The Water Tracker in 2022: Three Things to Know
With the dust of COP26 now well settled, the Water Tracker for National Climate Planning is expanding its reach this year.
The project, which is funded by UK Aid from the UK Government and the Dutch Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management, is supporting governments to self-assess and improve water resilience in their national climate plans.
A careful assessment of water-climate connections is much more than an academic exercise. Global demand and competition for water is expected to rise in coming years as the world population grows and the climate changes. Increasing variability and unpredictability are the hallmark of climate modelling scenarios. Importantly, water is a critical input to many projects and programs designed to help countries mitigate and adapt to climate change.
The Water Tracker helps raise awareness of these water requirements across different sectors—which are often implicit and hidden—enabling countries to plan better for an uncertain future.
Andrew Roby, Senior Water Security Adviser at the UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office explained:
“The global water and climate rises must be addressed hand in hand. Climate policy without any consideration of water could be ineffective and vice versa. The Water Tracker sheds light on the water that flows through climate plans and across sectors. This coordinated and water-centric approach provides a pathway for turning climate commitments into achievable projects that safeguard those most at risk from climate change and use more nature-based solutions.”
What’s on the horizon for the Water Tracker in 2022?
The year 2021 marked the launch of the project. An initial cohort of pilot countries were recruited to co-develop and test run the Water Tracker, with input from a number of international experts and core partners including the Global Water Partnership (GWP), Sanitation and Water for All (SWA) and UNICEF.
In 2022 the project is scaling up from the handful of countries involved in the initial pilot phase. A further 20 countries have expressed interest in adopting the Water Tracker and collaborations are underway.
AGWA will present the latest Water Tracker developments at several key events this year in the run up to COP27 in Egypt, including the UNFCCC Middle East and North Africa Climate Week 2022 hosted by Government of the United Arab Emirates on 28-31 March in Dubai, and the Sanitation and Water For All 2022 Sector Ministers’ Meeting (SMM) hosted by the Government of Indonesia on 18-19 May.
What exactly is the Water Tracker and what does it look like?
The Tracker is a diagnostic questionnaire which governments can use to systematically assess how water is included (or excluded) in national climate plans, such as Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) and National Adaptation Plans (NAPs).
The Water Tracker asks questions such as: Is water framed as a risk, sector, or resource? What institutional and governance structures exist for water management? How do different sectors acknowledge the water needed for planned climate actions?
Undertaking a Water Tracker assessment establishes a country’s baseline in water resilient planning. It highlights where good practices already exist, as well as areas that could benefit from improved water resilience or cross-sectoral coordination. AGWA’s team of country specialist consultants are at hand to support the process.
“There is evidence that the NDCs are starting to take water more seriously, but our work with the Water Tracker already shows that gaps remain,” said Ingrid Timboe, AGWA Policy Director.
“Strengthening national climate plans goes beyond the fact that the majority of climate impacts are water-related; the strategies we create for addressing climate change are also largely water-dependent and their success or failure may in some cases hinge on sufficient water resources,” she added.
When governments have applied the Water Tracker, then what next?
AGWA and partners are currently developing a complementary Guidance Document which points to available resources and tools that can be used to address gaps and opportunities identified by the Water Tracker, as well as links to relevant sources of climate finance. The country consultants work closely with government representatives to identify tangible next steps which lead to more effective climate plans and climate action.
In Costa Rica and Malawi, AGWA is organising high-level meetings to bring together different government departments and discuss the findings from the Water Tracker assessment. This will leverage the results of the Water Tracker as they are shared across sectors and at sub-national project levels to maximise uptake and impact.
Find out more
As the Water Tracker continues to expand and improve based on early experiences, more countries are invited to apply the tool to strengthen their own national climate plans. If you would like to get involved in the Water Tracker project, reach out to Project Manager Kelsey Harpham kharpham@alliance4water.org to learn more.