Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)
FAO is the custodian agency for the SDG indicators 6.4.1 on water use efficiency, and 6.4.2 on level of water stress. As such, FAO collects and reports indicators’ data produced and/or verified by each country, and provide technical support and capacity development as required.
FAO is a partner of the UN-Water-coordinated GEMI project. It has been actively involved in GEMI since it joined the initiative, where it has provided technical expertise in relation with water use efficiency, water scarcity, and wastewater treatment and reuse, together with expertise on approaches to global water monitoring.
In order to better address these issues, FAO has developed AQUASTAT, a monitoring capacity which it has maintained for the past 25 years and which includes a global water database, country reports and associated tools for global analysis of water issues.
Water efficiency in agriculture
Strengthening Agricultural Water Efficiency and Productivity on the African and Global Level
The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) Land and Water Division recently launched the new website of the project “Knowing water better: Towards fairer and more sustainable access to natural resources – KnoWat”. The KnoWat project aims at strengthening water governance processes in Rwanda, Senega … Read more
Freshwater – including both surface and groundwater – is essential to public health, food security, livelihoods, and healthy and resilient ecosystems. Yet, approximately 2.2 billion people globally continue to lack access to safely managed drinking water and over 2 billion people live in conditions … Read more
More than three billion people live in agricultural areas with high to very high levels of water shortages and scarcity, and almost half of them face severe constraints. Furthermore, available freshwater resources per person have declined by more than 20 percent over the past two decades, underscori … Read more
Agriculture has been the engine of overall economic growth in developing countries, whereby agriculture significantly contributes to national GDPs, rural employment levels, household food security and trade balance. The crisis generated by the spreading of COVID-19, however, is already affecting foo … Read more
World Water Day celebrates water and raises awareness of the 2.2 billion people living without access to safe water. It is about taking action to tackle the global water crisis and achieving Sustainable Development Goal 6: water and sanitation for all by 2030. The theme of World Water Day 2021 is va … Read more