Virtual water
Water is used in the production of almost all products. This water “embedded” in our products is referred to as virtual water. You don’t see this water when you buy stuff but it’s very real. Every time you buy something you add to the use of water all around the planet.
To illustrate, it takes 24,000 liters of water to produce 1 kilo of chocolate and 15,500 liters of water to produce 1 kilo of cow meat.
Virtual water trade
The Virtual water trade can be defined as the indirect flow of water that takes place when products are traded from one part of the world to another. When you buy meat from Argentina or coffee beans from Columbia, you indirectly take part in and add to the water use in these countries.
You use more water than you think: Size of the virtual water trade
The global trade in virtual water trade reaches over 1,600 square kilometers per year. That’s 215 tons a year for every single person on the planet or about 600 liters every day.
This is massive. To illustrate, the average “tangible” or “direct” water use in western countries from cooking, showering, washing clothes etc. is about 300 liters meaning that we use twice as much virtual water as we use directly.
Virtual water trading plays an important part in global water challenges
There’s nothing intangible about the consequences of the virtual water trade. They are very real. Of course, water used in the countries where the products are produced cannot be used for other purposes. In countries lacking water this water-drain can have catastrophic consequences.
Virtual water trading made a sea disappear
Cotton production requires massive amounts of water. So much that the cotton production in Uzbekistan emptied a whole sea for water - the Aral Sea. The Aral Sea has shrunk to less than 10 percent of the original size. It has been called one of the worst environmental disasters in history.
World Water challenges include
- 20 percent of the world’s groundwater resources are being over-exploited. Some massively.
- Global freshwater withdrawals have increased by about 1 percent per year since the late 1980s. Almost all of the increase has taken place in developing countries.
- Groundwater supplies are diminishing worldwide.
- 2 billion people do not have access to safe water.
A growing challenge: Water demand to grow by 55 percent
Global water demand projected to increase by some 55% by 2050 because of growing demands from manufacturing, thermal power generation (mainly from the expansion of coal and gas powered plants), agriculture and domestic use.
We could actually run out of water
Earth running out of freshwater
Unless water use is drastically reduced
Water/energy conflicts
Water-intensive and water-polluting energy generation adds to the global water crisis: 90 percent of global power generation is water intensive and 18 billion m3 of freshwater is polluted by fossil fuel production every year.
What is the virtual water used for?
About 80 percent of virtual water is used for agricultural products. The rest is used for energy generation and in the production of industrial products such as paper, cars, electronics.
A big part of the pressure on global water resources comes from increasing demand for animal feed. Meat production requires up to 10 times more water than the production of cereal and grain.
The "water footprint" of products
On average, it takes 24,000 liters of water to produce 1 kilo of chocolate. Similarly, 1 kilo of beef takes 15,500 liters of water, 1 cup of coffee takes 140 liters, 1 cotton shirt takes 2,700 liters, 1 sheet of paper takes 10 liters, and 1 glass of wine takes 120 liters.
We use water from all over the world
Some countries import more than 80 percent of their water through the products they consume. For 27 countries, the virtual (external) water footprint accounts for more than 50 percent of their total water use.
You can make a difference
Changing what we eat to less water intensive products can have enormous impacts on water use. To illustrate: Replacing half the meat eaten in the USA with vegetables can lower the country's annual water use by 256 cubic kilometers - enough to fill the empire state building 28 times every hour.
A difference that matters
…this would free up enough water to provide healthy diets for almost 400 million people; nearly 25 percent of the expected population increase in the developing world by 2025.
