What is a Water Footprint?

 Everything you wear, use, buy or sell takes some amount of water to make. We might not really be aware of that but we consume water for all these unconsciously. The water footprint measures the amount of water used to produce each of the goods and services we use. “It can be measured for a single process, such as growing rice, for a product, such as a pair of jeans, for the fuel we put in our car, or for an entire multi-national company” as it is mentioned in waterfootprint.org which is the official website that creates the global awareness on the issue. It is also said that the water footprint is a measure of humanity’s appropriation of fresh water in volumes of water consumed and/or polluted. It can either be measured in cubic metres per tonne of production, per hectare of cropland, per unit of currency or in some other functional units. This helps people understand for what purposes our limited freshwater resources are being consumed. Some conscious people would like to make sure that the water is not wasted or used in a careless way. We know that the water footprint has three components: green, blue and grey. They provide a detailed and comprehensive picture of water use in a certain area by descripting the source of water consumed, either as rainfall/soil moisture or surface/groundwater, and the volume of fresh water required for assimilation of pollutants. We can see that water footprints can be measured both from direct and indirect processes that requires water consumption. The direct water footprint is described as a process in which the water is used directly by the individual(s), and the indirect water footprint is described as the summation of the water footprints of all the products consumed. The three types of footprints are described on the website as followings: Green water footprint is water from precipitation that is stored in the root zone of the soil and evaporated, transpired or incorporated by plants. It is particularly relevant for agricultural, horticultural and forestry products. Blue water footprint is water that has been sourced from surface or groundwater resources and is either evaporated, incorporated into a product or taken from one body of water and returned to another, or returned at a different time. Irrigated agriculture, industry and domestic water use can each have a blue water footprint. Grey water footprint is the amount of fresh water required to assimilate pollutants to meet specific water quality standards. The grey water footprint considers point-source pollution discharged to a freshwater resource directly through a pipe or indirectly through runoff or leaching from the soil, impervious surfaces, or other diffuse sources.