climate resilience by increasing water security in the Amazon Basin

The Amazon Basin is highly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change, experiencing extreme events such as prolonged droughts and an increase in temperatures and flood frequency. These climate challenges impact water security, agriculture, ecosystems, and human health while exacerbating socio-economic vulnerabilities such as poverty and inequality.

The Basin’s forests, which serve as a global carbon sink, face risks of degradation, which threatens biodiversity and further accelerates climate change. Addressing these challenges requires urgent, coordinated interventions to enhance water security, protect ecosystems, and build resilience for vulnerable populations.

This programme will target the anticipated impacts of climate change on water availability and ecosystem services in the Amazon Basin and improve climate resilience and water security. This will be achieved by adopting an integrated water resource management (IWRM) approach, which focuses on vulnerable communities, particularly Indigenous Peoples, and employs adaptation measures such as enhanced hydroclimatic information systems, early warning systems, and climate-resilient water and sanitation infrastructure.

Key activities include improving knowledge and access to information on climate change impacts on water security, enhancing preparedness for extreme and gradual climate events, catalysing investments for climate-resilient and low-carbon water supply, sanitation, and waste technologies and infrastructure, developing an enabling environment for climate change planning and investment, and creating mechanisms to ensure inclusivity and diversity in the interventions across the participating countries.