Availability of safe drinking water is at risk due to global challenges such as rapid urbanisation and changing weather patterns. Climatic projections indicate more frequent and severe weather events which are likely to put more stress on the limited freshwater resources.

In Africa, climate change is already an established reality as events such as prolonged droughts, unprecedented floods, depleted rain forests, and ocean acidification are threatening resources, livelihoods, and human wellbeing. These will negatively affect both quality and quantity of the resources. For this reason, there is a growing sense of urgency among countries, basin organizations and other end users such as utilities, of the need to improve the climate resilience of water supply services to cater for extreme weather conditions, increasing resource stresses and ensuing water quality and quantity issues.

Water safety plans (WSPs), which constitute a proactive and comprehensive risk assessment and risk management approach to ensure the safety and security of drinking-water supplies, provide a valuable framework to address these issues.

This webinar provides practical insights into the challenges, successes and lessons learnt in the implementation of Climate-resilient Water Safety Plans (CR-WSP) in Africa with a particular focus on Burkina Faso and Kenya.