Mr Yasmi Yurdi, Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) Representative to Ghana, has called for the fixing of water-related challenges in the agriculture and urban centres.
He said the quality of water in recent times was rapidly deteriorating due to poor management, pollution, over-extraction of groundwater and the impacts of climate change.
The FAO Representative said this ahead of the World Food Day 2023, to be celebrated on the theme: “Water is Life, Water is Food. Leave No One Behind.”
The World Food Day is celebrated globally each year on October 16 to mark the founding of the United Nations FAO in 1945.
He said the rural-urban migration was rampant due to the ability to seek greener pastures, hence the need to fix water related problems in the urban areas.
He said water was interconnected with other systems in the landscapes, stating that, “whatever we are doing to our agriculture, whatever we are doing in our domestic activities and whatever we are doing with our forests in the hills and mountains impacts water.”
The FAO Representative said Ghanaians had polluted many of their water ecosystems, and deforested their forests for many decades, hence, the need for a solution to tackle such acts.
He said every year the FAO raised awareness on the importance of water not only for food, but also for the wellbeing and continuity to live, saying that, without water, there would be no life.
Mr Yurdi said the sustainable agriculture programme of the FAO was to promote best practices, produce more food with less land and water, and introduce new technologies and innovation in agriculture.
He also noted that in the FAO’s project on soybeans production and food security in Northern Ghana, they would be introducing solar panel irrigation.
He said the government could not achieve sustainable water use or management by themselves, saying that it was a collective effort.
He said FAO was supporting the Government to introduce new sustainable technology for agriculture to reforest or rehabilitate degraded lands through their programme on forestry and to also engage in sustainable livestock.
Mr Abebe Haile-Gabriel, FAO Assistant Director-General, Regional Office for Africa, said more than one-third of the world’s population were still living without access to safe water.
He said smallholder farmers, particularly women, youth, indigenous peoples, migrants, and refugees were the most vulnerable.
Mr Abebe reiterated the need to harness the power of science, innovation, data, and technology to produce more with less.
The FAO Assistant Director-General said agriculture was the largest consumer of the world’s freshwater resources, accounting for 70 per cent of consumption.
“We must transform global agrifood systems to be more efficient, inclusive, resilient and sustainable, to effectively address the water scarcity challenge we are facing,” he added.
Mr Valere Nzeyimana, FAO Senior Regional Water Development and Management Officer, said water needed to be a top priority across all sectors of sustainable development, with focus on synergies on water-energy-food.
He added that there was a need for the government to develop national water roadmaps and strategies, linking water to agriculture and all other sectors.
Mr Nzeyimana said private sector organisations needed to move beyond their immediate sites to understand where they obtain their water supply, water use, those who depended on it, water governance, balance, quality, among others.
“Agricultural businesses need to invest in salt-resistant crops as sources of food to help mitigate the negative impact of salinity on agricultural production,” he added.