Background

The ‘water footprint’ of a country is defined as the volume of water needed for the production of goods and services consumed by the inhabitants of the country. The water footprint of a country can be calculated with either the top-down approach or bottom-up approach. In the top-down approach, one calculates the water footprint as the sum of water use in the country plus gross virtual water import into the country minus gross virtual water export. In the bottom-up approach, we aggregate the individual water footprints of the inhabitatants of a country to get the total water footprint of a country. Individual water footprints are calculated by multiplying all consumed goods and services with their respective virtual water content.

Objectives

The major objective of the study is to assess the water footprints of all nations of the world, using and comparing both calculation approaches.

Results

Based on the top-down approach, the global average water footprint is found to be 1240 m3/yr/cap. There are large differences between countries. In the USA the average water footprint is 2500 m3/cap/yr. In China the average water footprint is 700 m3/cap/yr.

Average national water footprint per capita (m3/cap/yr). Green means that the nations's water footprint is equal to or smaller than the global average. Countries with red have a water footprint beyond the global average. Period: 1997-2001.

Publications

2008

Hoekstra, A.Y. and Chapagain, A.K. (2008) Globalization of water: Sharing the planet's freshwater resources, Blackwell Publishing, Oxford, UK.

2007	Hoekstra, A.Y., Chapagain, A.K.(2007) 'Water footprints of nations: water use by people as a function of their consumption pattern, Water Resources Management 21(1): 35-48.		0.44 MB
2004	Chapagain, A.K. and Hoekstra, A.Y. (2004) ‘Water footprints of nations’, Value of Water Research Report Series No. 16, UNESCO-IHE, Delft, the Netherlands.	Main Report Volume 1	2.50 MB
		Appendices Volume 2	1.40 MB

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