Water Scarcity, the Climate Crisis and Global Food Security: A Call for Collaborative Action

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Water scarcity is one of the most pressing development challenges of our time. Today, 2.4 billion people live in water-stressed countries. Many are smallholder farmers who already struggle to meet their daily needs for drinking water, nutritious food and basic services such as hygiene and sanitation. Women, indigenous peoples, migrants and refugees are particularly affected.

Competition for this precious resource is on the rise, as water scarcity increasingly becomes a cause of conflict. Freshwater resources per person have dropped by 20 per cent over the past two decades, while water availability and quality are deteriorating quickly due to decades of misuse, lack of coordinated management, over-abstraction of groundwater, pollution and climate change.

To worsen the situation, increased and recurring extreme weather events, droughts and floods are stressing our ecosystems, with devastating consequences for global food security.

Agriculture, which accounts for 72 per cent of global freshwater withdrawals, the highest of all sectors, holds the solutions to this global crisis.

A comprehensive approach for a changing world

To address these multifaceted challenges, securing sufficient water resources for agriculture in an efficient manner is paramount. This becomes even more critical with the need to produce more food as the world population increases and urbanization accelerates, intensifying the competition among different economic sectors, all of which depend on water.

Ensuring effective governance is therefore essential for sustainable and equitable water allocation. This requires adopting an inclusive and integrated approach that involves all stakeholders, from policymakers to grass-roots communities. Water governance and tenure, and water accounting, are needed to catalyse transformative change and guarantee equitable access to water.

Targeted investments and incentives in innovative and efficient water management practices are key. This includes new technologies for irrigation and storage, advancing wastewater treatment and reuse, circular economy principles and ecosystem-based solutions to address water scarcity.

Integrated natural resources management through the coordinated development and management of water, soils and land at all levels will maximize human well-being while safeguarding the integrity and sustainability of vital ecosystems. Such efforts call for both national and regional strategies.

As water scarcity intensifies and climate change results in more frequent droughts and floods, the international community has to step up and adopt a holistic approach towards the climate agenda beyond water and food. More concrete and inclusive climate solutions must be accelerated and scaled up so as to deliver on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the Paris Agreement on climate change.

In the Deccan Plateau region of southern India, farmers check on a drip irrigation system as part of a hydrological project with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. The capacity-building project enables farming communities to practice sustainable land and water management for improved livelihoods. © FAO/Noah Seelam

Working with countries to act on the ground

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), together with member countries and other partners, is working to make these changes happen.

The United Nations 2023 Water Conference undoubtedly represented a pivotal juncture, rallying global leaders, civil society organizations, the private sector and individuals to unite in purposeful action and pledge their commitment to achieving the water-related goals and targets outlined in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

Because nearly three quarters of freshwater withdrawals go to agriculture, FAO is in a unique position to offer solutions to address challenges related to water scarcity. The same goes for water-related disasters, including droughts and floods, many of which disproportionally affect family farmers.

Aligned with the Organization's "New Water Journey", which emphasizes Integrated Water Resources Management for agricultural and food security to advance numerous SDGs, FAO embraces the global Water Action Agenda as adopted during the 2023 Water Conference.

FAO works with governments and communities to build country-owned and country-led National Water Roadmaps, a tool aimed at strengthening the intersectoral coordination of water at the national level. FAO also builds the data sets and technology required by countries to make well‑informed decisions.

It works with countries to increase farmers’ access and rights to water as part of its efforts to improve water governance.

Globally, irrigated land produces 40 per cent of food from 20 per cent of arable land, yet it remains an untapped potential. To help deliver on this potential, FAO is developing a methodology for measuring global irrigation needs and their potential mapping, alongside the countries that will implement it.

FAO also promotes targeted investments and appropriate financing of water infrastructure and irrigation, and it works with governments to manage drought risks before they turn into crises.

Although floods caused global losses of around $20 billion in 2021, ecosystem-based solutions for flood management, agricultural land management, wetland storage and other soil and water conservation practices can attenuate these floods and limit their impacts.

Integrated land and water management can provide multiple benefits. In Sri Lanka and Zambia, for example, FAO is piloting multifunctional paddy fields for fish and shrimp farming, in addition to rice production. Such value added infrastructure generates benefits by recharging groundwater, controlling floods and providing ecosystem services while boosting livelihoods.

Women carry water home near Kairouan. Summers are hot and dry in Tunisia and year-long water sources are often scarce. © FAO/John Isaac

As the host of WASAG—the Global Framework on Water Scarcity in Agriculture—FAO is bringing together governments and other key players worldwide to share knowledge and design new polices, strategies and programmes to change water scarcity into an opportunity for food and nutrition security.

Collaborative solutions for water sustainability: A call to action for all stakeholders

We can and must do more, together, with all the various actors making their distinct but interrelated contributions:

Managing water more wisely starts with building partnerships. This means that governments need to collaborate with international organizations, research institutions and academia, the private sector and civil society to devise sustainable solutions for a water- and food-secure future.

Governments need to design science- and evidence-based policies that capitalize on data and innovation to improve water planning and management. Recognizing the water-food-energy nexus, policies need to prioritize intersectoral planning, managing often-competing but complementary interests, without compromising the health of our ecosystems.

Farmers need to become agents of sustainable water management, equipped with the right tools to do so effectively. Farmers, forest-dependent communities, fisherfolk, livestock producers and those working in the blue economy already deal with water on a daily basis. Empowering and enabling them to take the lead in finding and implementing water solutions corresponding to their needs is both the obvious and the smart thing to do. However, this is only achievable if they are provided with appropriate technologies, training and timely, accurate information. They should also be involved in all stages of the planning and decision-making process.

The private sector needs to become a water steward. That means making concrete commitments to improving water use efficiency and reducing pollution across the supply chain. Actors in the sector could exercise their corporate social responsibility in a more practical and innovative way. Prioritizing water governance can boost their reputation and profits and help them avoid risks that water scarcity, floods and pollution could pose to operations in the future.

Finally, each and every one of us needs to value water. We should no longer take it for granted. Making informed decisions about the products we buy, wasting less water and preventing pollution are simple ways for all of us to contribute to the positive actions for the future of food, people and the planet.