Members of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research, a global of farm improvement centers, met in Nairobi, Kenya, this week to a new campaign to solve the worldwide problem of water scarcity.
at the meeting warned that fewer and fewer people around the will have access to clean, safe water unless governments and humanitarian take action to address the problem. Mark Rosegrant is an official the US based International Food Policy Research Institute, one of 16 run by the Consultative Group. Mr. Rosegrant says that the water is especially serious in sub-Saharan Africa, where water infrastructure and management can’t keep up with household demand.
“The number of people without to clean water will increase dramatically - from 150-million to 400-millin 2025. On the food side we are seeing that we are to have an increase in the number of malnourished children in -Saharan Africa, from 33-million now to 37-million in 2025.
The meeting in brought together national and international research institutions under the Challenge Program, initiative designed to find ways of improving the productivity of water environmentally sustainable ways.
Research projects will be spread over nine major basins in Africa, Asia, the Middle East and South America. The basins will serve as living laboratories, where the impact of the can be closely monitored.
In October 50 research proposals were approved funding under the Challenge Program. Close to 60 million dollars has been committed by donors to the program. The goal is to 60 million dollars more during the first six-year research phase. million more during the first six-year research phase.