Climate change threatens Asia's water and power systems, reports warn

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

CARS AND HOUSES are submerged in floodwaters in Songkhla province, southern Thailand, on Nov. 26, 2025. (AP File Photo)

(AP File Photo)

Water-related disasters are rising across the region even as spending to protect communities falls 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 Monday.

Governments are under growing pressure to protect power systems people rely on every day. By 2050, extreme weather could leave listed power companies in Asia-Pacific with about $8.4 billion a year in damage and lost revenue, a third higher 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 central Vietnam’s Quy Nhon, power lines snapped when Typhoon Kalmaegi blasted the coastal city 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.

The ADB report says 2.7 billion people, about 60 percent of the Asia-Pacific population, have access to water for most of their basic needs but more than four billion still remain exposed to unsafe water, degraded ecosystems and escalating climate hazards.