Pacific Islands work towards a new action plan for water and sanitation

Managing the water-related impacts of climate variability and climate change requires a risk-based approach, and adaptation to these impacts requires integration of effective risk reduction strategies across all sectors, reports the Jet Online, while highlighting that most countries across the Pacific remain unprepared for the floods and extended droughts.

"Water is the primary medium through which climate change and natural disasters influence peoples' livelihoods and wellbeing, and better water management is a key element to building resilience and adaptive capacity to these impacts," said Rhonda Robinson, Deputy Director of SPC's Water and Sanitation Division, as Pacific Platform island nations are meeting at the The Pacific Platform for Disaster Risk Management to identify strategies to contribute to the formulation of a new regional policy framework that will supersede the 2002 Pacific Regional Action Plan on Sustainable Water Management (Pacific RAP).