The Call to Action

Our Vision

A world where:

  • Clean, safe water is accessible to all

  • Communities are resilient and are able to adapt to climate-driven water shocks

  • Health systems are protected from water-related risks

  • Water is governed as a shared, protected resource, not a commodity

Principles for Action


The Challenges We Face:

  1. Climate-Driven Water Disruption

    • Rising temperatures alter rainfall, melt glaciers, and shift freshwater availability.

    • Extreme weather events (floods, droughts, storms) devastate water systems.

  2. Climate change is a public health emergency

    • Contaminated water spreads cholera, diarrhoea, and vector-borne diseases like malaria 

    • Droughts and floods destroy sanitation infrastructure and healthcare access and food insecurity.

  3. Inequity and Injustice

    • Marginalised and low-income communities bear the brunt of water and health crises.

    • Women face disproportionate burdens in responding to climate induced water issues.

Water Justice - Access to clean water is a human right, not a privilege.

  1. Climate Resilience and nature based solutions - Water systems must be designed to withstand and adapt to climate shocks and work with nature.  

  2. Health Protection - Public health must be at the forefront of water policy through safe sanitation, disease prevention, and healthcare access.

  3. Local Leadership and genuine community engagement - Communities must lead water governance, decision making and with indigenous, scientific, and lived knowledge working collaboratively to develop 

Multistake holder engagement - Water, climate, health, housing, agriculture, and energy must be managed holistically with local communities.

Home

Calls to Action for our Governments

1. Place health at the heart of climate action

Recognise that climate change is a public health crisis and embed health outcomes in all climate policy.

2. Endorse and implement the Belem Health Action Plan (BHAP)

Support the BHAP pillars: Surveillance and Monitoring; Evidence-Based Policy and Capacity Building; and Innovation and Production.

3. Integrate water security and nature-based solutions in climate–health strategies

Declare water security a climate and health emergency.

Invest in nature-based solutions that restore ecosystem functions.

Include forest–water–climate interactions in planning frameworks.

Support early warning systems for floods, droughts, and waterborne disease outbreaks.