by Ministry of Water and Irrigation (Jordan)

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

Tensions over land, water and food: The Arab awakening was driven not only by political and economic stresses, but, less visibly, by environmental, population and climate stresses

Agriculture consumes the most water worldwide: the theme of this year’s World Water Week in Stockholm was “Water and Food Security”. Discussions centered on the question of how agricultural production can be increased by 40 to 50 per cent over the next 30 years in order to provide food security for a growing global population - even though there is not more water available. At the conference some 1,500 experts from development policy organisations and from the policy, scientific and civic communities sat together to work on this issue. The laureate of the Stockholm Water Prize, the International Water Management Institute IWMI, put it succinctly by saying “agriculture is thirsty”. Colin Chartres from IWMI underscored that the water requirements in agriculture will double if developments continue at their current pace. Therefore use of the scarce resource water must be optimised and generating additional need should be avoided as far as possible.

The Chinese middle class is already larger than the entire population of the United States. Africa is not too far behind with a third of its population – nearly 350 million people – having now joined its social middle ranks. This is good news. The leap forward in quality of life for so many millions is something to celebrate. But, we still only have one planet to satisfy the demand of the growing middle classes to buy, drive and eat more. Greater social mobility also means greater demand for water. An increase in national income is linked with a country’s access to a secure and safe water supply. Security of supply and the stability it brings is critical for businesses to flourish. Clean water also brings with it the economic as well as human benefit associated with improved health. And water security is fundamental in the provision of another pillar of economic development: adequate food supply. - by Andy Wales

Agriculture consumes the most water worldwide: the theme of this year’s World Water Week in Stockholm was “Water and Food Security”. Discussions centered on the question of how agricultural production can be increased by 40 to 50 per cent over the next 30 years in order to provide food security for a growing global population - even though there is not more water available. As KfW reported, at the conference some 1,500 experts from development policy organisations and from the policy, scientific and civic communities sat together to work on this issue.

The global director of water stewardship for Coca-Cola Co. says that water risk isn’t imminent; it’s already manifest.