It is official. Australians are worst at water use. Despite all the droughts and consequent water shortages, they just can’t improve their water consumption. This fact has been pointed out in a recent study undertaken by international water experts Arjen Hoekstra and A. K. Chapagain.
A global study of the ‘water footprints of nations,’ undertaken by the above mentioned experts took a comprehensive view of water consumption and concluded that Australian households are world’s worst at consuming water. The experts have gone beyond measuring water usage on the narrow personal parameters of toilet flushing or running taps, and instead have tried to estimate the quantity of water it takes to produce the various things that we normally consume. So they have prepared estimates of how much water is needed to grow maize or produce a kilogram of beef. Gulp down a mug of coffee and you’ve just used up 140 liters of water.
Here is what the official website reads:
The water footprint of a nation shows the total volume of water that is used to produce the goods and services consumed by the inhabitants of the nation. Since not all goods consumed in one particular country are produced in that country, the water footprint consists of two parts: use of domestic water resources and use of water outside the borders of the country. The water footprint includes both the water withdrawn from surface and groundwater and the use of soil water (in agricultural production).
The study, whose findings were published in the January edition of journal Water Resources Management, reported that Australian households had a ‘water footprint’ equivalent to 341,000 liters per person per year. This was the worst performance among all the 21 countries that were measured for. Canada gave some tough competition and came in a close second at 279,000 liters per person per year.
The study points out that a nation’s footprint depends on a lot of factors viz. consumption patterns, weather conditions and farm practices. Consequently, countries that consume a greater quantity of meat and industrial products, like Australia and U.S.A., will do badly at the rankings than a country like China.
The global average came at 57,000 litres per person per year.
A very interesting way to measure this precious commodity’s utilization. Don’t you agree?
