In 2024 alone, economic losses from floods, droughts and storms globally exceeded $550 billion globally.
This means up to 90% of disasters, are water-related.
Dr. Bapon Fakhruddin, of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), a water and climate leader for over 22 years, said we cannot afford to keep treating water as a secondary issue, when its management is still too often treated as an afterthought in disaster risk reduction strategies.
He said integrated water resource management strengthens the pillars of the Sendai Framework and supports climate, biodiversity, and land goals under the Rio Conventions (UNFCCC, UNCCD, UNCBD).
Good examples of integration are in Senegal’s combination of water and soil conservation with climate insurance to boost rural resilience.
Another is in Thailand’s Chao Phraya Basin integration of green-grey infrastructure to manage floods and droughts.
Kenya invests in restoring degraded rangelands, empowering local governance, and boosting drought resilience.
Fakhruddin illustrates how these cases align water management with drought relief (DRR) strategies, leading to stronger, more sustainable outcomes for people and ecosystems.
“To accelerate progress, we must take these six strategic actions: Ensure policy coherence across climate, agriculture, environment, and water sectors.
Use innovative finance blending public and private investment for water resilience.
Implement FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reusable) data integration for smarter, risk-informed decisions.
Push for strong governance and legal frameworks across basins and borders.
Empower local action through community-led and Indigenous knowledge systems.
Form synergies across frameworks to deliver unified resilience strategies.” argues Fakhruddin.