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Virtual water concept and its usefulness to optimize water management within IWRMcontext. Basic Integrated Water Resource Management (BWRM) Module

10/6/2012

Owice Mahmoud Hammad URN: 8121748

Supervisors: Prof. Dr. Manar Fayyad Prof. Dr. Lars Ribbe Dr. Arwa Hamaideh

Table of contentsSec.

Title Page

- Abstract 31. Introduction 32. Definition of virtual water 33. Calculating virtual water 54. Virtual water and IWRM 84.1 Entry 84.2 Application at management

level8

5. Conclusion 96. References 10

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Abstract:

Integrated water resource management is consideredone of the promising solutions for water poverty.Management needs tools to be used for future forecastingand prediction as well as knowing the actual status.Virtual water as a concept will be a concrete tool forthis task. It can be used to summaries the currentsituation of water in a country regarding to itsexported, imported, and produced goods. It also can beused for studying products' water consumption over theglobe. This paper explains the concept of virtual waterand gives an idea on how it can be calculated. It also,briefly talks about water footprint of nations.Additionally, it shows virtual water importance for IWRMprinciples at the managerial level. It promotes virtualwater as a good path for integration of policies indifferent sectors. Here, agriculture (in terms of cropselection and water type usage), trade (in terms ofimport and export), and social (in terms of awareness)sectors are taken under consideration.

Keywords: virtual water. water scarcity. management. IWRM

1. Introduction

Water is a precious resource that we need to careof. One of the Dublin principles is "Water has aneconomical value in all its competing uses and should berecognized as an economical good". There are manyapproaches to apply this principle. One is regardingwater pricing and evaluating. Or maybe by changingfarming techniques that reduces the usage of water (freshor reclaimed) for irrigation which reduces the cost ofproduction. But these approaches are not gives a directeconomical value of water. Another concept was introducedcan be considered, from my point of view, a direct

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translation for that principle. "Embodied water","exogenous water", and "virtual water" are all used asnames for this concept. But, as will be explained later,we will just use the term "virtual water" through thistext.

2. Definition of virtual water

When a person eats a watermelon or orange he or shefeels of its water. But, this is the existing amount ofwater not that was used in the production process.Virtual water as introduced by (Allan, 1998) is "thevolume of water that has been used to produce a commodityand that is thus virtually embedded in it". Therefore,virtual water is the water used not the existing; keepingin mind that it is included already by definition. Thefollowing figure shows how much water is needed for someproducts. It is noticeable that the amount of waterneeded for animal products is much higher than what isrequired to produce vegetables or fruits. Livestock needswater to drink and to serve in addition for the waterneeded for their food. It is like multi-process task,food production (in the plants) then consumption (in thelivestock) and at the end production again (their meatafter slaughter).

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Virtual water for a product can be divided intothree components, blue (evaporated rainwater), green(evaporated ground-/surface water), and gray (pollutedwater due to pesticides and fertilizers used) dependingon the water used for the production. For example, onekilogram of cabbage needs 280 liters of water. Thisamount is parted to 56% (156.8 l) green water, 12% (33.6l) blue water, and 32% (89.6 l) gray water (Mekonnen andHoekstra, 2011).

Another term related to the topic is "waterfootprint of nation" which can be defined as the totalvolume of freshwater that is used to produce the goodsand services consumed by the people of the nation. Sincenot all goods consumed in one particular country areproduced in that country, the water footprint consists oftwo parts: use of domestic water resources and use ofwater outside the borders of the country (Hoekstra andChapagain, 2006). It is obvious that virtual water andwater footprint are related. While virtual water is aboutwater used at the production site, footprint is aboutwater used at the consumer place. Following a table, fromthe previous source, contains these amounts for differentproducts.

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Figure - 1 - Source:www.sciencemediacentre.co.nz

Figure - 2 - Global average water footprint of 14 primary crop categories. Mekonnen and Hoekstra (2011)

Embodied and exogenous water give a differentinterpretation from virtual water due to the originalmeaning of these vocabularies. Embodied water was firstlyintroduced by Tony Allan, but because "embodied" meansembedded or enclosed within, it distracts the reader fromthe original definition. This because most of the waterused in production doesn't exist within the finalproduct. Allan himself used the term "virtual water"later. Exogenous refer to the fact that when you use aproduct you also consumes the water used to produce it.So, it seems that it is another external resource ofwater. It is actually works as an external resource, butthis is not what the definition tells. Munther Haddadinoriginally used this term (Haddadin, 2003) along with theterm "shadow water" (Haddadin, 2006). As noted previouslyI will just use the term virtual water.

