Did you know that the single cup of coffee we drink every morning contains 150 litres of precious fresh water of the earth? Or that when we wear a cotton T-shirt we wrap around us 2,000 litres of water. These are, in reality virtual water, the amount of water needed to produce these items. Based on this calculation, we export about 80 million cubic metres of virtual Indian water every year by exporting 4 million kg of coffee alone.
Virtual water trade is one of the alternatives to reduce water consumption. As import of real water is too expensive, virtual water trade enables water scarce countries to import high water consuming products and export low water consuming products. This also enables water scarce countries to save water for other purposes.
Important concept of water management
Though virtual water trade is almost as old as food trade, it is globally becoming an important concept of water management. Trade in virtual water is estimated to be around a thousand cubic kilometers a year—the equivalent of 20 river Niles. Much of this trade is going to the wealthy nations from countries that are over pumping their ground water.
Consumption scenario
India (13%), China (12%) and the USA (9%) are the largest consumers of the global water resources. India tops the list primarily because of the total volume of water used globally for crop production (6,390 billion cubic metre/year at field level), rice, one of India’s main staples, takes the largest share (about 21% of the total), followed by wheat and maize consuming about 12% and 9% respectively. The world average of virtual water content in rice production is 2,291 cubic metre/ton. In India it is 2,850 cubic metre/ton, 1,321 for China and 1,221 for Japan. Wheat at 1334 cubic meter/ton consumes much less.
India is not among the major importers of virtual water. This is because if a nation facing water shortage also faces food shortage, it will import the kind of food its population requires rather than the ones with the maximum virtual water content. Though water management is an important issue for countries like India and China, self-sufficiency in food is still a national priority.
We take water for granted in our everyday lives. But there is much more water, called virtual water, embedded in the products we consume. Watch this video for the details.
