Imagine living in a place where a single drought could wipe out your food supply, income, and way of life. This is the daily reality for over 733 million people worldwide. With global water demand expected to rise by 30% by 2050, the pressure on our most essential resource is intensifying.
This is not a distant threat: 25% of the global population faces extremely high water stress. Unsustainable consumption, pollution, and the escalating impacts of climate change are adding to the pressure. We must act now to build smarter, fairer, and more secure water systems that ensure everyone can access and manage water responsibly.
Agriculture uses 70% of the world’s freshwater for irrigation. It must compete with cities, industries, and ecosystems, while feeding a population projected to reach 10 billion by mid-century. Small farmers are hit first by scarcity, yet their water rights often rely on custom. How do we ensure they’re not left behind?
That is where water tenure comes in: not just how much water is available, but who has the right to use it, and under what rules. By assessing water tenure, we begin to understand the full picture– legal, traditional, and practical– of how people and communities access, use, and manage water.
ScaleWat responds to this urgent need by helping governments and non-state actors recognize the diverse forms of water tenure and how they are governed.
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💧What we do
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💧ScaleWat: Strengthening water tenure governance
ScaleWat builds on the work of the KnoWat project to take water tenure governance to the next level. The goal of the project is to create a clear and practical framework for governing water tenure – that is, who has the rights to use water, how those rights are managed, and how water is shared fairly. This includes improving how water rights are recorded and administered, using better data and water accounting tools.
The work is aligned with global guidance, including the FAO Committee on Agriculture’s decisions on water tenure and the Committee on World Food Security’s (CFS) recommendations on Water for Food Security and Nutrition.
ScaleWat activities focus on three key areas:
- Improving water governance by elevating water tenure so that water is shared more fairly and used sustainably;
- raising awareness among governments and other key groups about the many ways water rights are defined and managed – and why that matters;
- promoting water tenure assessment and water accounting as vital tools for making smart, informed decisions about how water is allocated.
The project works at global, regional and national levels in two key regions: South-East Asia and Latin America, with Thailand and Colombia as the main countries for on-the-ground action.
- Globally, the project supports dialogue processes to define voluntary core principles for responsible water tenure governance as well as criteria for their implementation. This includes connections to water rights administration, the role of water user organizations, and the importance of reliable water data. Expert consultations will be held, including UN-Water agencies, supported by background research and technical papers.
- Regionally, two multistakeholder dialogues will bring together voices from government, civil society, the private sector, academia, and UN agencies to discuss shared challenges and priorities in water tenure, as well as elements of responsible governance.
- Nationally, two dialogues will be held—one in each focus country—to shape policies and practices that reflect local needs and conditions.
- In Colombia and Thailand, pilot studies will be carried out to assess water tenure and apply water accounting methods.
- Training materials will be developed to explain how water tenure assessment and water accounting work together.
- Workshops and training sessions will be organized for a wide range of stakeholders, including government agencies, farmers, water user organizations, civil society groups, and universities.
- The project will also promote tools and platforms to improve information sharing between all actors involved.
In each country, national partners will lead the work supported by FAO. In Colombia, the project works with the Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development’s Division for Integrated Water Resources Management. In Thailand, it partners with the Office of the National Water Resources.
These efforts aim to strengthen water governance at national and local levels and ensure that communities, especially those most affected by water challenges, have a voice in how water is managed and shared.
ScaleWat is funded by the German Federal Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Regional Identity (BMLEH) and implemented by the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations (FAO).
