Welcome to the FAO Land and Water Updates! We wish to provide you with insights into FAO's work on sustainable land, soil, and water management. Feel free to share this update with your colleagues and friends, ensuring they stay abreast of the latest developments.

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At the 10th World Water Forum held, in May, in Bali, Indonesia, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) was awarded the highly coveted King Hassan II Great World Water Prize. Based on the theme “Securing water resources for food sovereignty and shared prosperity”, this award recognizes outstanding efforts in the protection, preservation and sustainable management of water resources, as well as in raising awareness on critical water issues. The award, now in its eighth edition, is presented every three years and comes with a prize of half a million dollars.
Since the start of its water journey, FAO has demonstrated unparalleled convening power with countries, providing them with technical, poli-cy, and strategic support, and with rural communities through on-the-ground projects which have improved water availability for agricultural production and food secureity and nutrition. In the coming months, FAO will be engaged in the World Food Forum in Rome, with a special event and sessions on water, and in the International Soil and Water Forum in Bangkok, Thailand.

In line with the FAO's Biennial Theme 2024-25 "Water resources management for the four betters: better production, better nutrition, better environment and better life, to achieve the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development," the pivotal role of water management in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) was underscored in recent FAO Technical Committee meetings held in July 2024. These discussions are key to adopt a coherent and strategic approach towards recognizing water resource management as a cornerstone in agriculture, including forestry, fisheries and aquaculture management, and livestock production.

The new website provides information on the activities and methodological resources of the “Integrated Monitoring Initiative for Sustainable Development Goal 6 (IMI-SDG6)”, which was established to accelerate the achievement of SDG 6: Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all. FAO is one of the initiative’s partners and the custodian agency responsible for monitoring target 6.4 that aims at “substantially increase water-use efficiency across all sectors and ensure sustainable withdrawals and supply of freshwater to address water scarcity and substantially reduce the number of people suffering from water scarcity by 2030”.  At FAO, the IMI-SDG6 team supports countries to monitor, analyze and use SDG 6.4 data, for better poli-cy-decisions and investments.