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Your Excellences,

Distinguished Guests,

Ladies and Gentlemen,  

I would like to highlight once more the crucial importance of water to agriculture and the achievement of all SDGs. 

Globally, we are facing severe water challenges: droughts and water scarcity, floods and pollution, exacerbated by climate change.  

Ninety percent of natural disasters are water related.  

We need to value water as a global public good. And we need to protect it, sustainably use and reuse it for all economies.

Agriculture accounts for 70% of global freshwater withdrawals. Through increasing efficiency, reducing negative impacts and reusing wastewater, agriculture holds the solutions to the global water crisis.

At the same time Water is essential for food production – including aquatic foods, farmed or captured in lakes, rivers, wetlands, estuaries, and coastal and marine waters.

Aquatic food systems support over 600 million livelihoods, mainly small scale fishers, fish farmers, fish processors, and their dependents. Aquatic foods are crucial for nutrition and food security.

In Small Island Developing States and Least Developed Countries, aquatic foods contribute at least 50 percent of animal protein intake. Their contributions to addressing micronutrient deficiency are increasingly known.

Concerted and coherent actions are needed to overcome persistent challenges and to achieve the SDG6 as well as all other Sustainable Development Goals by 2030.

Acknowledging that no one-size-fits-all solution exists, all stakeholders, including governments, international organizations, civil society, the private sector and academia, need to be engaged in the process of finding integrated, holistic solutions to the interconnected issues.

FAO is fully committed to support finding these solutions by addressing the crucial importance of water to agriculture and food security.

FAO has submitted seven commitments to the Water Action Agenda:

• Integrated Droughts Management
• Irrigation needs and potential mapping
• National Water Roadmaps, which aims to support Members in establishing their national water strategies through country-led multistakeholder dialogues
• Global monitoring of actual evapotranspiration, biomass production and water productivity through Remote Sensing
• Global Water Data Portal: FAO’s water portal WaPOR is ready to contribute to the establishment of a Global Water Information System
• Addressing water scarcity in agriculture through partnerships and innovation
• Global Dialogue on Water Tenure given that we believe that effective water governance plays a crucial role in enhancing cross-sectoral policies and creating joint political will and concrete actions to achieve SDG6.

Lastly, we need a holistic approach by applying the Water-Energy-Food-Environment Nexus approach, to catalyze sustainable and just development.

This year’s UN 2023 Water Conference has provided space for dialogue to find a shared vision and goals and to join efforts to overcome existing challenges.

Dear co-lead countries of this Interactive Dialogue, Singapore and the United States, I appreciate once more the opportunity given to FAO to moderate this important event on the last day of the Conference.

Dear co-host countries of this UN 2023 Water Conference, the Kingdom of the Netherlands and Tajikistan, thank you for your great efforts and success in hosting this Conference that brought together Member states and crucial actors from all stakeholder groups to discuss solutions to get back on track of the water related goals and targets and to achieve all SDGs, leaving no one behind.

Excellences, Distinguished Representatives and Members of Delegations, I thank you for your contributions and attention.