Freshwater Is Not Infinite, Need To Stop Taking It For Granted: UN DG
ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News – 16th Oct, 2023) United Nations Director General of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) Dr QU Dongyu has emphasized that “we must not take water for granted and must work together to manage a finite, precious resource.”
In his message on the World Food Day to be observed on October 16, he said, that with about 70 percent of all fresh water going to agriculture, changing the ways we produce our food, fiber, and other agricultural products is the most crucial task. “It is also where failure to act will have the gravest consequences.”
This year’s World Food Day celebrates one of the planet’s most precious resources water. It’s essential to life on Earth which covers the majority of the planet’s surface, makes up over 50 percent of our bodies, helps keep us fed, supports livelihoods, and is central to achieving the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Freshwater is not infinite, and we need to stop taking it for granted, he said. “Consider that over the last two decades, each of us on Earth has lost approximately one-fifth of the freshwater available to us. For some people, the reality is much worse. In some regions, in fact, it runs closer to one-third.“
Unless we act urgently, we are on course to increase our water use by more than a third by 2050 globally, given our planet’s growing population, he said.
“That means, collectively, we risk reaching a point of no return.”
Rapid population growth, urbanization, industrialization, economic development, and the climate crisis have all taken a toll on our water resources. Combined with water pollution, over-extraction, and lack of coordinated management, this creates a complex mix of overlapping challenges, Dongyu said.
Increased extreme weather events, drought, and flooding are stressing our ecosystems, with daunting consequences for global food security, he said. Smallholder farmers, particularly the poor, women, youth, Indigenous Peoples, migrants, and refugees, are the most vulnerable, he added.
He expressed the need to implement integrated water resources management through coordinated development and management of water, land, and related resources to maximize human well-being, without compromising the sustainability of vital ecosystems. “For this, we need both national and regional designs.”
Investment in innovative, efficient water management practices is vital, including in modern irrigation and storage technologies and science-based solutions to address water scarcity and harnessing flooding; so that we are building a water-saving and resilient society, including through managing more effectively the water-food-energy nexus, he said.
