Everything we use, wear, buy, sell and eat takes water to make.
Water footprint is a term that demonstrates the amount and type of water consumed per unit operation. In the production of any product or service, in the daily life of an individual, small or large scales water footprint calculator operation can be done.
Thanks to this calculation, it is evaluated how much clean water is wasted and how much water can be saved and the same process can be completed.
Calculations made with the water footprint calculator are informative about how much water should be saved and the effects of this on the production process.
Everyone has a role to play. In our daily lives, there are surprisingly easy steps we can all take to address water shortage.
The water footprint helps us understand for what purposes our limited freshwater resources are being consumed and polluted. The impact it has depends on where the water is taken from and when. If it comes from a place where water is already scarce, the consequences can be significant and require action.
The water footprint has three components: green, blue and grey. Together, these components provide a extensive picture of water use by expressing the source of water consumed, either as rainfall/soil moisture or surface/groundwater, and the volume of fresh water required for assimilation of pollutants.
The three water footprints:
Blue water footprint consists of surface and groundwater resources. It indicates the volume of ground and surface waters used in production.
Green water footprint represents rainwater consumption. Green water footprint, which is calculated by considering the evaporation and precipitation amounts, expresses how many of the water you consume in any product you buy or in any daily habit is caused by rain water.
Grey water footprint refers to the water pollution caused by the production of the product. In individual-based calculations, it can be considered as water pollution caused individually in daily activities. Grey water footprint should not be perceived as dirty water used in the production of the product, but should be perceived as clean water used to reduce the effect of this pollution.
Water footprint is divided into various groups. For instance, personal water footprint, product water footprint and etc.
Personal Water Footprint
Your water footprint is the amount of water you consume in your daily life, including the water used to grow the food you eat, to produce the energy you use and for all of the products in your daily life – your books, music, house, car, furniture and the clothes you wear.
In our global economy, each consumer on average 'eats’ as much as 5 000 litres of water every day (ranging from 1 500 to 10 000 litres per day, depending where you live and what you eat). Everything we use or consume has a water footprint, sometimes close to where we live but often in river basins far away, even in other countries. Each ingredient in a product may come from a different place. Take, for example a cookie, which might have wheat from Canada, sugar from Brazil, vanilla from Madagascar and eggs from the local farmer. This one cookie is consuming and polluting water from a number of river basins, in countries around the world.
Making just a few changes can significantly reduce your water footprint. For example, the water footprint of 200 grammes of beef is the equivalent to 47 eight-minute showers and uses four times more water than the same amount of chicken meat. If a couple were to eat chicken instead of beef, they would reduce their water footprint by as much as 450 000 litres over a year. Vegetables have an even smaller water footprint, as does tea compared to coffee. You do not necessarily need to become vegetarian – or never eat beef – yet, by varying your diet and choosing to eat food with a smaller footprint more frequently, and by choosing the products you buy wisely, you can make a large difference.