Shirine Khoury-Haq: 'Water security is a climate issue - the food industry must take action'

The world faces many crises and at present world leaders are assembled at the UN Climate Change Conference, or COP27, to discuss saving the planet and, crucially, tackling water security is high on the agenda this year.

Water is a precious resource, sustaining all life on earth. Yet access to safe water, sanitation and hygiene is taken for granted by the rich but remains a pipedream for poorer nations. The climate crisis is only widening this gap.

A startling statistic is that around 80% of people living in extreme poverty are dependent on agriculture for economic growth, but burgeoning populations result in agriculture getting thirstier and more water-intensive to meet demand. 

It is imperative for all governments around the world to create a water-secure future for all, but as the food production industry demands more water resources, many communities’ interests are not being taken into account.

“One of the UN’s sustainable development goals is to ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all — it underpins the eradication of global poverty”

I’m speaking at COP27 and pressing the case for urgent climate crisis action, but also calling for the food industry to unite and play a part in addressing water scarcity among the poorest nations.

It is vital that businesses understand the importance of water scarcity and take action in the communities from which they source, here in the UK and around the world. And equally important is to help consumers understand the impact of the products and services they buy on people and the planet. 

The Co-op donates money — surpassing £20m over 15 years — to two organisations: The One Foundation, which funds water projects around the world, the donations of which come from own-brand bottled water sales; and also, together with our branded suppliers, to Water Unite.   

The funding to Water Unite supports an innovative model to leverage investment in the systems needed to keep clean water flowing and to tackle plastic pollution across developing countries. Half of the funding from Co-op’s partnership with The One Foundation is invested into Fairtrade producer communities in sub-Saharan Africa. That means we’ve been directly investing the money raised through the products we sell back into the communities producing the food we love to eat here in the UK. 

But Co-op recognises that this contribution is a drop in the ocean when compared to the scale of the project. 

Safe sanitation for global workers 

As an industry there is much work still to be done to ensure workers in our global supply chains and their families have access to safe sanitation facilities — only 54% of the world’s population are using safely managed sanitation services, 1.7 billion people lack access to a decent toilet (both WHO/Unicef), and every two minutes diarrhoea caused by dirty water and poor toilet facilities kills a child under the age of five (Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation).  

As with the question of water scarcity, it’s important we recognise the link between how our food is produced and the lack of access to safe water and sanitation that blights so many lives.

One in six people across the planet lives in an agricultural area with very high water constraints and competition for available supplies, which has become a significant tension in some areas that grow crops for export, putting additional pressure on water availability. 

One of the UN’s sustainable development goals is to ensure the availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all. It underpins the delivery of so many of the other sustainable development goals and the eradication of global poverty. 

Clean water is the easiest defence against disease

Covid-19 revealed the deep injustices that endure around the world precisely because the very simplest defence against the spread of disease, handwashing, is impossible without reliable, clean water supplies. 

Water security is one of the most tangible and immediate threats that the food industry faces as a result of the climate crisis, which is leading to more severe weather events and natural disasters impacting communities critical to food security. 

The need for emergency relief is growing and this will only continue to increase with the advance of climate change — 10% of Co-op’s donation to The One Foundation is ringfenced to disaster appeals and emergency relief. 

For too long access to water has been seen as separate from climate change but the two are inextricably linked — tackling water shortages has to be a fundamental part of the climate change response to mitigate rising temperatures and tackle inequalities.

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