Abstract
Abstract Climate change has direct effects on the availability and quality of water for human consumption. In order to propose actions aimed at reducing vulnerability caused by water shortages and risk management required due to extreme events, real knowledge of the communitỳs perception is vital. This study developed in the department of Caldas, in the Colombian Andean region, analysed the perception of the incidence of climate change particularly related to water resources. To achieve this, a survey was used with various actors based on the first National Survey of Public Perception of Climate Change. The results show that the respondents perceive that the availability and quality of water are indeed highly threatened by climate change. As actions for adaptation, they suggested the promotion of the protection of hydrographic basins and a greater control of dumping liquids into surface water sources. Finally, they requested increased opportunities to improve water governance and participation in decision-making bodies regarding climate change, which they see as a fundamental aspect to achieve a real climate empowerment that can lead to action and adaptation in the territories in emerging countries.
Highlights
One of the challenges for today’s society is climate change, defined as climate change attributed directly or indirectly to human activity which alters the composition of the atmosphere due to greenhouse gases (GHGs) (CMNUCC 1992; Jol et al 2009)
Highlighting that 68.5% of the inhabitants of the geographical department consider themselves either informed or very informed about climate change is important. This facilitates the correlation of the perception of the impacts of climate change in the region
Various studies have been carried out concerning the perception of populations on climate change and how this global phenomenon has a direct influence on the availability and quality of water (Echavarren et al 2019)
Summary
One of the challenges for today’s society is climate change, defined as climate change attributed directly or indirectly to human activity which alters the composition of the atmosphere due to greenhouse gases (GHGs) (CMNUCC 1992; Jol et al 2009) Actions, such as industrialization, deforestation and large-scale agriculture, have contributed to the increase in GHGs in the atmosphere (IPCC 2014; ONU 2020). The populations most affected by climate change are found in coastal regions and in tropical countries where fragile and highly susceptible ecosystems abound In these regions, extreme climatic events and the spread of infectious diseases are evident (Becerra et al 2020; Harper et al 2020)
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