Looming Water Crisis Threatens Food Supplies

WASHINGTON, DC, October 16, 2002 (ENS) - Water scarcity could leave millions of people without access to clean water or adequate food, warns a new report released in conjunction with World Food Day 2002. The study by two international agricultural research centers calls for changes in water policies and investments to avert environmental damage, health risks and threats to the global food supply.

Droughts and poor water use policies can leave communities without enough water to irrigate crops or supply livestock. (Photo © WFP/Wagdi Othman)

"Unless we change policies and priorities, in 20 years, there won't be enough water for cities, households, the environment, or growing food," cautioned Dr. Mark Rosegrant, lead author of the report and senior research fellow at IFPRI. "Water is not like oil. There is no substitute. If we continue to take it for granted, much of the earth is going to run short of water or food - or both."

Due in part to rapid population growth and urbanization in developing countries, water use for households, industry, and agriculture will increase by at least 50 percent in the next 20 years, says the report, titled "Global Water Outlook to 2025: Averting an Impending Crisis." Increased competition for water will limit the availability of water for irrigation, which in turn will constrain the world's production of food.

Water will become more scarce as the world's population grows, the report warns. (Photo courtesy World Health Organization)

"For hundreds of millions of poor farmers in developing countries, a lack of access to water for growing food is the most important constraint they face," said Frank Rijsberman, director general of IWMI. "If countries continue to underinvest in building strong institutions and policies to support water governance and approaches to give better access to water to poor communities, growth rates for crop yields will fall worldwide in the next 25 years, primarily because of water scarcity."

According to the report, it would take only a moderate worsening in global water policy to bring about a genuine water crisis. If governments continue to cut spending on crop research, technology, and infrastructure, while failing to implement institutional and management reforms, global grain production will drop by 10 percent over business as usual levels, equivalent to losing the entire annual grain crop of India.

Food aid, like the rations of corn and beans provided to Hondurans suffering from drought in 2001, is only a temporary solution to the problems caused by water shortages. (Photo © WFP/Roberto Koltun)

"Currently, more than one billion people around the world do not have access to a safe water supply, and adequate sanitation is even less available," noted Dr. Joachim von Braun, director general of IFPRI.

"Lack of clean water and sanitation is a major cause of disease and child mortality," von Braun continued. "While world leaders recently agreed at the World Summit on Sustainable Development to cut in half the number of people without access to clean water by 2015, this goal will not become a reality unless governments redirect their water policies to meet the needs of poor people."

Adopting more sustainable agricultural practices could help to reduce food shortages around the globe. (Photo © WFP/Peter Smerdon)

"Although water subsidies are commonplace in developing countries, they tend to benefit relatively wealthy people," explained Dr. Peter Hazell, director of Environment and Production Technology at IFPRI. "Making affluent people pay for water would encourage them to conserve. It would also free up financial resources to provide clean, safe water to poor people."

The report also recommends increased investment in crop research, technological improvements and rural infrastructure to boost water productivity and crops yields from rain fed farming, which the report estimates will account for one half the increase in food production between 1995 and 2025.

Many poor people, like this woman in the Tangalla area of Sri Lanka, must carry their drinking water from distant sources. (Photo by G. Bizzarri, courtesy FAO)

"A number of useful new small scale technologies and community level water management innovations have emerged in recent years," Rijsberman added. "Governments must learn from these practices in order to implement practical solutions for using less water in agriculture. Without conservation, aquifers, lakes and wetlands will be further depleted."

But the report also notes that it is not too late to make the changes that could avert future water and food shortages. A shift to more sustainable water use could expand river flows and boost the water available for irrigation and other human uses, the report notes.

Water pumps for irrigation and agriculture, like this one in India, are depleting aquifers and reducing river flows throughout the region. (Photo by G. Bizzarri, courtesy FAO)

The full report is available at: http://www.ifpri.org/pubs/fpr/fprwater2025.pdf