Virtual water is defined as amount of fresh water that is used in production of other products. Virtual water is measured as the production site (Garrido et al., 2010). Compared to virtual water content, real water content is more insignificant. In European Union countries, the use of water has rapidly increased due to the increase in population within Europe. In 2055 Reports indicate that the population of Europe contains about seven percent of the entire world population. Further, the report also indicated that Europe uses about four percent of global water sources (FAO, 2015).
According to World Business Council for Sustainable development (WBCSD), EU countries outsource most of their water from underground and it is being replenished at an alarming rate due to the increase in population. Most of European countries also indulge in virtual water trade by importing products that are more water rigorous therefore uses less of their home ground water sources. The country that is impacted most by this virtual water trade is Spain because of increasing drought conditions in the country and uneven water resources distribution(Garrido et al., 2010).
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Coffee is a product that is majorly imported in the US. Siebert and Doll, (2010) in their study finds out that one cup of coffee needs about one hundred and fifty liters of water (Siebert and Döll, 2010). Such is a considerable amount of wasted water. My daily water usage includes making coffee for my breakfast and some for my late night usage. Coffee however consist of a large amount of virtual water so, one way that I can reduce my virtual water usage is to reduce my coffee usage and opt for tea.
Work Cited
FAO, I. (2015). WFP (2015) The state of food insecurity in the world 2015. In Meeting the .
Garrido, A., Llamas, M. R., Varela-Ortega, C., Novo, P., Rodríguez-Casado, R., & Aldaya, M. M. (2010). Water Footprint and Virtual Water Trade in Spain . New York, NY: Springer New York. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-5741-2
Siebert, S., & Döll, P. (2010). Quantifying blue and green virtual water contents in global crop production as well as potential production losses without irrigation. Journal of Hydrology , 384 (3), 198–217.
