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Comments (11):
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Understanding water footprint can form a basis for better management of our freshwater resorces
Rajesh Jethwa - 12/01/2012 - 04:18
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goodpractice
WESTONE CHIBALE - 16/12/2011 - 07:03
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The Water Footprint is a topic researching worthwhile and to endorse in companies.
J. Huizenga - 04/07/2011 - 09:04
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Water is God save water , give water water for all
rodighar@wlink.com.np - 16/06/2011 - 12:29
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MANY HUMANS DO NOT THINK FOR IMPORTANCE OF WATER. ALWAYS USE THE WATER LIKE WITH DRAWING MONEY FROM BANK AND NEED TO DEPOSIT OTHERWISE OVERDRAFT OR LOST ALL.
P S C RAO - 06/05/2011 - 05:58
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I agree if you will put unwanted stuff you will make people who are living near the source of water to get trouble, and they will not get more clean water. You will be the source of making water to stop flow.
Renalda - 23/03/2011 - 10:53
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Excellent and informative site
IMSL - 21/03/2011 - 12:16
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Eric and Giuseppe are right on the mark. Water footprints contain very little helpful information. At best, they can be misleading. At worst, they can be quite harmful. Water footprints say nothing about local conditions, water scarcity or abundance, impacts on the environment, or implications for the persons who use water to support their livelihoods. Humans and nature deserve much better thought and information than is contained in any measure of a water footprint.
David - 13/03/2011 - 11:57
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I disagree.
It is true that water used does not disappear. But consider a river bassin. If you withdraw too much from it for irrigation purpose and the river hardly reach the sea anymore, then a costal city would suffer form water shortage. For the city, water has disappeared. This case is real: Murrey rivr, Australia It is just a question of equilibrum between the different regiosn of the world. ------------------------------------------------------------------- Check your <a href="http://wateraflamed.blogspot.com">water footprint calculator on iPhone</a> with Water Aflamed application. <a href="http://itunes.apple.com/app/water-aflamed-water-footprint/id408976536?mt=8">Free Download</a> bladerunner - 09/02/2011 - 17:48 |
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Completely agree with Eric. The real environmental impact is related to amount and type of chemicals used and their release in water, air and soil. I would also add that another great impact to be considered is the amount of energy or the carbon footprint required to pump and treat the water used for a certain production. I am quite sure you can adopt the best technologies to cultivate strawberries in the desert watering with desalinated seawater, what would be the global impact for such a production?
Giuseppe - 05/02/2011 - 18:44
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This water footprint idea is incredibly misleading. When water falls as precipitation in an area undisturbed by people, it ends up flowing down a river to the ocean, evaporating, or percolating into the groundwater. When humans use water from rivers and groundwater for making all these products, it is then discharged and ends up flowing down rivers to the ocean, evaporating, or percolating into groundwater. Making these products does not destroy the water. The water is diverted from a natural flow path, used, and then eventually returned to the natural flow path. Irrigation for plant products especially does not destroy water.
The real environmental impact to water from human activities is that we add things (nutrients, salts, etc) to the water before discharging it back to the environment. Labeling products with one number based upon how much water is diverted for "use" is misleading and could have the opposite the intended effect. For example, some water intensive crops are grown in places that have high precipitation rates. The farms may divert only a tiny fraction of available water before returning it to the watershed. In this case the environmental degradation could be undetectable. In other places with limited water resources, diverting water and returning treated wastewater could have much greater environmental impact. If the two industries produce the same product, and the one with limited water resources uses less water because it is more expensive, then the proposed label water use number could be less despite causing greater environmental degradation. Eric - 02/02/2011 - 19:50 |
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