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1.
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Poor
access to reliable, safe and affordable water for
food and livelihoods is a poverty trap |
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for
70% of the world's poor people, i.e. the 800 million
poor people that live in rural Africa and Asia. |
| 2. |
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People
require, on average, seventy times more water to grow
their food than for their domestic use. |
| 3. |
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Plants
use between 500 liters (in highly efficient irrigated
areas) and 4,000 liters of water (in |
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low
productivity rainfed systems) to produce one kilogram
of staple food grains such as rice or wheat. |
| 4. |
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Many rivers
in the arid and semi-arid regions of the world no longer
reach the sea. These |
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river
basins are closed or closing, with all water used
before it reaches the mouth of the river. Developing
water resources in closed basins is robbing Peter
to pay Paul. When basins close, the pressure to transfer
water from other basins rises. |
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5. |
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The value of water in agriculture
is measured in cents while the value of water for
domestic |
| |
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use
or industry is measured in dollars.The consequence
is that urban people out-compete farmers for water
everywhere. Water is moving out of agriculture to
satisfy the rapidly growing urban and industrial demand
in developing countries. |
| 6. |
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Agriculture
competes for water with nature. All water in the hydrological
cycle has an |
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environmental function. Every shift
of rainfall, river or groundwater from ecosystems
to rainfed or irrigated agriculture represents a trade-off
between other ecosystem services and food orlivelihood
benefits. |
