Timor-Leste’s high rate of malnutrition impedes the population’s ability to break the cycle of poverty and, at the national level, is a burden on national development. As a Least Developed Country, with a high poverty rate, achieving food and nutrition security is crucial for Timor-Leste’s development.

India is the largest consumer of groundwater in the world and, because its rate of extraction has remained high, groundwater replenishment has been unable to sustain water levels in many of the country’s aquifers.