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The World Water Week in Stockholm is the annual meeting place for the planet’s most urgent water-related issues.: Organized by the Stockholm International Water Institute (SIWI), it brings together thousands of experts, practitioners, decision makers and business innovators from around the globe to exchange ideas, foster new thinking and develop solutions www.worldwaterweek.org. Photograph courtesy of SIWI,

In over 100 seminars, workshops and events spread throughout the week, participants will be meeting under the theme “Water and Food Security.”

The World Water Week in Stockholm is an annual global forum to review progress, build capacities and promote partnerships to address increasing water and development challenges.

Ministers and high level government officials are being joined this year by CEOs, scientists, chief economists, heads of UN bodies and participants from over 200 convening organizations and more than 100 nations. Experts at the event will be debating and showcasing solutions to ensure that the planet’s limited water resources are efficiently used to meet the needs of growing populations and prevent water shortages, floods and droughts from constraining economic growth.

Today, nearly one billion suffer from hunger, another two billion suffer from undernourishment, while at the same time over one-third of all food is lost or wasted.

Demand for food and fiber is projected to increase by 70 per cent by mid-century and, without intervention, will place untenable pressure on water resources in many regions in the world.

As input to the Week’s deliberations, The Stockholm International Water Institute (SIWI) released its report “Feeding a thirsty world: Challenges and opportunities for a water and food secure world,” which spotlights a number of essential and largely overlooked challenges where dedicated action can help ensure water and food security.

Headline speakers and events

At the opening session on August 27, top experts and members of government that will present include: Hon. Mohamed Bahaa El Din Saad, Minister of Water Resources and Irrigation, Egypt and President of the African Ministers Council on Water (AWCOW); Hon. Gunilla Carlsson, Minister of International Development Cooperation, Sweden; Dr. José Graziano da Silva, Director-General Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations; Mr. Sanjeev Chadha President of PepsiCo Middle East and Africa; Mr. Torgny Holmgren, Executive Director, Stockholm International Water Institute; and Dr. Colin Chartres, Director General, International Water Management Institute the 2012 Stockholm Water Prize Laureate.

Following the opening session, there will be a panel debate on the global rush for water and land, featuring high level representatives from the UN, the International Land Coalition, academia and members of national governments from Sierra Leone and Qatar.

The week will also include a panel debate of chief economists from international financial institutions, government, and academia on how to use economic policy instruments to manage water more efficiently.

During the week, the prestigious Stockholm Water Prize will be presented to the International Water Management Institute, IWMI, for their work to improve agricultural water management, enhance food security, protect environmental health and alleviate poverty in developing countries. Other prizes that will be presented during the week are the Stockholm Junior Water Prize – which is given to one national team from 28 competing nations, and the Stockholm Industry Water Award, which will be presented this year to PepsiCo for their efforts to reduce water consumption in their operations and to help solve water challenges on a broad scale.

Live sessions are available here: "http://embed.bambuser.com/channel/worldwaterweek" . All broadcasts from World Water Week 2012 will continue to be available at http://www.worldwaterweek.org/videoaudio.

 
About the World Water Week in Stockholm
The World Water Week in Stockholm is the annual meeting place for the planet’s most urgent water-related issues. Organized by the Stockholm International Water Institute (SIWI), it brings together thousands of experts, practitioners, decision makers and business innovators from around the globe to exchange ideas, foster new thinking and develop solutions www.worldwaterweek.org

About Stockholm International Water Institute
The Stockholm International Water Institute (SIWI) is a policy institute that generates knowledge and informs decision-making towards water wise policy and sustainable development. SIWI performs research, builds institutional capacity and provides advisory services in five thematic areas: water governance, transboundary water management, water and climate change, the water-energy-food nexus, and water economics. SIWI organises the World Water Week in Stockholm and hosts the Stockholm Water Prize, the Stockholm Junior Water Prize and the Stockholm Industry Water Award. www.siwi.org

SIWI report outlines major threats and opportunities for water and food security      

The Stockholm International Water Institute this week released its report "Feeding a thirsty world: Challenges and opportunities for a water and food secure world," which will provide official input into the discussions to take place at the 2012 World Water Week in Stockholm on August 26-31.

Authored by a dozen experts from SIWI, the Food and Agriculture Organizations of the United Nations (FAO) and the International Water Management Institute (IWMI), the report provides new evidence that shows how continuing current trends in food production could lead to increased shortages and intense competition for scarce water resources in many regions across the world.

The report notes that 900 million people are hungry and two billion more people are under nourished in spite of the fact that per capita production continues to increase. With 70 per cent of all water withdrawals used in agriculture, growing more food to feed an additional 2 billion people by 2050 will place greater pressure on available water and land.

"Feeding everyone well is a primary challenge for this century. Overeating, undernourishment and waste are all on the rise and increased food production may face future constraints from water scarcity," said report editor Dr. Anders Jägerskog. "We will need a new recipe to feed the world in the future."

The authors spotlight a number of essential and largely overlooked challenges where dedicated action can help ensure food security to a growing global population with available water resources. These include improvements in on-farm water efficiency, reductions in losses and waste in the food supply chain, enhanced response networks to early warning systems for agricultural emergencies, and increased investment to close the gender gap in agricultural production. The report also investigates the impact of the recent surge in foreign direct investment to lease land in developing countries on local and regional water resources, a phenomenon that requires more stringent regulation to ensure that the water and land rights of local farming communities are upheld. 

 Sossusvlei, Dead Vlei, inside the Namib-Naukluft Park in Namibia: Desert, Namibia, 2007. Photograph courtesy of Håkan Tropp, SIWI

Feeding a thirsty world: Challenges and opportunities for a water and food secure world

Edited by Anders Jägerskog, Director, Knowledge Services at SIWI, and Torkil Jønch-Clausen, Chair of the World Water Week Scientific Programming Committee, the report features chapters authored by Malin Falkenmark, Ana Cascão, Mats Eriksson, Josephine Gustafsson and Jan Lundqvist of SIWI; Sibyl Nelson, Ilaria Sisto, Eve Crowley and Marcela Villarreal of the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations (FAO), and Mark Giordano, Tushaar Shah, Charlotte de Fraiture, and Meredith Giordano from the International Water Management Institute (IWMI).

Horizon International will be participating at World Water Week and providing coverage on the Horizon Solutions Site at www.solutionssite.org.