What Is a Water Footprint?

A water footprint measures the volume of freshwater used, including evaporation, or polluted in a given period. For an individual, a community, or an industry, the water footprint is the total volume of freshwater drawn on to produce the goods and services consumed, or in the case of a producer, to deliver the goods and services it brings to market.

The concept was introduced in 2002. A product's water footprint is close in meaning to terms like virtual water content, embedded water, hidden water, or shadow water. It offers a new way of seeing the role of water in the economy and of treating water management as a tool in economic planning. When a country's water footprint is analysed, it surfaces the economic role of water, which in turn gives policy makers, decision makers, and investors the evidence base they need for decisions on trade, allocation, competitive advantage, and ecosystem support.

By expressing the volume of freshwater needed to produce a good or service across the entire supply chain, the water footprint covers every stage, from processing the raw material through production, distribution, and use by the consumer.

A water footprint is an alternative indicator of water consumption. Rather than measuring the volume of water withdrawn from a system, it measures the volume actually consumed, which is what sets it apart from traditional water statistics.

The footprint takes into account both direct water use and the indirect water use embedded in production. Green, blue, and grey water are the three components that together describe consumption and quality. The framework brings a new perspective on water resource management, one that accounts for economic growth, population growth, and climate change.

A water footprint can be calculated for an organisation, a service, a product, a person, or a community. Within the concept, blue refers to the volume of surface and groundwater consumed, green refers to rainwater, and grey refers to the volume of freshwater needed to assimilate the pollutant load and bring water back to agreed quality standards. It is a powerful way to see how much water goes into the production and consumption of every good and service. Drinking a cup of coffee, for example, may take 200 ml of water at the table, but when the water used to grow and process the coffee is counted, the real figure is closer to 140 litres, roughly 70 cups. A kilogram of sugar leaves a footprint of about 1,500 litres, and a slice of bread about 40 litres.

In Turkey, Turkish-language material on the water footprint is still limited. The most detailed piece of work to date is the Water Footprint Report of Turkey, which sets out a broad national analysis and remains the best starting point for anyone who wants to study the subject in a Turkish context.