(AGENPARL) - Roma, 5 Luglio 2023 - (AGENPARL) – mer 05 luglio 2023 [NewsMedia_NewsRelease]
Water management takes centre stage at 43rd session of the FAO Conference
High-level roundtables held on how to tackle water shortages and scarcity, as well as floods, during weeklong meeting of FAO’s highest governing body
05/07/2023
Rome – The best ways of tackling the problem of water scarcity and shortages, as well as frequent, widespread and catastrophic floods, issues that affect more than 5 billion people worldwide, took centre stage at the 43rd session of the FAO Ministerial Conference this week with a series of high-level roundtables.
More than 3 billion people live in agricultural areas with high – or very high – levels of water shortages or scarcity, and it is estimated that by 2050, 57 percent of the global population will live in areas that suffer from water scarcity for at least one month each year.
The increased pressure on water resources and water stress can deepen already severely unequal access to water, increasing existing social disparities, particularly affecting vulnerable groups such as women, small-scale farmers, and Indigenous Peoples.
With agriculture accounting for the consumption of 70% of the world’s freshwater resources, agrifood systems are therefore central to addressing the water scarcity challenge we are facing.
The first roundtable, entitled [Water Scarcity: Making water flow for people and planet](https://www.fao.org/fileadmin/user_upload/bodies/Conference_2023/C43_Roundtabeles/Concept_Note-Roundtable_on_Water_Scarcity_-_2-7-2023.pdf), took place on Monday, and was opened by the newly re-elected Director-General of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), QU Dongyu.
In his opening remarks, the FAO Director-General noted that while there may not be simple solutions to complex problems, there are “smart choicesâ€