October 05, 2022
The FAO is currently facilitating a Webinar Series on Rain Water Harvesting. Module 6 will focus on ‘Addressing Climate Change Impacts through Rainwater Harvesting‘ and will take place on October 5th and October 11th, both from 13.00 – 14.30 CET.
The first session will take place on, Wednesday Oct 5th, at at 13.00 – 14.30 CET. The theme of Session 1 is ‘Water buffering for climate change adaptation and biodiversity enhancement‘. Register through this link for the session
The second session will take place next week Tuesday, 11th Oct at 13.00 – 14.30 CET. The theme of Session 2 is: ‘Rainwater harvesting for climate change adaptation and ecosystem preservation‘. Register through this link for the session.
For more info check the flyer here or visit the event page on the FAO website
Background
Water scarcity is a critical challenge in countries and regions with arid and semi-arid conditions and fast-growing water demands. This is mostly the case in all of the countries across the NENA Region, where food demand and food insecurity continue to grow, widening the water supply-demand gap in most countries. Furthermore, the anticipated impact of climate change in the NENA region is indicative towards an increased intensity of rainstorms and flash floods, while the total amount of annual precipitation rates shows declining trends. During the last 20 years, interest has been renewed in rainwater harvesting (RWH) as one of the most effective climate adaptation strategies to cope with water scarcity, thus reducing the pressure on the limited freshwater resources and increasing rainfed crop productivity.
This webinar series on Rainwater Harvesting aims to provide an overview of RWH applications and illustrates, with country examples, the diversity of approaches. It will try to unlock the potential of rainwater harvesting applications in the NENA region by highlighting the role of rainwater management in overcoming the current challenges in achieving water security. It will also shed the light on the need for innovations in economics, social consensus and supportive laws and regulations to ensure a widespread uptake of RWH technologies in the NENA region.
About the Module 7
There are two webinars available for discussing how rainwater systems can help to address the challenge of climate change. The module will draw on a review of ACSAD experiences in implementing rainwater harvesting projects in the MENA region from a climate change perspective, as well as a review of twenty years of watershed development in semi-arid India. The role of water buffering at catchment level and how water buffering can transform landscapes and livelihoods will be further explored. Discussions will continue with a reflection on the effects of rainwater harvesting on biodiversity enhancement and ecosystem services.
Organisation
Main Conveners:
FAO/WEPS-NENA project & Water Scarcity Initiative (WSI) with: ICARDA, ICID and FAO inter-Regional Technical Platform on Water Scarcity (iRTP-WS)
Contributing Partners:
Arab Centre for the Studies of Arid Zones and Drylands (ACSAD), ESCWA, MetaMeta and University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences
Languages:
English and French with live translation
Recording:
https://dgroups.org/fao/waterproductivity/rwh
