Resources
Water security is an investment in reliable services.
Climate risks become water risks through changing availability, quality, extremes and demand. Project preparation must connect these pressures to a defined service, ecosystem or group of users, then show how the investment will respond.
Water security
Project preparation guide.
Define what needs to remain reliable
Specify the function at risk: drinking-water supply, irrigation, drainage, sanitation, ecosystem health or another service. Define the basin, aquifer or service area and the users who depend on it. A project boundary should reflect the water system and the responsibilities for managing it.
Distinguish climate pressures from existing weaknesses
Assess how climate conditions interact with abstraction, pollution, land use, infrastructure condition and governance. Repairing a poorly maintained system and adapting it to future conditions may both be necessary. The funding case should explain the role of each investment and avoid attributing every existing problem to climate change.
Questions for project preparation
- What observations and projections support the choice of intervention and design standard?
- Would demand management, leakage reduction or operational changes alter the investment need?
- How are upstream and downstream effects, environmental flows and competing uses addressed?
- Who owns the assets, operates the service and funds maintenance?
- Are tariffs, affordability and service access assessed for different user groups?
- How will the project measure reliability, water quality, service interruptions and the distribution of benefits?
Illustrative example: drought-resilient supply
A hypothetical water-supply project might combine leakage reduction, revised operating rules and new storage. Each measure should be assessed against water availability, lifecycle costs and service needs. Extra storage is not automatically the best response; its value depends on the system, alternatives and future operating conditions.
Connect investment costs to long-term operations
Separate capital costs from recurrent expenditure and identify the financing source for each. Tariff revenue, public budget transfers and grants have different roles. A loan requires repayment capacity; a guarantee addresses only the risks specified in its terms. Service affordability must be tested alongside the financing structure.
For technical review
Keep the hydrological assumptions, climate scenarios, demand forecast and engineering basis consistent with the economic and financial analysis. Record data limitations and the monitoring needed to adjust operations. Use indicators that measure service performance and risk reduction, beyond the number of assets built.
The questions and examples above are preparation guidance, not universal fund eligibility criteria.
Scientific reference: IPCC Sixth Assessment Report. Examples are hypothetical and do not describe client assignments.
Preparation
Prepare a service and financing brief
Bring together the service boundary, reliability problem, options compared, lifecycle costs and operating responsibilities. Include an affordability question and an upstream or downstream effect that needs testing. Use the brief to align the utility, public authority and technical team before selecting finance.
