Water Footprint and the Concept of Virtual Water

There is a kind of illusion of water and food security in the minds of people in spite of inadequate resources. The situation is already grim, and this lack of responsible behaviour will only draw the crisis closer. According to a study conducted by The United Nations, water use is growing at twice the rate of population growth and unless this trend is reversed, two-thirds of the global population will face water "stress" by the year 2025 [united Nations]

Understanding the concept of virtual water can help us understand this false sense of security most people are living with while the problem is staring in the face.

Everything that we use takes water to make but the end user is not able to see or touch this water that we call ‘Virtual Water’ or ‘Embedded Water’. Most people are not aware that the water we drink or use for various household purposes is not the only water used by us. The quality of drinking water is of course important and the drinking water dispensers and water purifiers from WAE are ideal in the present circumstances.

If people knew about the ‘virtual water’ content of various products – it would totally change their approach to water consumption and scarcity. Virtual water is the amount of water that goes into producing food or other products that we use and it is huge compared to direct water use. Hoekstra has defined the virtual-water content of a product as "the volume of freshwater used to produce the product, measured at the place where the product was actually produced". It refers to the sum of the water used in the various steps of the production process. The exact volume of water used for a product can vary depending on the agricultural practices and climatic conditions.

While both the terms ‘virtual water’ and ‘water footprint’ are used to refer to the water used to produce an item, the concept of ‘water footprint’ may be applied more broadly. Virtual water content of a product is the total amount of water used along the various steps of the value chain. Whereas the water footprint of a product may consist of three components – blue, green, and grey. Water footprint helps us understand for what purpose our water resources are being used and polluted and the concept of virtual water helps understand and identify where the risks may lie, in terms of scarcity and pollution and its implications on food security and the economy as a whole. Access to clean and safe drinking water is of vital importance and also the choice of the perfect water dispenser and RO.

Virtual water has major impacts on global trade policy and research and is particularly significant in the context of water scarce regions. Professor John Allan observed that Middle Eastern and North African countries were able to meet their food needs in spite of struggling with water scarcity by importing food from water-rich countries. He introduced this concept of "virtual water trade" in the year 1993.

The concept of virtual water can help us move towards more productive and efficient water use. It would definitely help, if water availability or the amount of water required to produce a particular product had been the dominant criterion, for trade policy or the import and exports of goods but the ground reality is quite different! Various factors play a role in these decisions and in most cases the aspect of virtual water or water scarcity is not even taken into account.

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