In brief
Virtual water is the amount of water that is embedded in food or other products needed for its production. For example, to produce one kilogram of wheat we need about 1,000 litres of water, i.e. the virtual water of this kilogram of wheat is 1,000 litres. For meat, we need about five to ten times more.
The per capita consumption of virtual water contained in our
diets varies according to the type of diets, from 1m3/day for a survival diet, to 2.6m3/day for a vegetarian
Diet and over 5m3 for a USA style meat based diet. It is clear that moderating our diets especially in the developed world could make much water available for other purposes.
With the
trade of food crops or any commodity, there is a virtual flow of water from producing and exporting countries to countries that consume and import those commodities. A water-scarce country can import products that require a lot of water for their production rather than producing them domestically. By doing so, it allows real water savings, relieving the pressure on their water resources or making water available for other purposes. Making and sending a space ship out of the atmosphere will require millions of metric tones of water. Though this is done for development but we have already suffered a lot by fiddling with water in
exchange of development.
At the global level, virtual water trade has geo-political implications: it induces dependencies between countries. Therefore, it can be regarded either as a stimulant for co-operation and peace or a reason for potential conflict.
Objectives: To consciously choose the utilisation of virtual water trade as an effective way to promote water saving and to make it an integral part of government’s national and regional water, food and environmental policies;
- to develop mechanisms for water stressed countries to generate means (by utilizing its human and natural resources) to get access to foreign exchange and international markets to feed themselves.
Outcomes: Following a session held at the 3rd World Water Forum in Kyoto, which attracted more than 200 participants, a web based debate on Virtual water and its potential application which was organised in 2003. This resulted in a report which was published in April 2004, and which synthesizes answers and reflections by top-level experts of this issue. The report addresses, among others, the following questions:
- Does Virtual Water Trade contribute in the improvement of water availability and by that to local food security, livelihoods, environment and local economy and in which conditions should virtual water trade be encouraged?
- Does virtual water contribute to
conflict resolution or will it increase tensions and conflict potentials for those countries relying on trade and what Governance structures would be necessary to enable a fair virtual water trade?
- How can the concepts of virtual water and water footprints help in creating awareness on water consumption and saving water by modification of diets?- What is required from whom to progress on the appropriate and fair introduction and use of the virtual water concept?
More abstracts about the Virtual Water.