Beyond the Ecological Footprint concept (Ecological Footprint) and Carbon Footprint (Carbon Footprint) there is also "Water Trail" ("Water Footprint") , which reflects the volume of water spent in the production of various goods or services. The definition of “Water Footprint” is generally applied to the water consumer (person, organization, country) and takes into account the source of water consumed, as well as the time/intensity of consumption.
The infographic presented to your attention illustrates the “Water Footprint” by country of the world.
- According to calculations, the “Water Footprint” of each average inhabitant of the Earth is 1240 m 3 of water per year.
- Countries with the lowest “Water Footprint” include Latvia, Georgia, Hungary, China, Afghanistan, Peru, Congo, Angola and a number of other countries (600-1000 m 3 of water per year per person).
- Countries with the highest “Water Footprint” include the USA, Greece, Malaysia, Italy, Thailand, Spain, Sudan, and Russia (2100-2500 m 3 of water per year per person).
- A number of countries on this list of countries with the highest Water Footprints are forced to import water in order to maintain water consumption at the same level.
- So high level The “water footprint” per capita is ensured by water imports in the USA by 19%, Greece by 35%, Malaysia by 25%, Italy by 51%, Thailand by 8%.
- The countries most dependent on water imports include Kuwait and Malta (water imports account for 87%), the Netherlands (82%), Bahrain and Belgium (80%).
- Brazil, Russia, the USA, China and Indonesia are richest in renewable water resources.
Data:
- By 2025, more than 2.8 billion people in 48 countries will experience water shortages. By 2050, the number of people experiencing chronic water shortages will reach 7 billion;
- 70% of all fresh water withdrawn from the environment by humans is used to irrigate agricultural land;
- To produce 1 kg of chocolate, 24,000 liters of water are needed, 1 kg of meat – 15,500 liters, 1 kg of olives – 4,400 liters, 1 kg of sugar – 1,500 liters, 1 cup of coffee – 140 liters.
Virtual water
In addition to the “Water Footprint”, there is another concept that is close to it (more simplified) - “Virtual water”, which includes only water costs at all stages of the production of any product or service.
Look at the diagram below and you will understand how much water humanity wastes. Light gray columns represent daily human actions accompanied by water consumption. The light yellow columns are alternative actions a person can take to reduce their water consumption.
According to these data, if a person slightly changes his preferences, then the amount of water consumed per person per day can be reduced by 8664 liters - this is approximately 8.7 cubic meters of water! Thus, each person can save 261 cubic meters of water per month.
Over the past decades, improving the efficiency of water use, especially in agricultural production, has been one of the main goals of the international community in solving water problems. International Natural Resources Institute, World Water Council, World Wildlife Fund and other scientific organizations in last years use the concept of water ecological footprint in their research. This concept has been around since the mid-1990s. developed at the initiative of FAO and UNEP by a group of specialists led by A. Hoekstra at Twenty University, the Netherlands. Ecological water footprint(Water Ecological Footprint), by analogy with the land ecological footprint, represents the share of water withdrawn and accumulated in the production process various kinds products used by the population 1. Water footprint calculations make it possible to determine the main flows and volumes of withdrawn water and reservoirs of their concentration in manufactured products. The total anthropogenic component of the global water cycle is approximately 22%.
The water footprint consists of the following components.
Blue water trail- the volume of water irrevocably withdrawn from surface or underground sources for household needs and water supply to the population. The bulk of the blue footprint is made up of agricultural water consumption - the use of water for irrigation, as well as for the production of various industrial and household goods (Fig. B10).
Green water footprint- the volume of rainwater falling into the soil and evaporating from the surface of fields, meadows, pastures and forests; this water is involved in the process of transpiration by plants and their creation of biomass (including crops).
Gray water trail- the volume of water required to dilute treated or incompletely treated wastewater generated during the production process. Effluents, which have been treated to varying degrees, must be diluted with clean water in order to comply with agreed sanitary standards.
In addition to these three main categories of aquatic ecological footprint, the concept of virtual water footprint. It denotes the volume of water accumulated in manufactured products and transported through trade or other migration flows between different regions and regions. This is not the physical volume of water intake, but the calculated amount of gross water consumption spent on the production of a certain product and its movement across the territory 1. At international conferences (for example, at the World Water Forum, held in 2015 in South Korea) the idea is expressed and discussed to take into account the volume of virtual water in products when concluding trade deals on world markets.
