Rome Water Dialogue Opening Remarks

Rome Water Dialogue

Opening Remarks

By

Dr QU Dongyu, FAO Director-General

4 October 2023

 

Excellences,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

 

As I said at the UN Water Conference, and last year in November, I will keep water as one of the key topics high on the global agenda. Because everyone talks about water and uses many words to describe how water is crucial, how water is life, is food, is wealth, is everything. Without water we could not even make this planet sustainable.

 

That is why people are trying to send people to the moon. Because they think they potentially may find ice and water there.

 

Therefore, we must think a little bit longer and bigger, but we should do concrete and consistently. If we can do three things consistently, we can orient the direction. That is what we learn from mathematics. Three dots make one direction line.

 

Welcome to the second Rome Water Dialogue, which first started in 2022, and especially now after the UN Water Conference successfully held in New York in March this year under the co-chair of the Netherlands and Tajikistan.

 

I was surprised to learn that the UN had not held a water related big event in 28 years! Yet, when I moderated the last session in New York, I saw how Members were fully engaged and appreciated the opportunity provided by the co-chairs, by the UN Secretary-General and by FAO.

 

This is why FAO is now involved actively! Water is one of the FAO pillars and it should be part of all our discussions, in all regions of the world.

 

Water is one of our most valuable public goods for this planet. Not only for the people or agrifood systems, but for the entire planet.

 

Water is NOT infinite.

 

We must stop taking water for granted and start taking a scientific approach based on the 4Rs Principles: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle and Replace.

 

How to replace water? Through breeding drought tolerance varieties, it is the most economical and scientific way. Also, you can replace water with other form of water.

 

We have a lot of innovative ideas and products to replace water; not only water-saving products, and water-saving new technologies and varieties, especially in agrifood systems.

 

Globally, we are facing severe water challenges, and 90 percent of natural disasters are water related – due to water scarcity, and floods.

 

With direct losses of more than USD 200 billion annually.

 

To have a more precise and real cost you must also include India, China, the United States of America and Brazil, and other big countries – this is what I tell my colleagues at FAO all the time. Otherwise, the statistics and the data regarding the direct loss are not correct.

 

Our actions need to start with agrifood systems as over 70 percent of freshwater goes to it.

 

Industrialization, urbanization, and an increasing population will increase water use by more than a third by 2050.

 

In response, the FAO water journey is putting the spotlight on the crucial role of integrated water resources management for agriculture and food security – and for achieving the 2030 Agenda.

 

Securing sufficient water for agrifood systems, while ensuring the water needs of other important activities brings trade-offs and opportunities.

 

For this reason, we have adopted a holistic approach to the food-water-soils-biodiversity nexus.

 

By increasing efficiency, reducing negative impacts, and re-using wastewater, agrifood systems hold the solutions to the global water crisis, and for water security and food security - both at the same time.

 

FAO continues to support countries with technical solutions on rainwater harvesting and storage and irrigation systems, among many others, because infrastructure is becoming critical in our efforts to transform agrifood systems to be more efficient, inclusive, resilient, and sustainable.

 

Prioritizing green and blue infrastructure can enhance water quality, maintain biodiversity, and provide other benefits to agrifood systems and rural development.

 

It helps farmers diversify their agricultural practices and crop varieties and increase resilience to the impacts of the climate crisis.

 

That is why we also need to work with countries to map out irrigation needs and potential in support of planning, investment, and financing decisions.

 

Last year, during my briefing to the UN Security Council, I said that if the USA increased its irrigation area from the current less than 18 percent to 20 percent - a two percent increase - it would increase the international market supply by more than 10 percent because the USA produces staple food for the international market, not only for its own consumption.

 

Europe only has 12 percent of irrigated areas. Look at Italy, I do not know how much irrigated area you have, but if you reach the level of irrigation as in Northwest China, your agricultural food quality and quantity could double. You need to sustain nutrition and water supply for tasty, high-quality fruits. And for this you need to triple investment in the rural areas, especially in irrigation systems with nutritious fertilizers, and water supply.

