Virtual water
Topic: Water Resources of India: Availability, Use and Conservation · NCERT: Beyond NCERT
Meaning
Virtual water is the water used to make a product, such as a crop, cloth or a machine. The water is not inside the product, but it was used up in making it. When a product is traded, the water used to make it is in effect traded too. Tony Allan, a British geographer, put forward the idea in 1993. It helps show that a water-short region may be "exporting" its scarce water through its crops.
Example
When India exports rice, it is in effect exporting groundwater from Punjab and Haryana. Paddy there is grown with heavy tubewell pumping in areas where groundwater is already over-exploited.
Don't confuse with
- Water footprint: the total water a person, product or country uses, directly and indirectly. Virtual water focuses on the water carried along with traded goods.
Related concepts
- Sectoral water use
- Need for irrigation in India
- Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchayee Yojana
- Drip irrigation
- Sprinkler irrigation
- Micro-irrigation