Water footprint indicators (both total and its components) are calculated for different periods of time (per year, by season), and in territorial terms - by river basins, countries or continents. The structure of the footprint and its parameters make it possible to judge both the severity of the water management situation in the region and the ways to implement priority and more effective methods water use. According to calculations by the International Water Institute (Table 9.3), most of in the anthropogenic part of the global water cycle, the green footprint accounts for (almost 6,700 km or 74%), i.e. on crop production, transpiration of plants on arable land and grasses on pastures, and evaporation from the soil surface. Water withdrawal is estimated at 11% of the anthropogenic component (blue trace), and 15% is required for dilution of effluents (gray trace). clean waters(Fig. 9.5).
Research has established that in order to maintain the prosperous state of landscape systems, it is necessary that they spend at least 80% of the monthly total flow for their bioproduction needs. If domestic water intake exceeds 20% of the total flow in a particular landscape system, a situation of “water stress” arises in it. On fig. B11 shows regions of the world with different tensions of the water situation.
Economically the developed countries They are located mainly in areas of humid climate and have considerable water reserves. However, the rate of increase in water consumption is increasing, and the nature of water use is so irrational that in these regions
Global Water Footprint by Production (1996-2005) 1
Table 9.3
|
Global Water Footprint, million m3/year |
Agricultural production |
Industrial production |
Household water supply |
Total |
||
|
crops on arable land |
pastures |
water supply livestock farms |
||||
|
Water footprint in export products, million m3/year | ||||||
|
Water footprint in export products, % of total volume | ||||||
1 Based on: Mekonnen M. M., Hoekstra A. Y. The green, blue and gray water footprint of crops and derived crop products.
Rice. 9.5.
1 - green trace; 2 - blue trace; 3 - gray trace
serious water problems arose. The main one is the sharp deterioration in the quality of surface water sources as a result of the discharge of insufficiently treated Wastewater, acid precipitation and infiltration of various pollutants from soil and soils. Surveys show that the volume of gray water in these countries remains very significant (see Figure 9.5). Noteworthy is the fact that huge volumes of water (virtual water) accumulate in various production products - in agricultural goods (food), industrial and household goods, which are concentrated in a limited area in the process of local production and consumption or through export-import flows of produced goods. goods move across land around the globe. This complicates the calculation of production withdrawals of water masses (gross water consumption) and their subsequent anthropogenic migrations (volumes of virtual water). However, such calculations give an idea of the real tension of the water management situation in regions of the world (Fig. 9.6).
They are trying to fill the shortage of high-quality fresh water different ways. In a number of land areas (Saudi Arabia, the US Great Plains, Iran, etc.) there are significant groundwater resources that are intensively pumped. So, only in the river basin. The Yellow River annually produces 30 km 3 of water from underground horizons, and up to 12 km 3 from the Ogalalla artesian basin in the USA. Aquifers are severely depleted, and groundwater pumping is accompanied by ground subsidence and a decrease in river levels in drainage basins.
Another way to solve the water management problem is desalination of salty sea or lake waters. In the 2000s. The scale of desalination of such waters in the world has reached 1 15 km 3 . Since the technology of desalination of salt water is a very expensive and energy-intensive undertaking, it is still used on a small scale, in limited areas of land, where the issue of obtaining clean drinking water is especially acute: in the Middle East, northern Africa, the USA and other areas.
An increase in water reserves is achieved in a number of regions of the world by transferring runoff from one river basin to another.
Rice. 9.6.
- 1 - 1990; 2 - 2000; 3 - 2010; 4 - 2015 (forecast);
- 5 - 2015 (MDG target)
- 1. Hydrological cycle on the planet.
- 2. Composition of the hydrosphere and its water resource part.
- 3. What are water resources and what factors determine them?
- 4. Natural and economic quality of water resources.
- 5. Differentiation of water reserves across continents—territorial and specific.
- 6. Structure and features of the world’s water balance.
- 7. What is the water footprint?
- 8. Blue, green and gray ecological footprint and their differentiation by continent.
- 9. How many people on the planet do not have access to clean drinking water? What are the consequences?
- 10. What is the solution to the problem of adequate water supply to the world's population?
