All publications and documents

Water, Food and Energy Facts and Figures ## 72% of all water withdrawals are used by agriculture, 16% by municipalities for households and services, and 12% by industries. (UN-Water 2021) ## It typically takes between 3,000 and 5,000 litres of water to produce 1 kg of rice, 2,000 litres for 1kg of soya, 900 litres for 1kg of wheat and 500 litres for 1kg of…

Water scarcity Facts and Figures ## 72% of all water withdrawals are used by agriculture, 16% by municipalities for households and services, and 12% by industries. (UN-Water 2021) ## When a territory withdraws 25% or more of its renewable freshwater resources it is said to be ‘water-stressed’. Five out of 11 regions have water stress values above 25%, including…

Water and Urbanization Facts and Figures ## The number of city inhabitants lacking safely managed drinking water has increased by more than 50% since 2000. (UN-Water 2021) ## 86% of people in urban areas have safely managed drinking water services, but only 60% of people rural areas have them. Safely managed sanitation services reach 62% of the world’s urban…

Scorching temperatures, infertile soils, limited water supplies, and frequent wind storms make the Phalodi township in India’s Thar desert an inhospitable place to live. Yet the abundance of open space and sunshine make this remote part of western Rajasthan an ideal place for harvesting solar power. Construction of the Bhadla Solar Park, near India’s border with Pakistan, began to…

By Aimable Twahirwa Negotiators at the United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA) in Kenya. African countries have been encouraged to adopt circular plastic policies which will lower greenhouse emissions. Credit: UNEA Nairobi, Kenya, Mar 1 2022 (IPS) - Environmental experts gathered in Nairobi, Kenya, have urged African governments to take advantage of ‘circular plastic…

A landmark new study provides the first ever high-resolution view of the extent of global cropland expansion over the last 20 years, revealing troubling news. Cropland has expanded by an area of land the size of Egypt, 102 million hectares, since the turn of the 21st century. Half of the expansion comes at the expense of natural ecosystems. Food crop production is essential to…