What the Sustainable Development Goals Say about Our CitiesThe Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) make note of what should be done in and about our cities; Sustainable Development Goal 11 says that we must “Make cities inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable. “

Cities are high on public and political agendas, and are central to the idea of sustainable development, which includes resilience.

One of the main aims of Goal 11 is to “significantly reduce the number of deaths, people affected and economic losses caused by disasters, with a focus on people in vulnerable situations.”

[Target 11.5]

This goal is aimed at the knowledge that extreme weather inflicts a massive amount of damage on lives and livelihoods, but also recognises that societies already possess the knowledge and experience to not only cope with such devastating disasters but also the knowledge and ability to reduce disaster impacts and to build resilience.

In order to do this, cities need to put policies in place that can adapt to climate change and become more resilient to disasters. [Target 11.b] The responsibility for the development of these resilience-related policies rests with the governments of each country and this is why all governments need to take all data into consideration, including effects experienced over previous decades and which areas were not directly affected by extreme weather conditions.

One of the main aims of building resilient cities is to combat climate change by building cities around creating sustainable fresh water resources for use as drinking water as well as for agricultural and energy uses. Infrastructure should protect the cities and their residents from extreme weather conditions such as floods and droughts and at the same time trap all available water for use down the line.

There are already some great examples of sustainable architecture where buildings have “living walls” and “rooftop gardens” backed up by tanks which will catch the water from the roofs and the walls as well as methods to capture runoff water from sidewalks so that no water goes to waste but can be captured and recycled for use.

Get bottled water coolers and mains water coolers from Living-Water. Rent water coolers and buy water dispensers in London.