Water trail- this is the total volume fresh water, used to produce goods and services. The water footprint is measured by the volume of water used or polluted per unit of time and includes not only direct, but also indirect use of water resources. The concept of a water footprint was developed in 2002 by specialists from the Dutch University of Twente Erien Hoekstra and Mesfin Mekonnen and is a further development of the concept of virtual water.
Distinguish between production and consumption water footprints . Industrial water footprint takes into account direct and indirect costs of water resources necessary for the production of goods and provision of services. Consumer water footprint takes into account the total water footprint of all goods and services consumed. Consumer water footprint territories, in turn, are divided into interior, taking into account the use of own water resources, and external, taking into account the use of water resources by the party providing goods or services, imported virtual water.
The water footprint can be calculated for an individual or a group of people, a specific product or service, an enterprise or an entire economic sector, an administrative unit, a territory or an entire state.
- Human water footprint– the volume of water used to produce goods and services consumed by humans (including housing and communal services);
- Water footprint of a product or service– the volume of water required to produce a unit of goods or provide a certain volume of services;
- Corporate water footprint– the volume of water used to conduct business activities. Includes both direct costs of water used to produce a product or service, and indirect ones, for example, water costs for supply, logistics, etc.;
- Water footprint of the territory(state, administrative unit) can be expressed through the production water footprint, i.e. the sum of the water footprint of all industries, and through the consumer water footprint of the population of the territory.
There are also three gradations of the water footprint:
Russia's industrial water footprint is about 400 billion m 3 /year (4.4% of the world), and its consumer water footprint is about 270.5 billion m 3 /year (3.2% of the world), of which 12.4% is external water footprint The average water footprint of one resident of Russia is about 1.85 thousand m 3 /year per person. For comparison: domestic water consumption per capita in Russia is about 58 m 3 /year per person, which is only 0.3% of the water footprint!
In 2014, the International Standards Organization published the ISO 14046:2014 standard “Environmental management. Water trail. Principles”, containing recommendations for measuring water footprints for companies and government organizations. Calculating the water footprint allows you to assess the potential risks of using water resources and identify the most effective ways reducing the impact on environment in water consumption, increase the efficiency of economic activities.
Popular science encyclopedia “Water of Russia”
Every country uses water to produce goods and services that are either consumed domestically or exported. The water footprint of production takes into account all water consumption in the country for domestic, industrial and agricultural needs, regardless of where the produced products are consumed.
To more clearly define the types of water footprint, the international non-governmental organization Water Footprint Network, created in the early 2000s, proposed introducing several gradations. The Green Water Footprint is the amount of rainwater stored in the soil that evaporates from agricultural fields. agriculture. The Blue Water Footprint is the amount of freshwater irrevocably removed from water bodies. The bulk of this water is used in irrigated agriculture and evaporates from fields.
The gray water footprint is the volume of water polluted during the production process. It is calculated as the amount of water required to dilute the discharged pollutants to a state at which the water quality meets acceptable standards.
As an indicator of water use, the water footprint differs from the classical definition of water withdrawal in three aspects:
- 1. This does not include the "blue" type of water use, since these water resources are returned to where they were extracted.
- 2. It is not limited to only blue type, but includes green and gray types.
- 3. It is not limited only to the direct use of water resources, but also includes the indirect use of water.
Through the joint efforts of environmental organizations, companies, research institutions and UN organizations, the Water Footprint Network launched the Global Water Footprint Standard in February 2011.
An important feature of the water footprint is that it can only serve as an effective tool if it is used as a clear standard and not as some kind of metaphor. The concept of water footprint is closely related to the concept of green growth and green economy, which are building blocks of sustainable development.
In connection with the “water footprint”, groups of risks for industrial enterprises and companies were identified. In particular, it was recognized that mitigating the water footprint of an enterprise or company is a way to reduce risk by type:
- - physical risk: businesses and firms may face an increasing risk of water shortages within their supply chains or production processes;
- - reputational risk: the corporate image of a company may be damaged in cases where public opinion is formed that this company is not correctly addressing issues related to rational use water resources;
- - regulatory risk: may arise in cases where government intervention increases and the degree of regulation in the field of water resources increases;
- - financial risk: the above types of risks can lead to increased costs and decreased profits of the enterprise.
