WWF Commemorates World Cities by Raising a Red flag on the Alarming Rise in Water Risks

Posted on 2 November 2020

In commemoration of World Cities Day, WWF in Uganda held a press conference to speak about the water crisis that is already plaguing Uganda’s Capital Kampala.

According to WWF’s new water risk scenarios, Kampala’s residents together with millions of others in 100 cities across the world could face dramatically increased water risks – unless urgent action is taken to mitigate and adapt to climate change.

According to the scenarios in the WWF Water Risk Filter, Kampala is on the list of other 100 cities across the globe that are expected to suffer the greatest rise in water risk by 2050. These cities are home to at least 350 million people as well as nationally and globally important economies.

The WWF Water Risk Filter now reveals that Kampala faces the 7th highest increase in water risk for cities across Africa, with a 10% rise by 2050.

The WWF Uganda Country Director, David Duli noted that in Uganda, city and municipal water demand is in most cases unmet during the months of July-August and January-February and water received at the end user taps is occasionally turbid (brownish) in most parts of the year.

He added that Kampala and other municipal and newly created cities water challenges are only going to increase in the coming decades since water scarcity is one of the primary impacts of climate change.

“Cities can avoid the worst-case scenario not only by supporting greater efforts to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions, but also by critically investing in Nature-based Solutions that build resilience to water risks at the river basin level”, he appealed.

WWF Uganda’s Water Governance Manager Beria Namanya added that there is an urgent need to enhance the health of watersheds, river basins and wetlands to strengthen cities’ resilience to ensure that urban economies can withstand and bounce back from these scenarios.

Launched in October, the new climate and socio-economic pathway-based scenarios for 2030 and 2050 are available in the WWF Water Risk Filter – the leading online tool for assessing, valuing and responding to water risk.

The scenarios are aligned to the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosure (TCFD) recommendations and can help companies, and cities, better understand future water risks and drive more effective corporate action on climate and water resilience.

The WWF Water Risk Filter is a practical online tool that enables companies and investors to explore, assess, value and respond to water risks worldwide.

With the integration of new climate and socio-economic pathway-based scenarios of water risk, the tool now enables forward-looking risk assessment that can help evaluate and inform long-term resilience planning and strategy, as recommended by the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosure (TCFD). https://waterriskfilter.panda.org/