Climate resilience |
integrated action’ and offer ‘collaborative opportunities for integrating land and water management in lake and reservoir basins to enhance climate resilience’.
Disparity and misalignment Hirji and Duba claim that international attention to lake
Above: Sri Lanka’s largest reservoir of the multi- purpose Mahaweli project at Moragahakanda
Sri Lanka
Climate change impacts on the hydrometeorological characteristics of the Mahaweli River Basin in Sri Lanka have also been assessed using downscaled and bias- corrected climate scenario. As the largest and perennial river basin in Sri Lanka which drains 10,300km2
, rainfall
in the basin varies greatly over space and time. Research shows that with an average temperature
increase of 1.1°C from 2026-45, the basin will experience more extreme rainfall (increase ranging from 204 to 476 mm/year) and intense flood disasters. Overall, it is likely that the flood inundation area and risk will increase in the basin under the future climate
Ensuring resilience Providing practical guidance for water resources
managers, practitioners, and engineers involved in flood control, reservoir operations, and dam safety issues, the World Bank concludes that by understanding the challenges and solutions presented in its new report, stakeholders can make informed decisions and develop effective strategies to adapt to the changing climate and ensure the resilience of their water management systems.
A wake-up call Lakes and reservoirs store 88% of the Earth’s fresh
surface water, providing water, food, energy security, flood protection, drought mitigation, and ecosystem services. And although the construction of thousands of storage dams has dramatically increased water storage capacity, promoting development worldwide, new research warns that lakes and reservoirs are under significant stress due to human activities, global warming, and ageing infrastructure. The integrated management of lakes and reservoirs and their basins is vital for preserving their significant benefits which are essential for climate resilience. However, according to Rafik F. Hirji, a retired World Bank Group and Former Water-Environment Thematic Lead and Team Leader; and Alfred Duda, a retired Bank Group and Former Senior Advisor and Team Leader for the Global Environment Facility, there is ‘widespread failures across international water and environmental policies and institutions’ in this regard. In their article published in Water Policy, the authors call on the global water and environmental community to ‘awaken from collective amnesia, act, and implement best practices for governing lakes, reservoirs, and basins’. They also examine the ‘institutional inertia hindering
38 | January 2026 |
www.waterpowermagazine.com
and reservoir management has lulled in recent decades, but the global water community is once again starting to recognise the urgent need for integrated solutions to manage water resources. They go on to claim that international environmental and water agencies ‘have overlooked past successes and are reinventing the wheel repeatedly’. Indeed, they are urged to focus more effort and attention on coordination, institutional memory, collaboration, and adherence to best practices – all elements essential for achieving effective, impactful, and climate-resilient development on a large scale. Despite lakes, reservoirs, and basins holding nearly 90% of the world’s fresh surface water, the authors say that the global water and environmental community faces ‘significant policy disparity and misalignment’ and the focus remains on river and dam development. “We must prioritise sustainable management of
existing freshwater storage to enhance climate resilience and safeguard our planet’s future,” Hirji and Duba say, adding that the global decline in lakes and reservoirs underscores the importance of demand management, improved water and land use, and proactive climate measures. While addressing complex issues like dam repairs and decommissioning requires an integrated basin-wide approach.
A long hiatus After such a ‘long hiatus in attention to lakes and
reservoirs’ the authors claim some of the important lessons from the analysis of 20 years ago are not being incorporated into recent documents. And by this, the authors are referring to the Lake Basin Management Initiative (LBMI). The LBMI was a GEF-funded cooperative programme for sustainable lake and basin management, implemented from 2002 to 2005. A collaborative effort with nine partners, including three UN-Water agencies and the World Bank, it produced 28 case studies and 17 thematic papers on managing lakes, reservoirs and basins worldwide. Drawing input from regional forums with support from 288 experts across 41 nations, its final report was endorsed by all partner agencies and outlined the future direction for lake basin managers and stakeholders for the sustainable management of lakes and their basins. The LBMI identified 19 issues affecting the 28 studied lakes, while the last of its 13 findings stated that going forwards ‘an integrated approach is essential’, while prioritising ILBM in government planning, water resource management, habitat and biodiversity conservation, and economic development, would also be crucial for long term outcomes. Integrated Lake Basin Management (ILBM) is an
ecosystem-based approach that focuses on the unique characteristics of lakes and their basins, building on the principles of integrated water resources management. It prioritises the vulnerability of lakes, applies the precautionary principles, utilising knowledge and science to guide policy and highlight stakeholder participation. ILBM has been implemented in a few places
around the world and has influenced national water management strategies in Malaysia and Kenya, positively
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45
