FAO.org

Water is one of the world´s most important resources. It is central to agriculture that accounts for 72 percent of global freshwater withdrawals, to other economic sectors and is core to achieve the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. While there is increasing awareness of water importance, there is still a need for more effective, integrated and coordinated actions, coupled with strong political will in recognizing water in a holistic manner to achieve all the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Both governments and other stakeholders have acknowledged that water, sanitation, health, ecosystems, ocean, energy, food systems and nutrition are interlinked and that the rising trend of losses caused by water-related disasters must be addressed, with particular attention paid to people in vulnerable situations, including smallholder farmers, leaving no one behind.

There is an urgent need to consider how best to address these interconnected issues and to understand why and how water resources shall be used to achieve social, economic and environmental objectives embedded in national development strategies. In this context, FAO proposed a country-led water dialogue and country-owned National Water Roadmaps to help strengthen the inter-sectoral coordination on sustainable water resources management, accelerating the implementation of the 2030 Agenda.