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The next water cycle

Nature Climate Change volume 4, pages 949–950 (2014)Cite this article

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Adaptation of water resources management will help communities adjust to changes in the water cycle expected with climate change, but it can't be fixed by innovations alone.

Something is drying up the Pangani River. Maybe it is the Tanzania Electric Supply Company, which manages three hydropower plants located on the river, providing up to 17% of the country's electricity. Maybe it is the thousands of farmers and herders, whose traditional furrow irrigation methods deplete the river. Or maybe, as scientists say, drought is to blame for the recent problems. Under climate change and changes in population dynamics, this problem of unpredictable fresh water will only get worse in the Pangani Basin, because more people are depending on the water, and the water sources for the Pangani River — rainfall and glacial meltwater flowing from Mounts Meru, Pare and Kilimanjaro — are rapidly diminishing1,2.

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References

  1. Overton, I. C. et al. Hydrol. Sci. J. 59, 860–877 (2014).

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  2. Vastag, B. Nature http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/news.2009.1055 (2009).

  3. Pangani Basin Water Office Pangani River Basin Management Project (Pangani Basin Water Office, 2009).

  4. Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development Water and Climate Change Adaptation: Policies to Navigate Uncharted Waters (OECD Studies on Water, OECD Publishing, 2013); http://dx.doi.org/10.1787/9789264200449-en

  5. International Union for Conservation of Nature The Pangani River Basin: A Situation Analysis 2nd edn (IUCN, 2009).

  6. European Commission Report from the Commission to the European Parliament and the Council on the Implementation of the Water Framework Directive (European Commission 2000); http://ec.europa.eu/environment/water/water-framework/index_en.html

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  1. Lisa Palmer is an independent journalist and a public policy scholar at the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington DC,

    Lisa Palmer

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  1. Lisa Palmer
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Correspondence to Lisa Palmer.

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Palmer, L. The next water cycle. Nature Clim Change 4, 949–950 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1038/nclimate2420

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nclimate2420

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