At the ninth Cairo Water Week, World Water Council President Loïc Fauchon urged water managers to curb demand and protect ecosystems, arguing that conservation must complement efforts to expand supplies.
Fauchon said the sector had spent too long prioritizing supply and should now manage demand more actively. The Council described his framework as “Preserve, Reserve, Serve,” with the goal of keeping water available for nature as well as human uses. His comments came as the event opened Oct. 25; Cairo Water Week is scheduled to run through Oct. 29. The event’s theme is “Water as a Catalyst for: Peace, Shared Prosperity, and a Sustainable Planet.”
The proposed steps span infrastructure, technology and reuse. They include using deep groundwater prudently, moving water between regions and adding low-cost desalination, alongside digital systems to detect and manage leaks and technologies that reduce water use. Fauchon also backed reservoirs planned with biodiversity in mind. The Council said treated wastewater should first be reused in agriculture and industry, while household use could be considered in the future. He also called for assessing water footprints across crops, livestock, industry and tourism as part of the demand-management approach.
The Council linked its call to climate disruption, droughts, floods, expanding megacities and changing diets. It also cited an estimate that 40% of food produced, or 2.5 billion tonnes each year, goes uneaten. Separately, a 2021 report by WWF and Tesco gave the same estimate for food grown. That report focused on losses at farms and combined its findings with updated data on supply-chain losses and waste at retail and consumer stages.
The recommendations were not presented as binding policy. The Council’s announcement gave no implementation schedule, funding plan or quantified water-saving target. It also called for international cooperation and youth engagement and reaffirmed support for water diplomacy. The 11th World Water Forum is scheduled for March 21-25, 2027, in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
