(Virtual) Water Flows Uphill toward Money

This study provides a more precise understanding of the main driving forces of anthropogenic water use across countries. The anthropogenic water use was distinguished as blue water (i.e., fresh surface and groundwater) and total water (i.e. blue + green water; green water is rainwater insofar as it does not become runoff) used for producing, consuming, exporting, and importing of primary and manufactured goods and services, measured on a per country and per capita basis. The population effect on national blue water consumption associated with producing and consuming was found to be bigger than what the commonly assumed unitary population elasticity indicates. Distinct from the homogeneous affluence-water relationships conventionally assumed, this study revealed varying and potentially opposite effects affluence can have depending on the water use account of interest (e.g., production-based or consumption-based, blue or green) and the income level. Affluence, not the availability of freshwater resources, was found to be the most critical driver of virtual water imports. And a more affluent lifestyle in high-income countries was still associated with greater blue water consumption. With each doubling of income, blue water embedded in the goods and services a nation consumed and imported on a per capita basis increased by 82% and 86%, respectively, across the 110 countries analyzed for 2007. In comparison to affluence, the varying per capita water consumption accounts across the nations were much less sensitive to food consumption patterns. Given its critical role for water, land, and energy use shown by this and previous studies, affluence should be taken as a critical factor in future studies to better understand and leverage the water-energy-food-land nexus.