According to a report by the International Water Management Institute, by 2025, about one third of the world's population, perhaps as many as 3 billion people, will face water shortages. From an agricultural standpoint, we may be looking at losses equivalent to the entire grain crops of India and the United States by then. According to some estimates, even without biofuels, we will very likely reach the upper limit of available fresh water for worldwide consumption, more than 2.9 billion cubic miles, by 2050. A growing reliance on biofuels would exacerbate an already difficult challenge.

According to a report by the International Water Management Institute, by 2025, about one third of the world's population, perhaps as many as 3 billion people, will face water shortages. From an agricultural standpoint, we may be looking at losses equivalent to the entire grain crops of India and the United States by then. According to some estimates, even without biofuels, we will very likely reach the upper limit of available fresh water for worldwide consumption, more than 2.9 billion cubic miles, by 2050. A growing reliance on biofuels would exacerbate an already difficult challenge.

The report said food had to become more affordable and nutritious without degrading the land. In 2006,water specialists from numerous national institutes published the greatest-ever assessment of water and food. The International Water Management Institute's (IWMI) Comprehensive Assessment of Water Management in Agriculture report concluded one third of the world's farmers already faced water scarcity. Meanwhile, climate change, says the UN's Food and Agriculture organisation (FAO), is putting more pressure on the food supplies of the poor.

"Remote sensing and GIS for wetland inventory, mapping and change analysis" - Rebelo et al 2008 listed as No 13 of the "Top 25 Hottest Articles". The "top 25" refers to the most read articles - counted by article downloads on ScienceDirect.

The International Water Management Institute has found some farmers in 53 developing countries use untreated sewage and urban wastewater to grow crops.

Institute director general Colin Chartres says we can't assume exporting countries are properly testing all of the produce we're importing.

The Philippines used 28.5 billion cubic meters of water in 2000. A third of that flowed into farms. According to a UN-backed study by the International Water Management Institute, the amount of water needed for crop production will rise 60-90 percent by 2050, to 11,000-13,500 cubic kilometers from 7,200 cubic kilometers today, depending on factors including population growth and crop yields.

MOST people may drink only two litres of water a day, but they consume about 3,000 if the water that goes into their food is taken into account. The rich gulp down far more, since they tend to eat more meat, which takes far more water to produce than grains. So as the world's population grows and incomes rise, farmers will-if they use today's methods-need a great deal more water to keep everyone fed: 2,000 more cubic kilometres a year by 2030, according to the International Water Management Institute (IWMI), a research centre, or over a quarter more than they use today.

The International Water Management Institute, which I lead, is ready to take on this challenge and wants to do so in partnership with leading Australian and international agencies.

Australian soil and water scientist, Dr. Colin Chartres is Director General of the Sri Lanka-based International Water Management Institute (IWMI), a non-profit research organization focusing on the sustainable management of water resources for food, livelihoods and the environment.

"There is a large potential for wastewater agriculture to both help and hurt great numbers of urban consumers," said Liqa Raschid-Sally, who led the study published by the Sri Lanka-based International Water Management Institute and released this week at the World Water Week conference in Stockholm, Sweden.

In fact, the future would appear dire. This past week, a panel of scientists released a groundbreaking study on water usage over the past half-century. Under the banner of the International Water Management Institute, more than 700 researchers from 100 institutions across the world contributed to this important study. Their warnings should wake us from our collective slumber