August 18, 2008 — Water and climate change is one of the standing issues to be discussed at this year’s World Water Week, whose focus is on sanitation in response to the UN International Year of Sanitation.

Vahid Alavian, World Bank water adviser, is attending the conference and will report on progress and preliminary findings of a two-year Bank study on water and climate change.

Worldbank.org talked with Alavian about his findings to date.

What’s the objective of the study?

In the water sector, water managers inherently have to deal with variability and uncertainty, but what’s new is the increased level of uncertainty due to the changes in climate. As a result, the Bank is looking at issues such as the impact of climate change on water systems and ways to reduce vulnerability.