Azerbaijan one of twenty most affected countries by water shortages FAO representative says

The representative of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the UN, Mohammed Nasser has said that Azerbaijan is among the 20 countries most affected by water shortages.

He made the remarks while addressing the opening of the Faculty of Agricultural and Food Sciences of ADA University, as well as the Coordination Office of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization in Azerbaijan and World Food Day, Trend reports.

“In Azerbaijan, more than 70 per cent of water resources are used for agricultural needs. I hope that the Faculty of Agriculture and Food Sciences will contribute to more efficient use of water resources, as well as the development of agriculture,” Nasser added.

Touching on the topic of drinking water, the FAO representative noted that only 3-4 per cent of water bodies in the world can be used as drinking water.

It should be noted that 44 new sources of drinking water have been created in Azerbaijan over the past few years.

In particular, work is currently underway in Karabakh and Eastern Zangezur to create new sources of drinking water.

An agency has also been created in the country, the main activity of which is aimed at providing entrepreneurs in the agricultural sector with water for land reclamation purposes.

Addressing the event, the Azerbaijani Minister of Agriculture Majnun Mammadov stressed that Azerbaijan is taking large-scale measures to provide the population with drinking water.

“Population and agricultural growth are leading to water shortages,” the minister added.

Mammadov also touched upon the topic of world hunger, noting that around the world 2.4 billion people cannot provide themselves with enough food, and 783 million people suffer from hunger.

He emphasized that a significant proportion of the world's people suffering from hunger live in rural areas.