ABSTRACT
The problem of climate change is about the economy-our production and consumption system. Climate change is about society-our lifestyles, our jobs, our food, our recreation. Climate change is about the environment —about how land-use changes affect the climate and how climate change affects species and ecosystems. Climate change is about the rich and their use and abuse of natural resources. Climate change is about the poor and how access to basic resources (water, food, housing, energy) will be compromised. Climate change is about so many issues and can be defi ned in so many different ways, that we often forget that climate change is also about water-water that makes our planet quite unique; water that makes life possible; water that makes the economy fl ourish. The link between climate and water is very critical. Water vapour itself is a greenhouse gas and thereby contributes to the problem. Climate change leads to sea level rise; and climate change may infl uence rainfall patterns and water runoff drastically (IPCC-1 2007; IPCC-2 2007). What do we do, if the rains our agricultural systems depend on, do not occur for days, leave alone decades? What happens if we receive rains concentrated in one week that we normally receive in a year as recently happened in the Philippines? What happens if the river basins, cradles of civilizations for the last fi ve thousand years, get washed away by the combination of rising sea-levels
and rapidly melting glaciers? Even if we are able to reach the Millennium Development Goals (UNGA 2000) by 2015, is it possible that in 2016, the achievements evaporate as a result of changing hydrological regimes? The close relationship between these two natural systems-the climatic system and the hydrological system-implies that there needs to be a close relationship between the governance of these two systems. However, this is not necessarily the case.
