Climate change straining utility systems in Asia

Climate change is battering Asia's water and power systems and putting millions in harm's way, forcing countries to pour billions into shoring up basic services, according to two recent reports.

- BY SIBI ARASU AND ANIRUDDHA GHOSAL

ADITYA AJI AFP/Getty Images

FLASH flooding leaves the Darul Mukhlisin school and mosque inundated in Sumatra, Indonesia.

Water-related disasters are rising across the continent and spending to protect communities is falling short. Asian nations will need $4 trillion for water and sanitation between 2025 and 2040 — about $250 billion a year, the Asian Development Bank said in a report released this week.

Governments are under growing pressure to protect power systems people rely on every day. By 2050, extreme weather could cost listed power companies in the Asia-Pacific region about $8.4 billion a year in damage and lost revenue, a third more than now, according to recent research by the Hong Kong-based nonprofit Asia Investor Group on Climate Change and the New York-based MSCI Institute, a sustainability think tank.

Those risks have been playing out this year across Asia as it was pummeled by late-arriving storms, relentless rains and severe floods.

In Quy Nhon, power lines snapped when Typhoon Kalmaegi blasted the coastal city in central Vietnam with heavy rain and strong winds. Floods from the relentless downpours left streets submerged under chest-high water days later, turning entire neighborhoods into islands. The day after the storm made landfall, Hai Duong, 29, rushed to a mall that still had power to charge her phone.

“I can't go back because my home is underwater. I just want to see if my relatives are safe,” she said.

Asia faces triple threat