Adapting drinking-water systems to coastal climate change: evidence from Viet Nam and the Philippines

Coastal areas will increasingly experience adverse climate hazards such as coastal flooding and severe storms as a result of climate change. These hazards adversely affect drinking-water systems and thereby reduce access to safe drinking-water. Effective adaptation implementation minimizes the damaging impacts of these hazards. However, research on the enablers of and barriers to effective adaptation in low-income countries is lacking. This study maps enablers and barriers to climate change adaptation of water systems in coastal low-income countries using evidence from Viet Nam and the Philippines, countries which experience frequent extreme climate events. Interviews were carried out with staff from 29 water utilities and government agencies. A systematic framework for diagnosing barriers to climate change adaptation was used to analyze the responses. Five factors were identified as relevant to effective adaptation: partnerships; financial resources; human and technical resources; leadership and political will; and awareness of climate change. The factors identified were related to all the elements of the framework-actors, system of concern, and context-and were relevant to the three phases of the adaptation process (understanding the problem, planning the adaptation, and managing the implementation). Our findings can assist water system managers in diagnosing barriers to effective adaptation that may exist and identifying relevant partnerships and resources that will aid in overcoming these barriers.