The water footprint of production can be used to assess the pressure on a country's water resources. The pressure on blue water resources is calculated on an annual basis as the ratio of the total water footprint of production minus the green component to the country's total renewable water resources. Currently, about 50 countries already experience persistent moderate or severe water stress, while many others face water stress at certain times of the year. In a number of countries, water stress remains low throughout the year, allowing them to consider expanding agricultural production through irrigation of suitable areas. However, for additional water consumption to be sustainable, seasonal water availability must be taken into account, as well as the possible impact on water users and downstream ecosystems.
Globally, the number of people suffering from persistent or seasonal water shortages is expected to increase sharply due to climate change and increased demand. In this regard, understanding the impact that food and fiber production has on water resources is vital to ensuring adequate water supplies for people and ecosystems.
Note: Due to a lack of data for many countries, the gray component of the water footprint of production has been replaced by return flows: the amount of wastewater from agriculture, industry and households returned to surface water bodies after use.
How is your water footprint calculated?
Calculations are based on the average for the selected country. The water level will rise or fall depending on how your choices affect your water consumption. The calculation formula uses the values of the average consumer in Finland. In addition to the parameters taken into account by the calculator, other factors also affect water consumption, so the result is only a rough estimate of your water consumption.
Droughts are becoming more frequent and persistent in many parts of the world, and people everywhere are looking to reduce their water footprint. Many experts recommend that we think twice before taking relaxing hot baths; to save money, we install aerators on faucets, buy toilets that use water more efficiently, and so on.
This is very good and helps a lot, but hardly anyone knows that “we eat more than 70% of the total amount of water we consume.” This is logical, because in order to grow food you need to water it; crops cannot grow without water.
Here is an interesting comparison of water consumption for food production with our household expenses
The production of 1 kg of pork is 6000 liters of water = 188 showers. 
Producing 1 kg of beef requires 15,000 liters of water = 250 warm water baths. 
1 kg of chocolate equals 17,000 liters of water = 1 full swimming pool 
But this is only part of the whole picture...
Water footprint in products
Agriculture uses up to 80% of all water consumed.
Let's look at a typical breakfast in terms of water consumption in production processes. A loaf of bread consumes about 900 liters of water, and 200 g of cheese - about 1500 liters. So just a sandwich with cheese and already about 200 liters of water.
But what is a complete sandwich without meat? But meat has a much higher water footprint than vegetables, grains or beans.
For example, one kilogram of beef requires, on average, from 5,000 to 20,000 liters of water, while 1 kg of wheat requires from 500 to 4,000 liters of water.
These are huge expenses, first of all they go into growing, feed, feed additives that the cow consumes throughout the entire time, then for drinking, cleaning and processing. Many meat breeds, when they are raised industrially in our country, are never allowed to free-graze; they live in cages and eat feed made from corn and soybeans, because grains accelerate the growth of cattle. Accordingly, the water consumption for growing, for example, corn is 1000 liters per 1 kg. A bull can eat up to 1000 kg of such food over the course of several months.
Just imagine the water footprint we leave behind every time we buy industrially raised meat products.
If we talk about imported products, then water here is additionally spent on freezing and we should not forget about the transport trail. Transporting food over long distances requires large quantity fuels that pollute the air, contribute to climate change and also use large amounts of water for extraction and production.
Gasoline consumed for every kilometer is another 3/4 of water for its production.
But we also love various tasty treats, candies, chips, crackers, but there is no water...
In fact, they require even more water to produce than conventional products.
If we talk about potato chips, then in addition to the water that is spent on the industrial cultivation of potatoes, water is also spent on their industrial cleaning, production vegetable oil frying, fuel production for delivery, packaging production, and so on.
So it turns out that growing an ordinary kilogram of potatoes takes 300 liters of water, and packaging chips requires from 3000 to 5000 liters of water.
In short, the more processed meat, cheese, dairy and treats we eat, the more water we consume. Next time you go to lunch, consider how much water it took to make that meal.
But wait! After all, this beef is already in the supermarket, it has already been raised. This water has already been used, why can't we eat it?
We can, but if we buy and eat water-intensive foods now, food industry will continue to grow it or even increase volumes in the future. That's why now best time to change our eating habits today. The decline in demand gives rise to a gradual decline in production, which means a reduction in the load on our waterways.
