This Pacific WASH Webinar was about building resilience to the impacts of climate change focusing on Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM). Climate change is affecting us all and we need to ensure that our water supplies are well planned to adapt to changes in rainfall and water availability.

Speakers discussed the challenges and approaches to water resource planning covering topics such as: 

• Challenges associated with finding a suitable water source that meets yield and quality objectives, against a backdrop of contaminant sources, saline intrusion, poor understanding of geological conditions, infrastructure costs  and social and land use issues. 
• The importance of investing in resource investigations early, to gather information/data to support a robust resource assessment. 
• Challenges associated with tourism season falling over the summer season, causing the period of highest water demand, with the seasonal period of lowest supply (from the surface water intakes)
• A structured approach based on consensus on the required information for water resource planning connecting three important parties or stakeholders in the planning process: resources analysts, planners and decision-makers.
• A case study from Tonga.