You need to know this about Virtual Water and Water Footprint.

Water tap with water drops which shows embedded water of the products.

What was the first thing that came to your mind when you heard virtual water? Maybe something.

Intangible, something to do with technology or some other idea.

The reality is that virtual water is the volume of water used directly or indirectly to produce a product or service.

For example, water used during cultivation, growing, processing, manufacturing, transportation, and sale of the products.

That’s right, even what you can’t imagine contains water in its process, but we’ll review that later.

The reason you should know about it is, among other situations, to take care of your consumption habits and choose the best options that take care of water.

But where does the concept of virtual water come from?

This concept was created in 1993 by the British geographer and professor at King’s College London, John Anthony Allan, who won the 2008 Stockholm Water Prize for developing a method to calculate the water used to manufacture products.

Irrigation systems to irrigate crops and plants.

Thus, since then, the term virtual water was coined, for which two methodologies have been developed to quantify it.

The first methodology quantifies water from the producer’s point of view by considering the water used to produce a product.

This means that water requirements, for example, to grow rice or other grains will take more water in countries than in humid countries.

While the second methodology focuses more on the consumer and quantifies virtual water as the water used to produce the product at the place where it is required.

What does this mean?

Refers to how much water a country or region can save when producing locally instead of importing a product.

According to UNESCO, these are the virtual liters of water used by some products:

Products and embedded water are required to manufacture them.

• One apple (100 g) 70
• Orange (100 g) 50
• Bread portion (30 g) 40
• Cup of tea (250 ml) 35
• Potato (100 g) 25
• Tomato (70 g) 13
• Cheese (500 g) 2500
• Hamburger (150 g) 2,400
• Pork fillet (300 g) 1440
• Beef fillet (300 g) 4500
• A glass of milk (200 ml) 200
• Milk (1L) 1000
• Bag of potato chips (200 g) 185
• Coffee cup (125 ml) 140
• Coffee (Jar) 840
• Egg (40 g) 135
• Wine glass (125 ml) 120
• Wine (Bottle) 720
• A glass of beer (250 ml) 75
• Sheet of A4 paper (80 g/m2) 10
• Pair of shoes (cowhide leather) 8,000
• Cotton T-shirt (medium size, 500 g) 4,100

And it comes hand in hand with the water footprint.

Water with the shape of a footprint in the sand and grass.

But, what is the water footprint, and how is it different from virtual water?

Virtual water refers only to the volume of water used in the product; the water footprint is more than just volume; it is a multidimensional indicator.

The water footprint also considers the type of water (freshwater, rainwater, residual water from production processes), when, and where it is used. That is the main difference.

It is essential to be aware of these factors, and be more conscious of the products we are consuming, to choose the ones that cause less impact on the planet to preserve it.

What consumer habits are you going to change today?

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