Water resources

Europe and Central Asia need to ensure effective water management

April 4, 2025

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To ensure that people in Europe and Central Asia have food on their plates, the region needs to be water secure, according to the 2024 Regional Overview of Food Security and Nutrition, published today, the UN press service reports.

As the authors of the report note, water security can also act as a catalyst for transforming the region’s agriculture sector, increasing its efficiency and resilience. The review assesses countries’ progress towards achieving the goals of ending hunger and addressing nutrition issues by 2030 and highlights the interlinkages of the water sector with agriculture. Seven UN agencies, including WHO, UNICEF, FAO and WMO, joined forces to produce the report. “We aim to accelerate efforts to end hunger in the region, improve its health and ensure water security. Our organizations will support governments and engage new partners to align policies at national and regional levels and find sustainable solutions to the challenges facing the region,” the organizations said in a joint statement in the foreword to the report.

Problems in the field of nutrition

Although hunger and food security are not as acute in Europe and Central Asia as they are in the rest of the world, a number of countries in the region still face challenges in this area, including malnutrition. According to the authors of the report, the problems are caused by a number of factors, including climate change and the war in Ukraine. According to the review, in 2023, the level of undernourishment in the world was 9.1 percent, in the Europe and Central Asia region – below 2.5 percent.

However, in Central Asia, about three percent of the population, or 2.3 million people, do not have sufficient energy intake. In 2023, about 11.5 percent of the population in Europe and Central Asia – 107.2 million people – were food insecure. In other words, they did not have access to enough safe and nutritious food.

However, over the past two decades, the region has come significantly closer to achieving targets for combating the consequences of malnutrition, such as stunting and wasting in children under five.

In addition, the prevalence of anaemia among women aged 15-49 has decreased. The rate in the region is 18.8 percent, significantly lower than the global rate of 29.9 percent.

At the same time, countries in Europe and Central Asia are facing a rise in adult obesity, which affected more than 20 percent of the population in 2022, exceeding the global average of 15.8 percent. The prevalence of obesity among children under five continues to decline, but remains at 7.1 percent, higher than the global average of 5.6 percent.

Some 64.3 million people in the region – 6.9 percent of the population – could not afford a healthy diet in 2022. This is much lower than the global average of 35.4 percent.

Water Security – the Path to Good Nutrition

In terms of water management, the report goes beyond the standard global discourse, which often focuses solely on water scarcity. The authors of the review consider issues such as sanitation, hygiene, water efficiency, water quality. The report also talks about the interdependence of water security and food security.

In the Europe and Central Asia region, the state of water supply infrastructure has been deteriorating in recent years, with growing problems related to climate change, water pollution, ineffective water management, and the complex nature of transboundary cooperation in water management.

Countries with high levels of water stress are likely to use much more water or use the resource inefficiently in agriculture. Demand for more water-intensive animal products – such as beef, chicken, eggs and milk – is growing in many developing countries in the region, increasing overall water needs.

“The analysis shows that higher-income countries tend to have better water supplies. The report shows that food insecurity is relatively low in the region, even in water-poor countries,” said Tamara Nanitashvili, FAO senior policy officer and lead author of the report.

“However, limited access to safe water and sanitation facilities in rural areas may lead to modest nutritional outcomes in Central Asia and the Caucasus,” she added.

The report says that countries in Europe and Central Asia need to develop, and are already developing, water management strategies that match their needs. In this context, countries in transition urgently need assistance in water management, especially in areas where water is scarce, as well as investments in water conservation and water reuse.

The report also recommends reducing the water footprint of agriculture and strengthening transboundary cooperation to manage water resources more efficiently.