 

I think Italy can double yields with no additional arable land, but simply by improving the irrigation system.

 

At FAO, we also continue to support countries with data and information, through platforms such as WaPOR and WASAG.

 

And, to consolidate information and insights, FAO will also launch a Global Assessment on irrigation needs and on the potential of irrigation, as well as one on the impact of floods on agriculture and rural areas.

 

Dear Colleagues,

 

We have advanced on our water journey since our first Rome Water Dialogue in November 2022.

 

Nobody asked me why I called it the Rome Water Dialogue; nobody challenged me on this question – not even the Italian friends. It’s because of how safe and sustainable the tap water, is here in Rome – it is a system installed many years ago by the Church or the Roman Empire, and with a real science-based solution. Keep the water in the original place yet keep it clean and sustained. So, we can learn from our ancestors how they installed at that time a good and advanced water supply system for the city.

 

So, the Rome Water Dialogue is not only for the agrifood systems, but also for the city – a Green City.

 

This was also the concept behind the Green Cities Initiative, which is about agrifood systems and urban-rural development – this is a true holistic approach.

 

We need to think about what a future city will be for Africa, Asia, or the Near East. I heard that there are big master designs from Saudi Arabia to build a new future city in the desert. Water will be key – how to keep the water circular and sustainable, and how to build the 6G telecommunication system, and how to build the energy saving public transportation system there.

 

So, that is the future city. It must include water – and they can learn from Rome!

 

At FAO, we have launched the new initiative on National Water Roadmaps towards the 2030 Agenda in Africa,

 

Which supports Members in developing integrated strategies and policies to ensure sustainable water use.

 

At the 2023 UN Water Conference in New York, we mobilized the global community by submitting eight commitments to the Water Action Agenda.

 

At the 43rd FAO Ministerial Conference in July this year, under the theme “Integrated Water Resources Management” we hosted three historic high-level round tables covering topics from water scarcity to floods and infrastructure.

 

So, you can see 2023 is the year of water for us! Not only the Rome Water Dialogue, starting from UN water conference, FAO ministerial conference on the middle way, and ending with COP28 in the UAE where water, food and energy will be the high topics because it is a desert country.

 

Water must be the thread that links all the key international meetings. Otherwise, they are just individual events with no relevance to each other.

 

In agriculture, water is the essential stream that binds everything. That is my real design behind all these small or big actions, including the UN Water Conference and COP28. That is why I committed to go to COP28. Also. I pushed the President to look at the food, water and energy because he is also responsible for innovation, water, and energy.

 

And today we continue our journey together, and further discuss the interlinkages, synergies and holistic solutions relating water to soils, land, climate change, biodiversity, and food security.

 

But above all, to deepen partnerships for the implementation of these solutions at scale. We need at scale, not only small pilot, experimental projects. We need to get strong political commitment from the Head of State, like the President of Tajikistan or the King of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, and others.

 

I also went to Uzbekistan, and the President of Uzbekistan fully committed to support the water issues related to the social-economic-environmental aspects, not only related to agriculture.

 

We – the global community - must leverage every opportunity to achieve a resilient, sustainable water secure, food secure future.

 

The Rome Water Dialogue is a professional platform put at your disposal by FAO for cross-sectoral exchanges to identify solutions leading to concrete actions.

 

So, I count on the governments of the Netherlands and of Tajikistan to take a leading role.

 

FAO is willing to support any initiative, including through the Hand-in-Hand-Initiative to support Members to establish a pilot project to show how to establish a water-efficient society, including water-efficient agroeconomics, and urban economy.

 

Economy, a water efficient economy. That is what I request.

 

I am also looking forward to celebrating World Food Day 2023 with you on 16 October with the theme: Water is Life, Water is Food, leave no one behind.

 

Thank you for coming and thank you for your support.