The Water Footprint

[Karl]

Environmental News Network – May 26, 2008 (Read Full Article: ENN: The Other Footprint : The Water Footprint)

The Water footprint of an individual is defined as the total water used for the production of the goods and services consumed by the individual. It can be estimated by multiplying all goods and services consumed by their respective virtual-water content. The water footprint of a nation shows the total volume of water that is used to produce the goods and services consumed by the inhabitants of the nation. The water footprint consists of two parts: Use of domestic water resources and use of water outside the borders of the country. The water footprint includes water withdrawn from surface and groundwater and the use of soil water (in agricultural production).

A Few Facts

- The production of 1 kilogram of beef requires 16,000 liters of water.
- To produce 1 cup of coffee we need 140 liters of water.
- The water footprint of China is about 700 cubic meter per year per capita. Only 7% of the Chinese water footprint falls outside China.
- The USA water footprint is 2500 cubic meter per year per capita.

What’s Your Water Footprint?

If you’re interested in calculating your individual water footprint:
Waterfootprint.org: Water footprint and virtual water

[forfismum]

Karl,it is well known that I can walk on water,but I never leave footprints !!

[Richard]

- To produce 1 cup of coffee we need 140 liters of water.

As if! Who drinks 140 litres of coffee in one go???

[Karl]

Originally Posted by Richard

As if! Who drinks 140 litres of coffee in one go???

I doubt they meant it that way - I assume they mean the entire use of water of the production life-cycle required to generate the cup of coffee. That is, the water used in irrigation and drainage on the coffee plantation in Columbia or Guatemala, the water used in the factory processing into the consumer product, other aspects like transportation (truck drivers get thirsty?) and finally the water used in the cup itself...apparently, it all adds up to a massive wet footprint, because of our addictions to caffeine!

[the nature scene]

While the message behind this thing is certainly good, it bothers me how this exercise tries to generalize water usage around the globe, when the amount of water needed for some activities is very closely tied to the location of that activity.

a few miles can make the difference between needing irrigation water.

some of these numbers don't make sense either, unless you're considering non-human consumption of water during vegetative growth. Millet, which they cite as needing 5000 L of water per kg produced, is a semi-arid crop that rarely needs irrigation.

I played around with this for a while a few weeks ago, and it's nearly impossible to get a "good" water footprint unless you totally cut meat consumption.

while the intention is probably good, there are too many factors related to water consumption that are overlooked for these numbers to be meaningful.

the cynical side of me has a suspicion that this is well-disguised vegan propaganda

[Karl]

Originally Posted by the nature scene

I played around with this for a while a few weeks ago, and it's nearly impossible to get a "good" water footprint unless you totally cut meat consumption.

while the intention is probably good, there are too many factors related to water consumption that are overlooked for these numbers to be meaningful.

the cynical side of me has a suspicion that this is well-disguised vegan propaganda

I tried the "individual water footprint" survey from the link, and the majority of that was related to food, and of that mainly from meat. So you may very well have a point. I noticed that they specify 16,000 litres of water for 1 kg of beef, but the survey questionnaire does not seem specify which meat you consume (just "meat products"). The same is true of fruits and vegetables - the type is not specified on the survey, but there can be major differences in actual water footprint, depending on the specific food crop (apart from where they are grown).