Measuring your water footprinthttp://edition.cnn.com/2008/TECH/10/03/eco.water.hoekstra/index.htmlHONG KONG, China -- Most people by now will be familiar with the term 'carbon footprint' and may even have calculated it themselves, but how many are familiar with their 'water footprint'?
It's about time we all learned what it is, says Professor Arjen Y. Hoekstra, Professor in Multidisciplinary Water Management at the University of Twente in the Netherlands, as soon it will be influencing how we live our lives.
Hoekstra created the water footprint concept in 2002 when he was undertaking research on what is known as virtual water trade flows for the UNESCO-IHE Institute for Water Education.
CNN finds out what it is and why it's important.
CNN: So, what is a water footprint?Hoekstra: It relates to how much water is being used to make a product, but it also refers to where that water is being used and when that water is being used. This is about the water use in different parts of the world to make products for businesses and individuals, so this enables an impact assessment and a formulation of policy to improve the water sustainability of these products.
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CNN: What can individuals do?Hoekstra: There are two types of approaches. One is to substitute types of consumption articles for other ones, which take less water -- like going from a meat-based diet to a vegetarian one, which will save a lot of water.
Drinking tea instead of coffee saves a lot of water. Not wearing cotton but wearing artificial fiber saves a lot of water.
But this is probably limited, because people don't shift from meat to vegetarian as they just don't like not to have beef; or they like cotton.
So the different kind of approach is to keep the same kind of consumption pattern but when choosing cotton, or when choosing beef, choose the sound one. If you make things more transparent, by citing the precise impact of a certain article on the water system, through the water footprint, you provide that kind of information and you label it somehow, then consumers within the same category have some choice to go in the better direction.
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How much water it takes to make...
1 kilo of beef: 15,500 liters of water
1 glass of beer: 75 liters of water
1 hamburger: 2,400 liters of water
1 cup of coffee: 140 liters of water
1 cup of tea: 30 liters of water
1 cotton shirt: 2,700 liters of water (Source: Waterfootprint.org)
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http://www.waterfootprint.org/
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