Virtual water trade and its implications on water sustainability

Limited and declining water resources, increasing demand of water resources from different sectors, has posed a major challenge for maintaining water sustainability and thus overall sustainability for a populous and water-scarce country like India. Over extraction and changing climate have put additional pressure to maintain water sustainability. Therefore, there is a need for proper planning of utilization and management of water resources. Recently, virtual water trade has received much attention and become an important tool for balancing the water budget. On the other hand, virtual water trade may also adversely affect the water balance of the exporter's country as well as the economy. Analysis of the virtual water trade with its implications for water resources is missing; hence, there is a need for such analysis that will help in management of water resources. In this study an attempt is made to present a quantitative analysis of the virtual water trade and its implications for water sustainability. For this study, the rice crop is considered only due to its characteristics as rice is a major water consumer crop and water exporter crop from India. HIGHLIGHTS Total water required for production of rice is 318 billion m3, 16.67% of total water available.; Virtual water export is about 32 billion m3, while the virtual water import is negligible.; The net virtual water content export is about 4.8 billion m3 which is irreversible in the system and leads to loss of water sustainability.; The net export of virtual water is about 32 billion m3, a large volume of water export.;