The socio-economic and geopolitical implications of virtual water trade in export agriculture and other commodity sectors

Virtual water, that is the water used to produce exported products from agriculture and other commodity sectors like mining, has produced multiple effects on the socio-economic and environmental conditions of the producer regions and their populations. Export-related growth and increase of revenue have come together with resource-depletion, socio-environmental conflict and geo-political claims of local and/or national resource-ownership. While trade agreements and multi-scale environmental regulation try to address some of these issues, though in controversial ways, there is still a long way to go through in the construction of water governance arrangements that ensure sustainable water use. Our presentation illustrates this argument with cases of export agriculture and large scale mining in the Mediterranean and South American regions.