{"id":2918,"date":"2024-10-30T10:49:20","date_gmt":"2024-10-30T10:49:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/healthrights.mk\/?p=2918"},"modified":"2024-10-30T10:49:20","modified_gmt":"2024-10-30T10:49:20","slug":"addressing-global-water-and-food-crisis-crucial-for-human-rights-says-special-rapporteur","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/healthrights.mk\/?p=2918","title":{"rendered":"Addressing global water and food crisis crucial for human rights, says Special Rapporteur"},"content":{"rendered":"

NEW YORK\u00a0<\/strong>\u2013 The global water and food crisis are intrinsically linked with climate change and this connection has become crucial to human survival, a UN expert said today.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is more vital than ever for governments to take the lead in developing new governance approaches to address this interconnected crisis,\u201d said Pedro Arrojo-Agudo, the Special Rapporteur on the human rights to water and sanitation in his\u00a0report<\/a>\u00a0to the 79th UN General Assembly session.<\/p>\n

He remarked that the current food system is based on the belief in unlimited economic growth. “Current food systems are based on the myth that production can grow indefinitely and blind faith in markets to distribute food.”<\/p>\n

The Special Rapporteur urged governments to promote public policies for an agroecological and water transition that integrates human rights. \u201cWater and food are closely linked, as water is essential for our daily diet and food production,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cSubsidies to current modes of production and consumption total an estimated $540 billion annually,\u201d Arrojo-Agudo said. \u201cRedirecting this public funding to support the agroecological and water transition will enable healthier, more sustainable, equitable, and efficient food systems.\u201d<\/p>\n

In his statement, the Special Rapporteur said that the current dominant food and water systems fail to prioritise people’s nutritional needs. He emphasized that 2 billion people are not guaranteed access to safe drinking water, 800 million are experiencing hunger, and 2.5 billion are overweight.<\/p>\n

He said the current food system impacts access to quality of water through overexploitation and contamination of aquifers by intensive economic activities.<\/p>\n

\u201cOverexploitation of aquifers and the use of industrial pesticides and fertilisers and the concentrated production of slurry from intensive livestock place the agricultural sector at the forefront of toxic water pollution,\u201d the expert said. \u201cLand and water grabbing, and monocultures destroy rural social fabrics and traditional knowledge.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Special Rapporteur stressed these practices lead to deforestation, degrading the regenerative capacity of soil fertility and increasing vulnerability to climate change. Arrojo-Agudo urged countries to promote adaptation strategies based on sustainable water management as critical to addressing climate change based on a human rights approach. \u201cA water transition should guide adaptation strategies just like the energy transition guides mitigation strategies,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is plenty of room to shift to sustainable agroecological practices that ensure human rights compliance while respecting environmental sustainability,\u201d the expert said.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.ohchr.org\/en\/press-releases\/2024\/10\/addressing-global-water-and-food-crisis-crucial-human-rights-says-special<\/a><\/p>\n

18 October 2024<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

NEW YORK\u00a0\u2013 The global water and food crisis are intrinsically linked with climate change and this connection has become crucial to human survival, a UN expert said today. \u201cIt is more vital than ever for governments to take the lead…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2919,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"post_series":[],"class_list":["post-2918","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-vesti","entry","has-media"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/healthrights.mk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2918","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/healthrights.mk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/healthrights.mk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/healthrights.mk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/healthrights.mk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2918"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/healthrights.mk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2918\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2921,"href":"https:\/\/healthrights.mk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2918\/revisions\/2921"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/healthrights.mk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2919"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/healthrights.mk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2918"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/healthrights.mk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2918"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/healthrights.mk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2918"},{"taxonomy":"post_series","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/healthrights.mk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fpost_series&post=2918"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}