Virtual water is the amount of water that is embedded in food or other products needed for its production. Trade in virtual water allows water scarce countries to import high water consuming products while exporting low water consuming products and in this way making water available for other purposes [World Water Council]. For example, the [...]

A water footprint is quite simply the volume of water used. At the individual level, this is expressed in litres. But at the national level, this becomes complex – The water footprint of a nation is equal to the use of domestic water resources, minus the virtual water export flows, plus the virtual water import [...]

Yolandi Groenewald M&G South Africans should brace themselves for a severely water-stressed future, a World Wildlife Fund (WWF) report on the world’s ecological footprint warned this week. The influential international report has been released every two years for the past decade. In 1996 it warned that the world was heading for ecological disaster. The latest [...]