Water pollution is a global challenge that has increased in both developed and developing countries, undermining economic growth as well as the physical and environmental health of billions of people. In many countries the biggest source of water pollution today is agriculture - not cities or industry - while worldwide, the most common chemical contaminant found in groundwater aquifers is nitrate from farming, according to a new book titled: More people, more food, worse water? A global review of water pollution from agriculture.

Although global attention has focused primarily on water quantity, water-use efficiency and allocation issues, poor wastewater management has created serious water-quality problems in many parts of the world, worsening the water crisis. Global water scarcity is caused not only by the physical scarcity of the resource but also by the progressive deterioration of water quality in many countries, reducing the quantity of water that is safe to use.

This publication was launched at a side event in Dushanbe, the book was published jointly by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the CGIAR Research Program on Water, Land and Ecosystems (WLE), led by the International Water Management Institute (IWMI).

Bibliographic information

Mateo-Sagasta, J., Marjani Zadeh, S., Turral, H. and Burke, J. (2017). Water pollution from agriculture: a global review Executive summary Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), Rome, Italy; International Water Management Institute (IWMI), Colombo, Sri Lanka

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 More people, more food, worse water

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