Climate change is one of the greatest environmental challenges of the twenty-first century that requires significant responses. Its impacts have already been felt and projected to cause more impacts on sectors essential for economic development including freshwater resources. Although it is becoming clear that transformative adaptation is indispensable as climate change impacts increase, most adaptation strategies have largely been envisioned to be incremental with little attention to transformative adaptation. To fill part of such information gap, this paper assessed if responses of water insecure coastal communities of Tanzania are incremental or transformative. Simple random sampling procedure was used to obtain 97 households, while purposive sampling procedure was used to select key informants. Quantitative data were subjected to descriptive statistics, whereas qualitative data were analysed through content analysis. Results indicated that water security has decreased in the past 30 years. Most response strategies used by people in the area are incremental, weak and undesirable for effective as well as successful adaptation to climate change. This study recommends for development practitioners and other stakeholders to help local people institute transformative adaptation.
Magesa, BA; Pauline, NM
Responses of water insecure coastal communities of Tanzania to climate change impacts. Is it incremental or transformative adaptation?
Climate And Development