New Approaches to Managing Risk: Climate Adaptation in Zambia

The ClimateReady Podcast: Adapting to Climate Change & Uncertainty

In 2015 a drought in Zambia led to failures at the Iolanda Water Treatment Plant, which serves Zambia’s capital and largest city. Changes in water availability and decreased hydroelectric output threatened water treatment capacity. Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC; www.mcc.gov), an independent US foreign aid agency, piloted a new bottom-up climate adaptation approach to help build robustness and flexibility into the rehabilitation and management of the water treatment plant. This approach, known as Collaborative Risk Informed Decision Analysis (CRIDA; www.agwaguide.org/CRIDA), combines state of the art techniques to develop robust solutions through stakeholder involvement while simultaneously assessing risk with flexible and governance-sensitive approaches, operations, and implementation. We chat with Marc Tkach of MCC to hear about this innovative project (http://agwaguide.org/casestudies/zambia/). Video links: CRIDA Pilot in Zambia: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wPc6DKTtG08 Decision Scaling & Adaptation Pathways tutorial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=woRtE_2H_r8