The impacts of climate change on water and sanitation Changing patterns of precipitation On a global scale, rising temperatures will lead to increased evaporation of surface water. This means that more water from the water cycle will be held in the atmosphere, and average precipitation will increase. In addition to changes at local and regional levels, the amount of precipitation falling at once will become increasingly unpredictable and variable over the year. While the average global yearly precipitation is expected to increase, precipitation is not necessarily going to become more frequent, but rather more intense. In fact, periods of lower precipitation and droughts are expected to become more severe and longer, while periods of precipitation, storms and hurricanes will become more intense. Impacts on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation Increased overexploitation of water during periods of low rainfall. Need for adaptation measures that diversify sources of supply, strengthen storage and storm drainage. Disrupted agricultural and livestock production traditions essential to the food sufficiency. Scarcity of resources and conflicts between users with the risk of marginalizing the human rights of the most impoverished and vulnerable. Droughts Periods of drought, during which precipitation is greatly reduced and water sources are depleted, are predicted to become longer and more frequent in certain regions of the world which already face overall dry conditions, and dry seasons. Impacts on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation Droughts reduce water availability, which can lead to water supply restrictions and marginalize the human rights of the most vulnerable. The decrease in flow rates can increase the concentration of pollutants, threatening the drinkability of the water. In arid and semi-arid regions, droughts often dry up springs and force people, generally women and girls, to fetch water from more distant sources, with the effort and time that this entails. 4