Vanuatu: A flagship for the World

Climate adaptation is a question of survival for citizens of Vanuatu. And, because water is the major connecting element between the land and the sea, with rivers transporting drinking water, pollutants and sedimentation to coastal areas while the ocean rises and strips away the coast or seeps into freshwater supplies and farms, Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) is essential for ensuring adaptation efforts produce immediate and long-term tangible benefits for the population’s health, and food and livelihood security. Indeed, Vanuatu has already seized on this fact, explicitly including IWRM in its National Adaptation Plan of Action (NAPA) as a priority project to reduce vulnerability to climate change across the nation’s watersheds.