Water scarcity and abundance, water productivity and their relation to poverty - Water Scarcity, Livelihoods and Food Security - page 15

2 Water scarcity and abundance,

water productivity and their
relation to poverty

Alain Vidal, a* Larry W. Harrington b and Myles J. Fisher c

a CGIAR Challenge Program on Water and Food CPWF, Montpellier,
France; b CGIAR Challenge Program on Water and Food CPWF, Ithaca,
NY, USA; c Centro Internacional de Agricultura Tropical CIAT, Cali,
Colombia; * Corresponding author, [e-mail].

Water scarcity and beyond
The Challenge Program on Water and Food (CPWF) was conceived as a
response by the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research
(CGIAR) to a perceived global crisis: the threat posed by water scarcity to food
security, livelihoods and the environment, and the urgent need to use
increasingly scarce water resources more efficiently. With the passage of time,
the CPWF has broadened its agenda to focus on a range of development
challenges in basins that relate to water. The CPWF came to see that water
provides a useful entry point for addressing many development challenges,
including those related to sustainable intensification of agricultural systems and
preservation of ecosystem services. Addressing water scarcity is a means to a
broader end as well as an end in itself.
In this chapter, we look back at some of the concepts that underpinned the
original CPWF. We review recent findings on water scarcity at the global level
and compare these with basin-level information on water scarcity from CPWF
Basin Focal Projects (BFPs). We also take a closer look at the multiple dimen-
sions of water scarcity as they affect farm family livelihoods and show that
water can be scarce even when it is apparently abundant. We then revisit the
concept of water productivity (WP) (embodied in the phrase, “crop per drop”)
and discuss its usefulness and limitations as an indicator. Finally, we review
what the CPWF has learned regarding the subtle and complex relationships
among water scarcity, poverty, livelihoods and food security.

The global level—freshwater is scarce
The essence of the global water scarcity narrative is simple: freshwater supply
and demand are out of balance in important regions and the mismatch is likely
to get worse. The narrative suggests that the demand for water-related products
(especially food) will grow faster than the population increases, whereas the
supply of freshwater is limited, and that the main question is the timing and