Press release by the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (BMU)

Collecting inputs for the Bonn2011 Nexus Conference preparatory process

The question of how to effectively use our water resources has been debated for decades, yet what we need more than ever is direct action at the field level.

A message from Felix Dodds, Executive Director of the Stakeholder Forum for a Sustainable Future and International Steering Committee (ISC) Member

Amid dire warnings, there are rays of hope emanating from around the world. People, not governments, who through ingenuity and hands on experience are creating productive farmland from arid land, fuel this hope. A report by Malik Falkenmark and colleagues at the Stockholm International Water Institute (SIWI) states there will not be enough water available on current croplands to produce food for the projected population of nine billion people in 2050 if current diet trends continue. Amid warnings of water scarcity limiting food production, and as Oxfam and the United Nations prepare for a possible second global food crisis in five years, another report shows that there is water at the bottom of the well.

“The world is thirsty because we are hungry.” Such is the tagline for World Water Day, set for March 22. With a focus on Food Security, the United Nations is highlighting how water is connected to much wider economic and societal issues.

Issued every three years since 2003 at the triennial World Water Forum, the UN World Water Development Report offers an overview of the state of the world’s freshwater resources and aims to provide decision makers with the tools to make sustainable use of water a reality.

No resource is more fundamental than water to the health and security of people and the environment. Yet the alarm bells are ringing as this finite, yet essential, natural resource comes under increasing pressure from growing demand, poor management and climate change creating a growing global water challenge. With Rio+20 on the immediate horizon, and a focus on water, energy and food, water will be an issue that world and business leaders are likely to find absorbed into their agendas - and rightly so. Water scarcity and stress is not only an issue of protecting ecosystem and biodiversity, but is also presents a real and present risk to local communities, business and world economies.

Water conflicts are bubbling in many parts of the world, from China and India to the Middle East and southern Africa. A group of former world leaders is calling on the UN to make water a top security concern. As the world’s population continues to grow, so does its thirst. But not every nation is equally able to quench it. The looming water crisis threatens political stability and economic development in a number of developing and emerging markets, with implications for global peace, warns a group of prominent former government leaders, including Bill Clinton and Nelson Mandela.