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“Safeguarding water means safeguarding humanity,” says FAO Director-General QU Dongyu in World Water Day celebration
FAO hosts high level virtual event to mark World Water Day 2021 22 March 2021, Rome - Water is an “essential element of every aspect of development”, QU Dongyu, Director-General of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said today during a large virtual celebration to mark World Water Day 2021.
He called on all stakeholders to work together to safeguard water and widen access to this precious resource. In his welcoming address, Qu Dongyu described the gravity of the problem, saying that according to FAO’s 2020 State of Food and Agriculture report “the lives of over a billion people are severely constrained by water scarcity or water shortages”. He added
that, in the future, “population growth and changing diets will increase water needs, intensifying competition among water users.” The Director-General continued by calling on all stakeholders to work together to ensure everyone has safe access to water. “We need the ingenuity of the private sector, the drive of civil society and the solidarity of the international community. We need to create synergy by joining hands and working together,” he said. World Water Day is held on 22 March every year, with its core focus being to support the achievement of Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 6: water and sanitation for all by 2030. Some 2.2 billion people live without access to safe water and the annual amount
of available freshwater per person has declined by more than 20 percent in the past two decades, yet more and more water is needed to nourish crops to feed a growing global population. This year’s World Water Day theme, ‘Valuing Water’, underscores the urgent
need to better protect this vital resource. High level participation In her opening address, Audrey Azoulay, Director-General of UNESCO, said water was a valuable “blue gold”, adding that difficulties in accessing water can also be measured in terms of educational and economic losses. In his speech
Gilbert F. Houngbo, Chair of UN-Water and President of IFAD underscored that “water is fundamental to life and livelihoods,” adding that we must take action to improve the management of water resources and accelerate progress if we are to meet
SDG 6 by 2030. The World Water Day virtual celebration included a special recorded message from
Cardinal Pietro Parolin on behalf of His Holiness
Pope Francis, in which he reiterated that water is a basic and universal human right, something that every human being without exception is entitled to, adding that it is crucial to act to improve access to water worldwide.
UN World Water Development Report 2021 The event also provided an opportunity to launch the
UN World Water Development Report 2021, which annually provides an up-to-date overview of the current state of the world’s water. The FAO-led chapter on water use in food and agriculture highlights just how important water is for food security and nutrition.
It has been shown that people who have better access to water tend to have lower levels of undernourishment, while lack of it can be a major cause of famine and undernourishment, especially in areas where people depend on local agriculture for food and income. FAO’s work on water In his speech, FAO Director-General Qu Dongyu stressed that intensifying water constraints threaten food security and nutrition. “Challenges in access to water and increasing pollution are seen all along the food supply chain – including food processing – affecting food security, nutrition, health and ecosystem services, and posing major risks to vulnerable populations.” He drew attention to FAO’s work on water and food security, including the partnership programme
Global Framework on Water Scarcity (WASAG), which accelerates joint actions to cope with water scarcity in agriculture in a changing climate, and FAO’s recently launched
Hand-in-Hand Geospatial Platform, which contains a rich set of data to help strengthen evidence-based decision-making in the food and agriculture sectors. He also mentioned
WaPOR, FAO’s portal to monitor Water Productivity through open-access of remotely sensed data, which assists countries in monitoring water productivity and finding solutions to reduce productivity gaps. In her closing speech at the event, FAO Deputy Director-General Maria Helena Semedo reiterated that FAO stands ready to “continue to work closely with Members, the UN system, global partners, and non-state actors to build back better from
COVID-19 through transforming agri-food systems, and contribute to the realization of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development to reach better production, better nutrition, better environment and a better life.” Through many projects and programmes across the world, FAO is committed to creating a more efficient, equitable and environmentally friendly use of water in agriculture and working towards the achievement of SDG 6. |
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