The Journal of Young Investigators: An Undergraduate, Peer-Reviewed Science Journal

22 April 2005 - The world’s source of freshwater, such as rivers, lakes and groundwater reservoirs, will not be able to sustain future generations if they continue to be overexploited, according to a report released this week by the United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development. The report, “Let It Reign: The New Water Paradigm for Global Food Security” warns that without major reform in water management, by 2050 the world may require twice as much water to sustain its projected global population of 9 billion.

According to the report’s authors, including scientists from such institutes as the Stockholm International Water Institute (SIWI), International Food Policy Research Institute IFPRI), World Conservation Union (IUCN) and International Water Management Institute (IWMI), the goal undertaken by the international community to halve the number of starving people may be overly ambitious, and inadvertently lead to a further reduction in freshwater reserves. As more crops are grown to feed an ever increasing world population, more water will be needed to grow them, putting an even heavier burden on an already strained natural resource.

World food production is as high today as it has ever been, the report states, but that production has come at great cost to the world’s shrinking freshwater reserves. There is no water flowing into such major world rivers as the Yellow, Colorado, and Indus for many months out of the year. Previously large lakes, such as the Chad Sea in North Africa and the Aral Sea in Central Asia, both of which serve many surrounding countries and millions of people, are now in danger of extinction, largely as a result of agricultural demand. Agriculture consumes a tremendous amount of water, accounting for 70-90% of available freshwater supplies in developing countries.

“The world needs more food and consumption is moving towards more water-intensive items and less healthy diets. Irrigation can only partly satisfy the thirst for expanded future food production, and agricultural land is shrinking,” says Prof. Jan Lundqvist of Linköping University (Sweden), one of the report’s authors. “Global food security in the future requires a new water management approach today.” The report makes policy recommendations to institute such water management.

One of the report’s more promising solutions is the use of rain-fed agriculture, a time-tested practice of “rainwater harvesting” which involves a more effective use of precipitation in combination with better land care. Such a practice has doubled production in large parts of Africa, and, according to the report, needs strong support to come into wider use.

The report also examines the contribution the impact that over-consumption of food by developed countries has had on world water reserves. It suggests that a change in consumer behavior, such as restricting diets to foods grown in a sustainable manner, may also help reduce water consumption.

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