Water Wheel Sept 2021: Opinion

Abstract

Subsurface water banking for water security and climate resilience On 9 August, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change sounded the alarm that the challenges created by climate change is ‘code red for humanity’ . Water security is intricately linked to climate change. We need to find ways to build climate resilience into our water systems. As our climate continues to change and our weather variability continues to swing between the extremes, we need to continue to develop mitigation and adaptation measures. Even when the precipitation amount does not decrease, we observe that the rainy season downpours are compressed into a few weeks and even days, resulting in localised flash flooding and overwhelming the stormwater infrastructure. Humans have developed techniques to keep some of this water for as long as possible in the landscape to ensure that they can meet their water needs. Some water infiltrates and percolates into the subsurface to aquifers, some are stored in depressions, dam walls keep some back. This provides a means for domestic, food and energy security.

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