3. Calculating Virtual water

It is known that every creature needs water tosustain life. Most of the metabolism activities needwater. A plant needs water for many functions beside the

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metabolism. For example, it needs water forphotosynthesis, Turgor pressure, transportation ofnutrients and minerals (within the plants and from thesoil), and for transpiration. Transpiration alone uses90-95% of the total water that a plant consumes. It isimportant to know amounts of water the plant needs duringits life, from planting to harvest, in order to find thevalue of virtual water for its products. The crop waterrequirement is the total water needed forevapotranspiration under ideal growth conditions,measured from planting to harvesting. Ideal conditionsmean that the plant will receive all its needs of waterduring its life without shortage; this implies acontinuous growth of the crop under the study. Thisamount of water can be covered by rainwater. But, if not,it can be provided by irrigation (Hoekstra and Chapagain,2008).

Water requirements of a crop depend on many factors.Hoekstra and Chapagain during their study of findingvirtual water for many crops, they used data fromdifferent sources. Country average data for actual vaporpressure, daily maximum temperature, daily minimumtemperature, and percentage cloud cover from the onlinedatabase of the Tyndall Center for Climate Change andResearch. Data on average elevation, latitude, and windspeed has been taken from the CLIMWAT database of theFood And Agriculture Organization. Crop coefficients fordifferent crops and crop calendars have also been takenfrom the FAO. Data on average crop yield (ton/ha) andannual production (ton/yr) per primary crop per countryhave been taken from the online FAOSTAT database(Hoekstra and Chapagain, 2008).

The method of calculating virtual water describedbelow for crops and for livestock products is from(Hoekstra and Chapagain, 2008). The virtual-water content

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(m3/ton) can be calculated as the crop water use at fieldlevel (m3/ha) divided by the crop yield (ton/ha). When aprimary crop is processed into a crop product, there isoften a loss in weight, because only part of the primaryproduct is used. In such case they calculate the virtualwater content for the processed product by dividing thevirtual water content of the primary product by the so-called product fraction. Product fraction denotes theweight of crop product in tons obtained per ton ofprimary crop. The higher we go up in the product chain,the greater will be the virtual water content of theproduct. So, livestock's virtual water is higher, asexplained earlier, also industrial products have a highervalue as well.

In average, an animal need to be raised for threeyears before it is slaughtered. For beef, it gives 200 kgof boneless cow's meat after this period. Within thesethree years it consumes 1,300 kg of grains, 7,200 ofroughage, 24 m3 of drinking water, and 7 m3 of water forserving. Adding these amounts of water to virtual waterof its food, makes the virtual water for 1 kg of beefequals to 15,340 liters.

Following tables show values of virtual water fordifferent products as calculated by the authors.

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Figure - 4 - Average virtual water content (m3/ton) of various products for selectedcountries. Hoekstra and Chapagain(2008)

Figure - 3 - Global average virtual water content of selected products, per unit of product. Hoekstra and Chapagain(2008)

4. Virtual water and IWRM

4.1 Entry

IWRM (Integrated Water Resource Management) asdefined by GWP (Global Water Partnership, 2000) is "aprocess which promotes the coordinated development andmanagement of water, land and related resources, in orderto maximize the resultant economic and social welfare inan equitable manner without compromising thesustainability of vital eco-systems". It is clear thatone of the main aims for IWRM is to increase the economicwelfare of the country where it is applied. Virtual waterconcept can be used here as a method of applying IWRMprinciples. If the country account for which product toproduce, import, and export it will save its waterresources and use these resources in the most efficientway.

Agricultural sector is the most water consumer inthe world with a percentage around 70% of total waterconsumption. This global average differ locally in eachstate, but it still the main water user. This impliesthat this is the major available space to reduce waterusage specifically in water scarce regions. Manytechniques can be used to reduce the pressure impliesfrom this sector on freshwater; such as drip irrigation,on-farm storage, and water harvesting. An application ofthese practices along with wise regulations is needed topass water scarcity successfully.

