Water is one of the world’s most precious resources. It connects us all and is essential to everything we do. Water is also vital for agriculture, livestock and fisheries and key to food production, nutritional security and health.
Yet, global water quality is deteriorating at an alarming rate, and land and water resources around the world are at a breaking point, according to FAO’s latest report on the State of the World’s Land and Water Resources for Food and Agriculture.
Globally, about 80 percent of wastewater is discharged into the environment without adequate treatment, and one third of all rivers, deltas and tributaries in Latin America, Africa and Asia are severely polluted with pathogens, putting the health of millions of people at risk.
Water quality also impacts food quality, and it is an important aspect to manage throughout the entire supply chain, from production to consumption. Foodborne illnesses are often a result of consuming food contaminated from poor-quality water.
Even though access to clean water and safe, nutritious food is a basic human right, every year around the world, over 420 000 people die and some 600 million people – almost one in ten – fall ill after eating contaminated food. Contaminated food hampers socioeconomic development, overloads healthcare systems and compromises economic growth and trade.
Prevention is better than a cure, and water quality and food safety risks are best addressed simultaneously at farm-level. Managing water quality in the context of food safety will reduce the exposure to harmful pathogens in water and the resultant food supply.
Through its One Water One Health programme, FAO is expanding the use of technologies, such as Whole Genome Sequencing (WGS), to study the genomes of pathogens and track their path from water to food in order to prevent food contamination at its source. By incorporating water quality into food safety considerations and applying genomic surveillance to this process, the programme is enabling countries to address water and food quality as an integrated issue.