The UN 2023 Water Conference and the  World Water Day 2023 on 22 March will be a call to action to every single person on the planet to accelerate change to solve the water and sanitation crisis around the world.  Currently 2.3 billion people live in water-stressed countries, of which more than 733 million people - approximately 10 percent of the global population - live in countries with high and critical water stress. Water scarcity, drought, floods, pollution and other climate change impacts are key challenges to sustainable agriculture and rural development.

The world will come together in New York during the UN 2023 Water Conference<https://sdgs.un.org/conferences/water2023>, convened by the UN General Assembly and co-hosted by the Kingdom of the Netherlands and the Republic of Tajikistan. It marks a watershed moment that will call governments, companies and individuals to take concerted actions and commitments to achieve the internationally agreed water-related goals and targets. It is the most important water event in a generation, the first event of its kind for nearly 50 years.

To complement this, World Water Day<https://www.worldwaterday.org/>, celebrated on 22 March 2023, will call every individual to make a difference by changing the way we use, consume and manage water in our lives. This year’s World Water Day theme is “Accelerating change” with the slogan “Be the change you want to see in the world”. Because water affects us all, we need everyone to take action, no matter how small the action is.

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) has already initiated several important actions in the lead-up to the UN 2023 Water Conference and will play a key role in the event.

FAO Director-General QU Dongyu will moderate the Interactive Dialogue 5<https://sdgs.un.org/conferences/water2023/events/interactive-dialogue-5> on "Water Action Decade: Accelerating the implementation of the objectives of the Decade, including through the UN Secretary-General’s Action Plan".

FAO, as the UN co-lead agency, together with the UN Development Programme and the World Bank, will also provide technical support to co-convene the Interactive Dialogue 2<https://sdgs.un.org/conferences/water2023/events/interactive-dialogue-2> on “Water for Sustainable Development: Valuing Water, Water-Energy-Food Nexus and Sustainable Economic and Urban Development”. FAO will also organize the side event “National Water Roadmaps towards the 2030 Agenda,” and will co-partner and support three special events, in addition to over 20 other side events.

Detailed information on FAO’s participation at the UN 2023 Water Conference can be found here<https://www.fao.org/events/detail/fao-at-the-un-2023-water-conference/>.

Journalists can contact Laura Quinones at laura.quinones@fao.org<mailto:laura.quinones@fao.org>

or FAO-newsroom@fao.org<file:///C:/Users/ALONSOMA/AppData/Local/Microsoft/Windows/INetCache/Content.Outlook/L3AG1RY7/FAO-newsroom@fao.org> to arrange interviews with FAO experts on water-related themes including:

• Water is essential for food production, enabling the production of over 95 percent of food on land. By 2050, to meet future demand, the global production of food, fiber and feed will need to increase 50 percent  compared to 2012. To meet this goal, 35 percent of additional water resources are needed.

• We need new ways of managing water to meet our social, environmental and economic needs, and ensure efficient water use in agrifood systems. We need to integrate water into all three dimensions - social, economic and environmental - of sustainable development, giving particular attention to the Water-Energy-Food-Ecosystem (WEFE) nexus.

• FAO is making integrated water resource management an organizational priority, promoting water-related initiatives to address the existing challenges and support the transformation of agrifood systems and the achievement of the SDGs.

• FAO has proposed and is supporting Members to develop National Water Roadmaps towards the 2030 Agenda to help them strengthen the inter-sectoral coordination on sustainable water resources management and speed up the achievement of the SDGs at national level. The roadmaps will serve as a reference point and voluntary commitment to be shared during the UN 2023 Water Conference.

Journalists & editors: For photos, audio clips, video material & b-roll, contact: (+39) 06 570 53625 or FAO-newsroom@fao.org<mailto:FAO-newsroom@fao.org>. Online tools: Photos via the FAOnews Flickr<https://www.flickr.com/photos/faonews/albums> account.


EXPERTS AVAILABLE FOR INTERVIEWS

Journalists can contact laura.quinones@fao.org or  FAO-newsroom@fao.org<mailto:FAO-newsroom@fao.org> to arrange interviews with FAO experts on a range of water-related-themes (in all UN official languages)