Industrial

Global average water footprint: 80 litres of water per US$ of industrial product.

It is very difficult to assess the water footprint of specific industrial products.
The reason is that the diversity of industrial products is immense and that production chains are complex and different between nations and companies.
In order to have a global rough figure for the water footprint of industrial products we can look at the average water need of industrial products not per unit or per kilogram but per unit of value.

Global industrial water use is 720 cubic kilometres per year, which is only 10 % compared to the global water use for crop production.
Given the added value in industries, we can estimate that the global average water footprint of industrial products is 80 litres per US$.
In the USA, industrial products take nearly 100 litres per US$.
In Germany and the Netherlands, the average water footprint of industrial products is about 50 litres per US$.
Industrial products from Japan, Australia and Canada take only 10-15 litres per US$. In world’s largest developing nations, China and India, the average water footprint of industrial products is 20-25 litres per US$.