Environmental Change and South America: Water

Questions and answers - Worldbank article

1/ Climate change - how it affects the design of (new) water resource infrastructure.

Fact: Climate change will impact the water resource systems of the world.
Explanation: For example, reservoir designs for water storage have been based on a water
system assumed to be driven by historic climate conditions. If the climate changes, river or other water source runoffs will either increase or decrease in a way that could be different from what has generally been observed over previous decades. This means that costs will be required to adapt the reservoirs to these changes. If there is less water flow, then there is less water supply and may this may economic damage and other hardship. Increased water flow, on the other hand, may cause flooding.

Bottom line: South America could experience a range of runoff changes depending on
whether and how climate change affects precipitation and temperature patterns over the continent. Models for South America suggest a greater climate sensitivity to changes in precipitation than temperature.

My note: The expenses to cater for water infrastructure design changes are quite large for developing countries but they should be considered as an investment in the future. The degree of impact from climate change may be uncertain but the change itself is a reality that needs to be addressed and whose impacts are already being felt. Farming communities in some countries find it hard to plan crop planting because the weather systems have altered unpredictably from historic patterns making it difficult to plan for hydrologic needs.

Source extracted: http://siteresources.worldbank.org/INTLACINSPANISH/Resources/SDWP_Future_Climate.pdf