Climate and Vulnerability Risk Assessment for Water and Sanitation in Uganda

Submitted by Nitya Jacob | published 27th Oct 2022 | last updated 16th Feb 2023
Kampala

Summary

Uganda has historically been hit by hazards of distinct nature, intensity, and range. Heavy rains and drought events, storms, and landslides are some examples of climate related episodes that had and still have a strong impact over almost all economic sectors, regions, and population. Hazards have directly impacted water and sanitation services as well, affecting access to safe water, damaging WASH facilities, contaminating water sources, and compromising the population’s health and the country’s environment. They will continue to do so and will probably become more intense and frequent, due to climate change. The need to cope with these issues is urgent. New approaches and new strategies are needed to ensure that Uganda is able to secure availability and sustainable management of WASH services for all and to realize the human rights to water and sanitation.

This document used the risk assessment methodology of the GWP and UNICEF Strategic Framework for WASH Climate Resilient Development, which is based on a step-by-step participatory assessment procedure, aimed at involving government planners, decision-makers, and practitioners responsible for WASH service delivery in Uganda. The analysis’ ambition is to determine the nature and extent of risk by understanding how climate and environmental hazards affect and impact exposed population groups, critical infrastructure, water sources, and other relevant assets, while integrating the underlying causes of vulnerability in Uganda, such as poverty, education, and human development.

The study discusses separately these three elements – i.e., hazards, exposure, and vulnerability, and then bring them together to provide an overall scoring of risks, according to the following risk formula: Risk = Hazard x Exposure x Vulnerability. The first step in the analysis was the identification of those climate and environmental hazards with highest impact on WASH services and facilities. In consultation with sector stakeholders, the following hazards were prioritised: drought, flooding, landslides, land degradation, water pollution and water overexploitation. All these hazards were characterized, based on an assessment of their main features: frequency, duration, intensity, geographical extent, and time of year. After characterizing them, mainly through a desk review that was validated and fine-tuned in a series of workshops with stakeholders, these hazards were scored using a simple traffic-light system. The second step of the methodology consisted of the exposure analysis for these prioritized hazards, focusing on three different elements: population, critical WASH infrastructure, and water sources. A set of exposure indicators was defined in relation to each of these elements, for all hazards. They were assessed using again a traffic-light system (i.e., high, moderate, or low exposure). The third step was the analysis of vulnerability. A number of criteria were developed and assessed in relation to six vulnerability areas: human, social, physical, financial, environmental, and political. In the last step, hazard, exposure, and vulnerability were combined to come up with an overall score, resulting in the prioritization of climate and vulnerability risks for the WASH sector in Uganda.