Policy makers are always aware of how to managewater sector and distribute water to fulfill all needswithout suffering from shortage. Virtual water conceptcan help here. In order to have surplus in water, acountry needs to produce and export the least waterconsuming products (low virtual water) and on the otherhand import goods that have high virtual water. With this

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concept, when a country imports a product, for example,one ton of wheat it actually also imports the waterneeded to produce it (at its original country). And, atthe same time, the importer saves water needed to produceit. For the exporter it will be lose of water except ifthe price it gains from this trade compensates this loss(Abu-Sharar et al, 2012). Polices should address thesepoints while planning for country's future. Rulesregarding awareness, agriculture, and trade should beimplemented using the concept of virtual water and at thesame time apply IWRM principles.

4.2 Application at management level

People should take care of what they consumeregarding to water future of their country and for asustainable life on Earth. Without knowing the importanceof their consumption effect on economy and on wateravailability they will not change their consumptionpattern. Awareness campaigns and lectures must beactivated to calibrate people's behaviors. Encouraginginhabitants to use locally produced commodities andimported low virtual water products will be beneficial.Also, throwing food in the garbage must be stopped. Onthe long run, if people follow these rules, water will besaved not only in the country, but over the globe. It isclear that high water consuming products create apressure at the place of production. One of the simplestprinciples in economy is the supply demand equation. Whatpeople want (demand) is what market must provide(supply). That means, if people changes theirconsumption, the available goods will change also. Theseideas need to be put into practice by managers throughtheir plans and regulations.

Changing people behavior is related also to what thecountry offers. Each country needs to put an import andexport regulations that achieve surplus of virtual water

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or gain revenues that can be considered feasible. Jordanis a good example of this. The study of Hoekstra andChapagain (2008) shows that Jordan imports yearly around4.8 billion m3 of virtual water which is 16 time exceedingits export (0.287 billion m3). This point is related toawareness also. Policy makers can increase taxes on someproducts to reduce the demand on these products in orderto speed the process of cutting them. In addition, astate may change its people's trends toward another foodor cloth type depending on its vision for future(especially food security).

The most important sector to apply virtual waterconcept is agriculture. Policies must be made to reducethe amounts of freshwater used in it and, at the sametime, reduce pollution contribution from it. Selectingwhat each farmer farm must be regulated depending onstrategic plans that consider water crises and virtualwater concept. Also, reclaimed water must be used forirrigation where ever it is possible. The followingparagraph is from the conclusion of a study was made by(Abu-Sharar et al, 2012) about applying virtual waterconcept in agriculture in Jordan. Of course we can'tseparate agriculture from economy.

"Our analysis indicated that water management can be improved ifcropping patterns were decided on the basis of maximizing net return perunit volume of irrigation water and minimizing water requirement toproduce unit mass of crop yield. Only few crop cases proved to be feasibleaccording to this analysis, most of which were produced under protectedenvironment in JV (Jordan Valley). Continued importing of VW, especiallythat embedded in cereal, oil, meat, live animals and sugar, was shown to bean efficient method of balancing shortage in food production and sparing thelimited water resources for alternative opportunities of other feasible uses."

5. Conclusion

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Water crisis is increasing all over the globe. I seevirtual water as a newly developed concept which isuseful for water management and development. This conceptcan play a vital role in solving water problems. Thisimportance is due to its suitability for IWRM principlesespecially for policy making and planning processes. Allwater scarce countries need to understand this conceptand apply it in order to have a sustainable life on ourplanet, Earth.

References:

- A. Y. Hoekstra · A. K. Chapagain (2006) Waterfootprints of nations: Water use by people as a functionof their consumption pattern.

- Allan, J.A. (1998) Virtual water: A strategicresource, global solutions to regional deficits.

- Arjen Y. Hoekstra and Ashok K. Chapagain (2008)Globalization of water: Sharing the Planet's FreshwaterResource.

- Haddadin, M.J. (2003) Exogenous water: A conduit toglobalization of water resources.

-Haddadin, M.J. (2006) Water resources in Jordan:evolution policies for development, the environment, andconflict resolution.

- M. M. Mekonnen and A. Y. Hoekstra (2011), The green,blue and grey water footprint of crops and derived cropproducts.

- Taleb M. Abu-Sharar & Emad K. Al-Karablieh & Munther J.Haddadin (2012) Role of Virtual Water in Optimizing WaterResources Management in Jordan.

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