Food waste and food losses represent a minimum of 30% of the food produced globally and probably up to 40% or even 50% for certain products. Given that the global water footprint of food production can be estimated around 7000 km3, reducing food losses would have a tremendous impact on water resources and therefore be a major contributor to the 6^th World Water Forum’s priority to “Adjust pressures and footprints of human activities on water”. It would more generally have an impact on (i) all the inputs (labour, energy, land, natural ecosystems, fertilisers…) required for the production, transformation and trade of food, the economy of all stakeholders involved “from field to fork” and finally on the impacts of organic waste generated (waste collection, treatment, storage; waste impacts on GHG emissions).

This global problem needs to be tackled with a very broad perspective (i.e. integrating the above aspects in a comprehensive way), but the water community on its side has to and is able to contribute in its own way in the development of solutions to reduce the impacts of food losses on water consumption.

Developing an in-depth analysis on the impacts of food waste and losses on water would be a first step towards our goal of reducing the pressures generated by this industry. A major step in that direction has been achieved with the publication of “From Field to Fork” (SIWI, 2008). The present target aims at building on this initial document and complementing it with a more precise estimate of the major components of the water footprint of food waste/losses using the knowledge that has been gained over the past few years in this field. On this basis, the work of the Target and Solutions Group could:

- help understanding and quantify the water footprint of food waste in developed countries, the origin of this footprint (i.e. where the losses occur and for which products)

- build a global network of stakeholders whose participation is crucial to achieve the reduction

- derive from this analysis and collaboration a series of solutions to reduce the water footprint of food waste/losses

- make the case for a large programme to be developed in partnership with other communities/sectors.

Once these goals are reached, the actions could be oriented towards the identification of hotspots, i.e. areas where reducing food losses and waste could significantly reduce potential tensions over water and the setting up of reduction strategies to meet our objective of halving the avoidable footprint by 2020.

3 2 T4 Draft Action Plan