Blog

USAID’s WATSAN (water and sanitation) project works to strengthen local capacity and the water and sanitation infrastructure so that it can withstand and operate reliably under floods, landslides, and droughts.

• 02/22/2022
• Leah Quin

Electrifying health facilities can be accomplished through one of two approaches: connecting to a utility grid or on-site generation. The combination of these two technologies is much cleaner than using diesel generators, the preferred mode of rural clinics for providing off-grid power, and over time is less expensive. Renewable energy solutions such as solar also reduce future greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to climate change.

• 09/23/2021
• Jacob Brunell, Julia Fonteles, Will Putzier, Nicolette Salazar

In mid-2020, Climatelinks added sector pages to its website. The 14 pages, accessible by hovering your mouse over “What We Do” in the website’s top navigation menu, showcase sector-specific work on climate change that USAID is undertaking in a variety of contexts. Each sector page houses an introductory overview detailing related climate impacts and stressors, as well as potential solutions.

• 12/30/2020
• Stephan Hardeman

Over the course of 2020, the Climatelinks community contributed over 120 blogs on topics varying from mangrove restoration in coastal Sierra Leone to flood early warning systems in East Java, Indonesia. Below are the five most visited blogs of 2020.

• 12/15/2020
• Stephan Hardeman

The majority of the world’s population lives in urban areas, and they continue to grow by more than 75 million people per year. Cities, especially rapidly growing cities, are likely to be the driving economic force in many countries, even more so than they are now.

• 12/01/2020
• Stephan Hardeman, Colin Quinn

Originating in Turkey, the Tigris and Euphrates rivers traditionally have met the vast majority of Iraq’s water needs. The rivers are used to pump water into millions of homes and irrigate the historic Mesopotamia agricultural fields.

• 11/17/2020
• Owen Scott

There is a wealth of options to consider when financing urban infrastructure. Some of these include but are not limited to: public-private partnership models; user fees or other domestically mobilized resources; loans from commercial or multilateral development banks; grants from facilities like the Green Climate Fund; or contributions from local businesses.

• 11/12/2020
• Max Lohmann

According to USAID’s Southern Africa’s Climate Change Risk Profile, “Changes in water quality and availability will be the dominant changes seen under a new climate.” The sensitivity of livelihoods and economies to these changes, together with a lack of access to drinking water (and contamination of existing supply), threatens water security and resilience in a region where water demands are rising in response to an increasing population.

• 11/10/2020
• Suvritha Rampha, Steve Collins

Reliable electricity can mean life or death for a patient. Healthcare facilities need electricity to power lifesaving medical equipment and preserve perishable supplies, such as vaccines. Amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, the stakes are even higher, as more people around the world need treatment and services.

• 08/20/2020
• Kristen Madler, Janice M. Laurente

With the climate changing in fast and uncertain ways, getting the right information for infrastructure design is becoming more challenging. USAID spends over a billion dollars a year building infrastructure across our humanitarian assistance and development portfolios, so it’s important that the Agency get it right. Infrastructure matters to international development. How the world grows, advances, and develops is (literally) built on a foundation of infrastructure.

• 02/03/2020
• John Pasch

Amid growing recognition that climate change is not just an environmental issue, but a concern in all sectors, USAID’s adaptation investments are helping the Agency and its partners more effectively assess, plan for, and manage climate risks.

• 12/19/2019
• Erin Martin

During 2019, the Climatelinks community contributed over 100 resources on a wide range of topics, from clean cook stoves to sustainable forest management.

• 12/12/2019
• Stephan Hardeman

Mahila Housing Trust (MHT) is one of 10 challenge winners of the Global Resilience Challenge to transform interconnected risks into opportunities.

• 12/04/2019
• Simone Verkaart

The Climatelinks photo contest received an impressive total of 170 submissions from the Climatelinks community, representing more than 40 countries.

• 12/03/2019
• Steve Hardeman

In arid regions with already unreliable water and sanitation services, climate change is a threat multiplier for those who rely on functional infrastructure for basic water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) needs.

• 11/12/2019
• Brittany Ajroud, Patrick Nease