Virtual Water

At times during my blog I have felt it to be important to explore not only the link between water and food security in Africa but also topics such as hydropolitics (Nile Basin Conflict) and climate change. Throughout my blog I have given my perspective on discussed issues and used my economic and geographic background to give a niche viewpoint. This blog post will look at the link between water, food and trade – another economic issue which is becoming increasingly prominent today.

The term ‘virtual water’ first came about in 1993 as a way of describing the water used in growing agricultural products. Conveniently and informatively, it links water, food and trade (Allan, 2003).

Here, it isn’t physical water that is being traded. It is in fact those agricultural products such as wheat and corn which require an abundance of water in the first place to grow that are traded. Contrary to popular belief it requires around 1000m³ to harvest one ton of grain (Allan, 2003). Looking at the big picture, the amount of water necessary to harvest vast amounts of crops is astronomical and so it is in the best interests of water-stressed nations to import such products.

Looking back to my first blog post (and the first lesson you learnt from my blog! I hope!) Africa and other water rich regions could use this very much to their advantage. It was in my first blog post that I highlighted Africa as not having a physical water problem but an economic one. Certain countries such as Israel and Egypt are physically water –scarce and as an example, in 1999 Israel and Egypt imported a net of 6.2km³ and 15.3 km³ respectively of virtual water (Hoekstra and Hung, 2002). Egypt and Israel notoriously suffer from water-stress and this went some way to alleviating their problems.

For this reason, virtual water and it’s recent popularity potentially could help African economies as trade deals and partnerships are forged. Having said this, as can be seen from the diagram below, African countries predominantly trade in virtual water with other African countries rather than the rest of the world. This can be mutually beneficial for African states who can use specialization and division of labour to grow certain crops to increase productivity (Konar & Caylor, 2013).

If Africa increases virtual water trades with other continents it could prove to be a method which reduces the effect of climate change as countries only grow crops suited to their physical landscape.

References:

Allan, J. (2003). Virtual Water - the Water, Food, and Trade Nexus. Useful Concept or  Misleading Metaphor?. Water International, 28(1), pp.106-113.

Hoekstra, A.Y. and P.Q. Hung. (2002). “Virtual Water Trade: A Quantification of Virtual          Water Flows Between Nations in Relation to International Crop Trade.” Value ofWater Research Report Series No 11. Delft, The Netherlands: IHE. 

Konar, M. and K. Caylor. (2013) "Virtual Water Trade And Development In Africa". Hydrology and Earth System Sciences Discussions