The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) estimates that by the year 2025, about two-thirds of the world’s population could be at risk of experiencing water shortages.
It just takes a few winters of below-average precipitation to quickly bring about decreased reservoir levels, poor harvests, significant road cracking, and the possibility of water restrictions being put into place in order to conserve the little water that is left. Wildfires that got out of control in South Africa and the United Kingdom both caused a lot of damage and required a lot of labour to put out. The total cost was in the millions of dollars.
Efforts Being Made in Both the United Kingdom and South Africa to Cut Back on Their Reliance on Water for Fruit Farming.
The big high-street store M&S, which is also a major food retailer, is well aware of the implications that water shortages in nations from which they get their food can have on their business. These countries include countries such as the United Kingdom and the United States. They risk having a negative impact on their bottom line if their yields are reduced, their harvests are delayed, and their quality is diminished.
They developed a map using the WWF’s water risk tool, which identified four nations—the United Kingdom, South Africa, Spain, and Kenya—from where they source commodities as being deemed to be at risk of water quality and shortage. These countries are Kenya, Spain, and the United Kingdom. This map indicated that the primary water impact for M&S lay within its supply chain, not its stores. As a result, it has adopted a variety of approaches, including a number of “sustainable factory and farming for the future” programmes which are embedded with clear water guidance in order to address this issue.
In the United Kingdom alone, water use for fruit farming has already been cut by 45 percent thanks to a variety of water-related measures, including the introduction of new management systems.
When growing soft fruit, many farmers now make use of probes that will only release water when it is absolutely necessary. This programme has resulted in increases in fruit quality, flavour, and yield, while also resulting in a reduction in water use that is approximately sixty percent lower than before.
Stone fruit growers in the Western Cape have also significantly reduced their water use, as have farmers in Kenya, who have seen significant water reduction and improved wastewater treatment thanks to the country’s water stewardship programme. In Spain, water use was cut by a massive 35% in just one season as a result of initiatives, including the implementation of a new growing system. In Kenya, water use was cut significantly and wastewater treatment was significantly improved.
M&S is making a huge difference in the agricultural water footprint by developing catchment-wide approaches to water stewardship, often in partnership with NGOs, and encouraging suppliers to develop their own water stewardship plans. The footprint for an M&S peach, for example, is only 297 litres per kilogramme as opposed to the global average of 771 litres per kilogramme.
Living-Water, located in London, is the place to go to purchase a water cooler. In London, you can either rent a water cooler or buy a water dispenser online.
