Often seen as a cheap and plentiful resource, new analysis shows food security is under serious threat from water risk with consequences for all of us. By Nick Hughes.
“One-Quarter of World’s Crops Threatened by Water Risks.” So screamed a recent headline from the normally measured NGO, the World Resources Institute (WRI).
Experts and campaigners have increasingly been forced into issuing such stark warnings amid perceptions of widespread indifference or ignorance over what is fast becoming a global water crisis.
Often seen as a cheap and plentiful resource, both by citizens and businesses, water may be cheap for some of us but it’s far from plentiful. New WRI analysis shows that one-quarter of the world’s crops are grown in areas where the water supply is highly stressed, highly unreliable or both.
Mounting risks from climate change and increased competition for water are threatening water supplies and, in turn, food security, with the world’s poorest people among the most vulnerable. Rice, wheat and corn – which provide more than half the world’s food calories – are particularly at risk with a third of these staple crops produced using water supplies that are highly stressed or highly variable.
Using new data from its Aqueduct water risk framework, WRI’s analysis considers what escalating water risks mean for global food production. Both rain-fed crops, which account for around two thirds of global crop production by volume, and irrigated crops, which account for the remaining third, face growing threats, with irrigated crops vulnerable to increasing competition over shared water supplies and rain-fed crops exposed to erratic weather patterns.
Along with staple crops like rice, wheat and corn, water risk also impacts the production of potatoes, tomatoes, citrus fruit, bananas, sugar and pretty much any other crop you can think of. Consider the damage wrought by the devastating flash floods in Valencia, Spain, which have left over 200 people dead and many more without homes and basic infrastructure. A less reported impact is that thousands of hectares of farmland have suffered catastrophic losses with citrus crops like mandarins, clementines and oranges especially hard hit.
Globally, 8% of the rain-fed crops the world produces are grown in areas facing high to extremely high variations in annual water supply, according to WRI, with rainfall patterns having the potential to swing wildly between drought and deluge. It says growing crops in these areas is putting food security in jeopardy.
So what can be done about it?
Business indifference
One essential step is for businesses to act so that water is used efficiently, equitably, and sustainably. This was a key recommendation from a major new report by the Global Commission on the Economics of Water (GCEW), in which a group of experts chart a course to bring back stability to the global water cycle.
To-date, that kind of transformation in how businesses use water hasn’t happened at any kind of scale. This time last year, Footprint published an article titled ‘When will businesses start taking water seriously?’ amid evidence that UK companies are too preoccupied with issues like carbon and waste to give too much thought to water.
A year on, a new Footprint Intelligence report, in association with Coca-Cola Europacific Partners – ‘Water stewardship and regeneration in the drinks industry; where next?’ – finds evidence that some progress is finally being made. In the report launched last week, Sophie Harrison, who works in Wrap’s food systems transformation team on water projects, notes how “we are seeing more businesses wanting to act on water” as companies are “waking up to the fact that if we don’t have a sustainable water supply we don’t have a product”.
Yet the extent to which industry action represents the kind of radical change in how water is valued, managed and used, as called for in the GCEW report, is moot. Organisations like Wrap are trying to coordinate industry action at scale through voluntary agreements like the Courtauld Commitment 2030, through which businesses commit to protect critical water resources. A water roadmap was established in 2021 as a key implementation framework for the Courtauld target for 50% of the UK’s fresh food to be sourced from areas with sustainable water management by 2030. Currently, 82 businesses have signed up to the roadmap including most of the main grocery retailers, caterers including Compass and Sodexo, and leading drinks suppliers like CCEP and Britvic. That’s an increase from the 60 businesses signed up a year ago, but it remains well below the 350+ companies committed to the charity’s food waste reduction roadmap.
Transforming agriculture
The Footprint report details a range of examples of how businesses are investing in water stewardship and regeneration both operationally and within their supply chains. In many places their actions reflect the findings of the GCEW which, among a raft of recommendations, wants to see “a major transformation in agriculture to reshape the reliance on large quantities of water and nitrogen-based fertilisers”. This includes “a major step-up in adoption of regenerative agriculture systems to preserve soil health” by improving soil water retention and helping store soil organic carbon, with the aim of having regenerative farming cover at least 50% of global cropland by 2050.
Some businesses are already working alongside partners to support farmers in implementing regenerative farming practices. Techniques such as cover cropping and wildflower planting can not only help the soil retain more water, they can also reduce farmers’ reliance on artificial inputs like nitrogen fertiliser which becomes a major cause of river pollution when it washes off of fields into water courses.
Businesses are also co-funding stewardship projects at a catchment level which aim to restore wetlands, or plant hedges and trees that can act as a natural flood defence system.
Less meat
Both the WRI and GCEW call for an increase in water use efficiency in agriculture, such as switching to water-efficient crops or using methods like sprinkler or drip irrigation to reduce the amount of water that needs to be extracted.
Both organisations also want to see demand-side changes that reduce our collective dependence on water-intensive foods. It’s arguably not the best like-for-like comparison, but WRI notes how one pound of beef requires 50 times more water to produce than one pound of potatoes as it calls for a shift from high-meat diets towards less water-intensive foods.
The GCEW says we should aim to increase the share of plant-based sources to about 30% of proteins in people’s diets by 2050 “through R&D and culinary innovations, and low lift interventions that do not remove a sense of individual choice”.
The Commission also calls for the creation of a circular water economy, noting how “wastewater reuse holds significant, untapped potential”. The Footprint report features the example of Cornish Orchards, the Asahi UK-owned cider brand, which has invested in installing its own water treatment plant onsite at its facility in Duloe on the south Cornish coast. Water that passes through the site is returned to nature via a wetland that has been created next to the farm and acts as a natural purification system.
Technological innovation has a key role to play too. CCEP Ventures, the soft drinks manufacturer’s innovation arm, has recently invested in a start-up company formed out of the University of Nottingham called Pipeline Organics, which is using enzymatic fuel cells to leverage the glucose in wastewater to generate renewable electricity.
Carbon connection
Underpinning all these efforts to improve water use efficiency is the need for greater transparency by businesses. The GCEW wants to see more market-based disclosure of corporate water footprints and for water to be integrated into companies’ carbon transition plans to recognise the interdependencies.
Its report refers strikingly to “the wicked interaction between the water crisis, climate change, and the loss of the planet’s natural capital”. For a tangible example of this triple threat, one need look no further than deforestation linked to agricultural expansion, which is not only a significant source of greenhouse gas emissions and biodiversity loss but also contributes to the loss of ‘green’ water – the water held in soils and wetlands that the GCEW describes as “a critical freshwater resource”.
The overall prognosis may appear bleak, but WRI stresses that variable water supplies don’t automatically spell crisis. “With the right policies that address the nexus of food production, water management and conservation, businesses and governments can ensure that bread baskets remain full,” it says.
What’s clear is that the current level of engagement with water risk – by governments, businesses and citizens – does not come close to reflecting the urgency of the challenge.
We began with a stark warning and we shall end with one too, from the GCEW. “No community or economy will be spared the consequences of a water cycle that is out of kilter – itself the result of our collective actions over decades,” write the five co-chairs of the Commission in their preface to the report. “Most dangerously, we will fail on climate change if we fail on water. We will also fail on each and every one of the Sustainable Development Goals.”
Such dire warnings are not designed purely to shock, they are designed to inspire all of us take action – starting now.
The new Footprint Intelligence report, in association with Coca-Cola Europacific Partners – ‘Water stewardship and regeneration in the drinks industry; where next?’ – can be accessed for free here from the Footprint website.
