Water wastage threatens Asia

Asia will face an extremely serious food crisis, as predicted by the United Nations. The only solution is that regional governments must invest hundreds of billions of dollars to improve irrigation systems for crops.

The report of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (IWMI) reported that India, China, Pakistan and other Asian countries had avoided hunger in the 1970s and 1980s thanks to construction. Huge irrigation systems are managed and used by the state with good seeds and fertilizers. However, by 2050, Asia will have to shoulder an additional 1.5 billion people, causing the region's food demand to double. Meanwhile, the area of ​​arable land is being narrowed due to urbanization, the climate is becoming more and more unstable due to global warming, over-exploited water.

Farmers use electric pumps in an Indian village (Photo: AP)

The report confirms in that condition that the only feasible solution to ensure food for Asians is to increase the efficiency of managing existing water resources. ' Current irrigation systems are all 50-70 years old. They have deteriorated greatly, leading to water loss. We call on emergency countries to build new irrigation systems, otherwise food crisis like 2007 will continue to happen, 'said Colin Chartres, IWMI director.

The report said that for many years, Asian farmers often had to take care of irrigation. Tens of millions of farmers spend their own money to buy cheap pumps, draw water from shallow aquifers anywhere. The government cannot manage this activity, resulting in excessive water exploitation. Mr. Chartres warned: ' This trend will become more and more popular, pushing the lives of farmers to fall into piling difficulties '.

Moreover, according to the report, the food crisis will become more severe when millions of high-income people in developing countries abandon the habit of eating traditional rice and cereals to switch to using food. West, which needs more water to produce. It is estimated that the world population will increase by 2.5 billion people in the next 40 years. IWMI predicts that with 1 liter of water producing 1 calorie of food today, the world will need 6,000km3 more water per year to supply 2,500 calories / day / person for 2.5 billion more people. 'That amount of water is almost double that of our current use .'