In order to provide a basis for discussing the issue of increasing water scarcity and the role of irrigation in the world water balance, FAO’s Aquastat programme compiles existing quantitative and qualitative information on water resources, water use and irrigation by country. This report focuses on the work done through the Aquastat surveys to collect and analyse available information on water resources for all countries in the world.
The report presents the concepts and methodology applied in order to compute country-level water resources data. It presents and analyses the key findings at both global and regional levels. A summary table provides the elements of the water balance for each of the 170 countries and territories surveyed.
The report also discusses the limitations of the approach and the information gaps that remain at country level. The aim of the work presented here is to help improve the quality of the knowledge on the state of the world’s water resources.
