المنتدى العالمي المعني بالأمن الغذائي والتغذية

IUF submission to the High Level Panel of Experts for Food Security and Nutrition (HLPE) consultation on water and food security

This comment to the HLPE is submitted by the IUF*, the global trade union federation representing workers in agriculture, food processing and in the hotel, restaurant and catering industries.

The IUF welcomes the decision of the CFS to ask the HLPE to conduct a study on Water and food security. The IUF also welcomes the recognition in the VO draft consultation paper of 1st  October that the scope of the topic of water and food security is very broad and the request to identify important evidence or aspects that the present draft has failed to cover.

The IUF believes that the VO draft fails to address the specific situation of agricultural workers and their access to potable water and how this impacts on their food and water security. The 450 million women and men who labour as waged workers in plantations, farms, orchards, greenhouses and other forms of agriculture throughout the world are essential to global food security. They are also essential to sustainable agriculture and rural development including water conservation and management. See the joint publication by the FAO, ILO and IUF  Agricultural Workers and their contribution to sustainable agriculture and rural development.

Agriculture is the major user of the world’s water supply yet many thousands of people who work in the sector have no access to potable water in their workplaces. There is no systematic collection of data concerning dehydration amongst agricultural workers but IUF affiliates have extensive evidence of serious health problems, including fatalities, resulting from dehydration caused by lack of access to drinking water in the fields for agricultural workers.

See  this account of working in North Carolina’s tobacco fields by the President of the IUF- affiliated Farm Labor Organizing Committee.

There is also evidence that the epidemic of chronic kidney disease affecting sugar works in Central America is related to heat stress and dehydration.

The FAO-ILO-IUF report points out that “Because many agricultural workers live where they work, their lives and occupations are inseparable. There is a close link between housing, worker well-being and productivity”. The publication goes on to emphasize the connection between inadequate housing, non-potable drinking water and the spread of communicable diseases, citing poor sanitation and water provision documented by the ILO in Kenya, for example. Since the agricultural work environment  makes  no  clear  distinction  between  living  and  working,  pesticide exposure poses particular risks to these workers as well as to the water they share with their families and the wider community.

Another  vital  link  is  illustrated  by  the  recent  findings  against  a  major  sugar corporation in Parbhani district in the state of Maharashtra, India, concerning the environmental  and  socio-economic  impact  of  water  pollution.  Pollution  of  the Mannath reservoir caused by sugar mills led to a dramatic decline in fish stocks and a loss of livelihood for fisher folk dependent on the reservoir. Subsequent investigations showed that this water pollution also affected the health of livestock in the area as well negatively impacting agricultural crop yields, which in turn affected the livelihoods of agricultural workers employed on these farms. This impact on local food production, coupled with rising unemployment in the fishing and farming community, had a far-reaching impact on water and food security and nutrition.

We welcome the draft consultation paper’s attention to the impact of climate change on food production and water provision for rural communities and producers, but would also like to highlight the connection between agriculture as itself a major generator of greenhouse gasses, deteriorating water quality and the impact on the agricultural workforce. The 2006 Stern Commission Report identified agriculture as a significant source of climate-changing emissions, stating inter alia that: “Fertilisers are the largest single source (38%) of emissions from agriculture. Agricultural emissions are expected to rise almost 30% in the period to 2020…Around half of the projected growth in emissions is expected to come from the use of fertiliser on agricultural soils”. The nitrogen fertilizers which give rise to nitrous oxide – nearly 300 times more potent a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide – are also the sources of water eutrophication and contamination which are a major contributor to growing water scarcity. Reversing the food system’s overdependence on agrochemicals is essential  to  advancing  the  agroecological  food  systems  the  report  identifies  as playing an important role in protecting water resources and the right to water in both production and consumption. This reinforces the link between sustainable water management and food production, the living and working conditions of agricultural workers and the role of governments in realizing the rights to food and to water. The IUF believes that existing human rights instruments – the Conventions and Recommendations of the United Nations’ ILO – make this crucial link and need to be integrated into the CFS/HLPE work and all intergovernmental efforts on water security.

The International legal framework on agricultural workers’ access to portable water.

The ILO Plantations Convention, 110, 1958, requires the establishment of minimum standards for plantation housing that cover water supply and sanitary facilities (Article 86).

Convention  184  on  Safety  and  Health  in  Agriculture  calls  for  the  provision  of adequate welfare facilities at no cost to the worker (Article 19).

The Safety and Health in Agriculture Recommendation 192, 2001, which, in giving guidance on how to implement Convention 184, sets out the obligation for employers to put in place “appropriate measures to protect persons present at an agricultural site, the population in the vicinity of it and the general environment, from risks which may arise from the agricultural activity concerned, such as those due to agrochemical waste, livestock waste, soil and water contamination, soil depletion and topographic changes” (paragraph 5 (e).

Paragraph 10 (a) of ILO Recommendation 192 calls for employers to provide “an adequate supply of safe drinking water”.

The ILO’s Code of Practice on Safety and Health in Agriculture (2011) contains important recommendations on the provision of safe water and sanitary facilities and makes the link between accessible potable water, dehydration and productivity:

18.1.1 Dehydration quickly reduces physical and mental ability, thus reducing productivity and increasing the risk of accidents. For this reason, the employer must provide an adequate supply of potable water placed in locations readily accessible to workers. The water should be provided in sufficient amounts to meet the needs of all workers at the worksite, taking into account the air temperature, humidity and the nature of the work performed. [p.259]

Further reading on the general situation of plantation workers and how their working conditions, including lack of access to potable water, lead to widespread violations of the right to food can be found in  Harvesting Hunger – a joint publication by FIAN, Misereor and the IUF.

The IUF therefore calls on the HLPE to ensure that the next draft of its report on Water and food security addresses the issue of lack potable water for agricultural workers and proposes measures to address the issue of lack of potable water in agricultural workplaces.

These measures should include:

• A call to Governments to ensure that (in line with ILO Convention 110 and Recommendation 192 ) agricultural workers have access to potable water and that labour inspectors assess and report on both the quantity and quality of potable water available to agricultural workers in their workplaces;
• A call to governments to ratify ILO Convention 184 on safety and health in agriculture;
• A call to governments to promote use of the ILO Code of Practice on safety and health in agriculture.

Ron Oswald

General Secretary

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*The International Union of Food, Agricultural, Hotel, Restaurant, Catering, Tobacco and Allied Workers' Associations (IUF) is an international federation of trade unions representing workers employed in agriculture and plantations; the preparation and manufacture of food and beverages; hotels, restaurants and catering services; all stages of tobacco processing. The IUF is composed of 390 affiliated organizations in 125 countries representing a combined membership of around 2,6 million.

Annex 1: potable water “systems” for sugar cane cutters in Kenya.

a)  Workers bring their own water in recycled containers;

b)  Employers organise water distribution in the fields – usually one person goes to where the workers are to fill their containers or give them a cup of water

c)  Employers park a water tank at the edge of the fields and workers have to walk back and forth to the tank whenever they need to fill their containers with water

Liquid intake under the strenuous working conditions of cane cutters should be 12 litres of liquid while in the fields. The IUF has never seen such amounts of water available to cane cutters.

There is no information available on the quality of the water available to these sugar workers.

Source: IUF