Water Footprints

Facts and charts from www.waterfootprint.org

Your water footprint is measurement of the water used to produce all of the goods and services you consume each day. Water is not only consumed when you drink it or take a shower; much more goes into the food you eat, the clothes you wear, the energy heating your home and the stuff you buy. The water consumed in food and products is often referred to as “virtual water”. Individual, product, country and corporate water footprints reveal who uses what and how much water.

Country footprints

The ‘water footprint’ of a country is defined as the volume of water needed for the production of goods and services consumed by the inhabitants of the country. The water footprint of a country is calculated in one of two ways: 1) the national water use + (gross national virtual water import - gross virtual water export) or 2) the individual water footprints of the inhabitants of a country are aggragated together.

Average national water footprint per capita (m3/cap/yr). Green means that the nations's water footprint is equal to or smaller than the global average. Countries with red have a water footprint beyond the global average. Period: 1997-2001. Source: Water Footprint Network.

From 1997-2001, the global average per capita water footprint is estimated at 1240 m3/year/capita. There are large differences between countries. India has the largest water footprint of any nation at 987Gm3/yr. However, on a per capita basis, the USA has the largest water footprint of 2480m/3/cap/yr, over 3 times larger than China, whose average water footprint is 702 m3/cap/yr. Only about 7% of the Chinese water footprint falls outside China. Japan has a water footprint of 1150 cubic meter per year per capita, 65% of its total water footprint outside the borders of the country. Find all national water footprint figures at www.waterfootprint.org .

Corporate impact

The water footprint of a business is measured by considering two elements: the company’s operations and its supply chain. The first measurement looks at the direct freshwater use — the amount of freshwater used within the business itself. The supply chain water footprint refers to the indirect freshwater use — the water used to produce all the goods and services that form the input of the business. Companies endorsing the CEO Water Mandate who will meet in Stockholm will focus on ways to measure and reduce their water footprint.

A water footprint carries three components: blue, green and gray. The blue water footprint is the volume of freshwater that evaporated from the global blue water resources (surface and groundwater); the green water footprint is the volume of water evaporated from the global green water resources (rainwater stored in the soil); and the gray water footprint is the volume of polluted water associated with the production of goods and services. The water footprint is a geographically explicit indicator, showing not only volumes of water use and pollution, but also the locations.

A closer look at a cup of coffee

Coffee is, in dollar terms, the most important agricultural product traded in the world and producing coffee requires a lot of water. To produce one cup 125 ml of coffee requires 140 litres of water, or 1100 drops of water for one drop of coffee. All together, the world population requires about 110 billion cubic metres of water per year in order to be able to drink coffee, which is 1.5 times more water than the entire annual run-off from the Rhine.