World Water Day

  The Arab region is one of the most water-scarce regions globally, with 19 out of 22 Arab states meeting official definitions of water scarcity and 13 states meeting definitions of absolute water scarcity. Additional crises can exacerbate the water challenge in the region, including climate change, conflict, and socioeconomic and political upheaval. In 2017, the Regional Initiative for the Assessment of Climate Change Impacts on Water Resources and SocioEconomic Vulnerability in the Arab Region projected the duration and frequency of droughts in the region would increase. Women and girls frequently disproportionately shoulder the burden of these impacts because they may be vulnerable community members burdened by traditional gender roles. It has been estimated that 15% of schools in the Arab region have limited or no access to water, while 18% have limited or no access to basic sanitation services. In times of water scarcity or when WASH infrastructure is unavailable or insufficie...

Renewable water availability per person has continued to decline by a further 7 per cent over the past decade, while pressure on already scarce freshwater resources is increasing in several regions, according to the 2025 AQUASTAT Water Data Snapshot released by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). The update provides a global overview of how water availability and use are evolving, presenting new data on irrigation, efficiency, and water stress reported through the 2024 AQUASTAT cycle. Renewable water refers to freshwater that is naturally replenished through the hydrologic cycle, which includes evaporation, condensation, and precipitation. The latest figures show that some regions - particularly Northern Africa and Western Asia - continue to operate under extremely limited freshwater endowments. Countries such as Kuwait and Qatar rank among the lowest renewable water resources per person worldwide. Freshwater withdrawals have also increased in several r...

  In 2022, the total area equipped for irrigation represented 23 percent of global cultivated land, an increase of 1.66 percent compared to 2015, when the share stood at 21.5 percent. Southern Asia had the highest proportion of cultivated land equipped with irrigation infrastructure , covering 46 percent of its total cultivated area in 2022, followed by Latin America and the Caribbean (32 percent) and Central Asia (25 percent). In contrast, sub-Saharan Africa had the lowest share, with only 3.8 percent of its cultivated land equipped for irrigation in the same year. Since 2015, Latin America and the Caribbean experienced the most significant growth inirrigated areas , with the share of cultivated land equipped for irrigation increasing from 17.4 percent in 2015 to 32 percent in 2022. In contrast, Western Asia and Central Asia saw a decline in irrigated land , with decreases of 1.96 percent and 1.78 percent respectively over the same period (Figure 11). At the national level, Bah...

  Although global food production has kept pace with population growth, close to 750 million people (or 10% of the global population) were exposed to severe levels of food insecurity in 2019. Unfortunately, this number has increased even further over the course of 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic and its economic impacts worldwide. Rainfed agriculture covers 80% of the world’s cropland and accounts for the major part (60%) of food production. Rainfed agriculture has a global water footprint of5,173 km3 per year . Irrigated agriculture covers about 20% of cultivated lands, yet it accounts for 40% of food production, and has a global water footprint of 2,230 km3 per year. The global water footprint related to crop production in the period 1996–2005 was 7,404 km3 per year, representing 92% of humanity’s water footprint . Despite striking economic growth in the past, there are still 2.1 billion poor people, of whom 767 million people live in extreme poverty. Of all people...

Water stress , essentially measured as water use as a function of available supply, affects many parts of the world. Over two billion people live in countries experiencing water stress. Physical water stress is often a seasonal rather than an annual phenomenon, as exemplified by the seasonal variability in water availability . An estimated four billion people live in areas that suffer from severe physical water scarcity for at least one month per year. About 1.6 billion people face ‘economic’ water scarcity , which means that while water may be physically available, they lack the necessary infrastructure to access that water ( Comprehensive Assessment of Water Management in Agriculture ).  Several of the world’s main aquifers are under increasing stress and 30% of the largestgroundwater systems are being depleted .  Water withdrawals for irrigation are The primary driver of groundwater depletion worldwide.

Global freshwater use has increased by a factor of six over the past 100 years and continues to grow at a rate of roughly 1% per year since the 1980s. Much of this growth can be attributed to a combination of population growth, economic development and shifting  consumption patterns . Agriculture currently accounts for 69% of global water withdrawals , which are mainly used for  irrigation but also include water used for livestock and aquaculture. This ratio can reach up to 95% in some developing countries (FAO, 2011a)  Industry (including energy and power generation) accounts for 19%, while municipalities are responsible for the remaining 12%. Globally, agriculture accounts for only about 4% of global Gross Domestic Product (GDP) with an average contribution per country of 10.39%, the trend being a decreasing share of GDP. Such figures suggest that the value added of water use in agriculture is very low. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations ...