Southeast Asia faces “double whammy of water crisis”

The number of days with more than 20 millimeters of rainfall per day in major Southeast Asian countries is set to increase by 25-50 percent over the next 25 years, according to a UN report, while rising sea levels are threatening densely populated areas such as the Mekong River delta. Flooding in Jakarta, Indonesia, in March resulted in 105 neighborhoods being inundated and economic losses amounting to Rp 1.7 trillion, while Palawan province in the Philippines was hit by 342 millimeters of torrential rain in February, breaking a 48-year record. The Indonesian government used “salt-seeding cloud” technology to direct rainfall to the sea to alleviate flooding, but $16 billion is still needed to strengthen flood prevention infrastructure in the long term.