It has been said that climate change mitigation is about gases and that adaptation is about water. In a world where 70 percent of water withdrawals are used for agriculture, it is important that we develop adaptation strategies to manage the impacts of climate change on water availability, agriculture, and the environment. Adapting to changes in water availability and seasonal distribution is possible, but we need to know the direction and magnitude of these potential changes and their degree of certainty. Given the likelihood of increasing water scarcity and variability, especially in the world’s poorest countries, we have to ask whether we are saddled with outdated 20th century paradigms on how we manage water supplies that are fit for agricultural production, as well as domestic, industrial and environmental uses.

Originally Published In: Environment Matters, 2007 (Climate change and adaptation).