Half of all poor people live in the driest areas of the world. By 2025, 1.8 billion people will be living in areas with absolute water scarcity, and two-thirds of the world’s population could be living under water stress conditions, says the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).

In 2007, the FAO is playing a leading role in UN water activities. Pasquale Steduto, Chief of FAO’s Water, Development and Management Unit, is the current chair of the United Nations coordination mechanism, UN-Water. FAO is also the coordinating agency within the UN system in 2007 for World Water Day (WWD), which is celebrated every year on 22 March.

The theme for WWD 2007 is “Coping with Water Scarcity” and FAO naturally makes the link with agriculture, the biggest user of water worldwide, accounting for about 70% of all freshwater withdrawals. This figure is closer to 90% in several developing countries, where roughly three-quarters of the world’s irrigated farmlands are located.

Much of the answer to water scarcity can be found in farming-related techniques that harvest more rainfall, reduce waste in irrigation and increase productivity, and in changes in crop and dietary choices, Pasquale Steduto said.

Web sites: UN-Water ; UN - World Water Day ; IRC – World Water Day

Contact: Pasquale Steduto, Chief, Water, Development and Management Unit, FAO, Italy, Pasquale.Steduto@fao.org ; UN-Water, unwater@un.org ; FAO - World Water Day, wwd-2007@fao.org

Source: FAO, 14 Feb 2007

Tags: policies & legislation, water resources management