Expected water savings by implementing advanced irrigation technologies have in many cases not been achieved and have even led to higher water consumption by irrigators. This has been to the advantage of farmers concerned (more crop produced), but has been disappointing to planners who were hoping to save water (in fact, making it available for other uses). Ignoring return flows and reuse of water are common reasons for these underperforming water savings projects.

FutureWater and FAO have over the past years worked intensively on this topic, developing and advocating the “Follow the Water” approach. Among others, this culminated in the launch of the Follow the Water (FtW) tool, which was developed to improve the understanding of water flows in irrigation systems by visualizing flows and quantifying reuse of water in a simple and understandable manner.

Now, FAO’s Second Edition of the FutureWater-led report “Reuse of water in agricultural systems – Follow the Water” has been published, which attempts to quantify reuse rates in irrigated agricultural systems. The technical manual of the Follow the Water was recently officially published by FAO as well. Together with the FtW tool, these resources aim to provide conceptual guidance as well as a practical toolkit to agricultural water managers for sound tracking of flows across irrigation systems.

FutureWater is proud to present these new fruits of a long-standing collaboration with FAO, which illustrates our commitment to advancing sustainable and effective agricultural water management worldwide.