Virtual Water and Your True Water Footprint

Conserving water is a Virtual water, no it isn’t some new computer game or online social networking site. “Virtual Water” is a term coined (pdf) by Tony Allan back in 1993 (before the “virtual world” meant what it means today) to help illustrate the idea that water consumption doesn’t just happen when we take a shower, water a lawn, or drink a glass.

In fact, water consumption is embedded in the production of food and agricultural products, consumer items, and in just about everything we use in modern society.

By considering the concept of virtual water consumers and businesses are better able to understand their true “water footprint” – the first essential step in reducing that footprint.

For instance, a typical morning cup of coffee requires about as much water to grow, produce, package, and ship the beans as the average English chap uses for drinking and other household needs – 140 liters or about 37 gallons.

In Everything You Know About Water Conservation is Wrong, an article in the June issue of Discover Magazine, author Thomas Kostigen shows that taking a shorter shower or turning off the tap when you brush isn’t enough for the truly water conscious consumer.

Virtual water use can easily wipe out the few gallons or liters saved by getting out of the shower a few minutes earlier. Not that you shouldn’t take shorter showers, but if you then get dressed and take the wife and kids out for a steak dinner totaling a pound of meat, you’re consuming between 750 and 1550 gallons of water (2,839 to 5,867 liters) . Meat production is, in fact, one of the most water-intensive food products there is.

Eating your vegetable, just like your mom always implored you to do when you were younger, is a good way to go. It’s healthier than eating lots of red meat, of course, but it also consumes 5 to 10 times less virtual water. Swapping some good veggies for the steak-and-potatoes dinner can save up to 750 gallons (2,839 liters) of water a day. In total, food production accounts for 70% of all water use on average. Significant progress in water conservation is thus achieved in what (and how much) we eat.

Another thing your mom might have told you as a kid was to finish your plate, “There’s people starving in China!”. Well, there’s people starving everywhere, but another reason not to waste food is because to waste food is to waste water. Daniel Zimmer, executive director of the World Water Council (WWC) says,

“…hundreds of liters of water are lost when you throw away food. We have to begin to think about our water use differently.”

Every drop of water used to produce and ship food is wasted when we through it away.

In the face of encroaching global water crisis, understanding that water comes in everything we consume is important. When we can take the concept of “virtual” water into our daily life and patterns of consumption, real progress can progress in water conservation and wise use can be made.

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