Evaluating technological resilience of small drinking water systems under the projected changes of climate

With prevailing changes in climate and increasing population, small drinking water systems in the climate-vulnerable parts of the world have already exhibited and left traces of prominent unpredictability of water availability, in terms of both water quantity and water quality. Dimensions of climate change, such as large variability in precipitation pattern, rise in temperature and associated increase in evaporation rates, as well as their consequences, are surely going to affect the unsophisticated, small drinking water systems which are serving mass populations in South Asia and many other parts of the world. This research paper aims to analyze the possible extents of vulnerability of some selected small drinking water systems currently being operated in the coastal areas of Bangladesh as a result of the predicted changes in climatic parameters such as temperature, precipitation and evaporation along with sea level rise and extreme events such as cyclones. However, to examine possible future climate change scenarios, four Global Climate Models have been applied in developing projections of different climatic parameters for Bangladesh. Based on the projections of climate models and associated key vulnerabilities being assessed, this paper features the evaluation of potential technological resilience of specific small drinking water systems from the Bangladesh perspective.