Water for sustainable urban human settlements
Messages for urban mayors, leaders and high-level decision makers:
This briefing note addresses the main water problems affecting the sustainability of human settlements in different regions: the lack of access to water and sanitation, and increasing water-related disasters such as floods, droughts, tsunamis, windstorms, landslides, storm-surges, waterborne diseases and epidemics. It calls for the development of well-functioning forecasting and warning systems (FWS) as a prerequisite for communities' disaster preparedness and adaptation, and the promotion of water-related disaster risk management with community participation in order to adapt to possible increased risks due to climate change.