This year’s topic of the International Water Day is “Water and Food Security”.

Food security is ensured when all people at all times have physical, social and economic access to sufficient and nutritious food to meet their needs and preferences for an active and healthy lifestyle.

There are around 7 billion people globally, and 2 billion more will be up to 2050. Statistic says that every adult drinks from 2 to 4 liters of water every day. Taking into account the climate change, every adult in conditions of high temperatures or hot climate needs 3,5-5 l of water, during physical activities – 4 liters approximately, and during physical activities in conditions of hot climate recommended quantity of water may be increased to 12 liters of water a day.

At the same time, the bigger part of water we “drink” is included to the food we eat: production of 1 kg of beef requires 15 000 liters of water, wheat – 1500 liters. The goal of this year’s International Water Day is to draw attention to the need of rational use of water resources in production of agricultural production and decrease of pressure on water resources through change of behavior in consumption and production of food.

Water is one of the essential parts in food production, and we can count how much water is used for/or how much water is polluted in the process of food production. Providing evaluation of general volume of drinking water, used during products and services production, consumed by one person, organization of business entity (or defining so-called “water footprint”) is actual since 2002. On the individual level, “water footprint” is the volume of water, used by this individual, on the national level – it’s the use of water sources, minus “virtual water” for export (the volume of water, used for production of product or service for export) and plus “virtual” water from import of goods and services (volume of water for production of good or service for import).

Due to researches, average global “water footprint” for the 1996-2005 period is 1385 m³ per person a year. Agriculture leaves the biggest “water footprint”, which is about 92% from global. For wheat, rice and corn about 27% of total volume of water is used, fro meat and dairy products it’s 22% and 7%. About one-fifth of “water footprint” is production of goods and services for export.

“Water footprint” of the USA is 2,842 m³ a year, 1,071 m³ in China and 1,089 m³ of India.

Great volumes of water used in agriculture bring hope, that humanity, decreasing water expenditures for these goals, may decrease the volumes of water used. Making irrigation more effective gives an opportunity to save water resources and leave them in the ecosystem. Another way of increasing “water footprint” is change of our behavior in consumption, e.g. people can agree to switch from beef made of cows fed with grain, to meat of cows that freely eat grass.

How much water do you need to cook your lunch?

In Ukraine there are also researches regarding “water footprint” in agriculture. Due to researches by D.Vlasov and V.Vlasov in 2009 agriculture sector in Ukraine with 9 types of production used more than 58 billion m³ of water. It’s 20 billion m³ less than in 2002, when there was a huge decrease in livestock production. At the same time, Ukraine plays the role of world donor of water resources through exporting a wide range of production, and crop production above all. For example, in 2009 for its production there was used almost 20 billion m³ of water resources. So, Ukraine saved 20 billion m³ of water for importers, which they could use for production of imported goods.

The cost of water resources for agricultural production in Ukraine, million tons

According to the analytical report of the National Institute of Strategic Researches of Ukraine for the period of 1990-2010 Ukraine had decreased the crop area on 16,8% and in 4,6 times decreased crop areas of forage crops, which affected the development of livestock. During this period, sowings of highly profitable export oriented crops had sharply increased: sunflower in 2,8 times, rape in more than 10 times. “Water footprint” is divided to three components: “blue” is for water, gathered from surface and underground sources, “green” is for rain water and “grey” is for volume of polluted water formed in the process. “Blue water footprint” of rape from irrigation is 2150m³/t, wheat and soybeans – 926 m³/t. (The green, blue and grey water footprint of crops and derived crop products. Main report. December 2010. http://www.waterfootprint.org/Reports/Report47-WaterFootprintCrops-Vol1.pdf).

So, if you know “water footprint” of this or that product or process of production, you can optimize use of water and understand the ways of industry development from the point of effective water use.

You can perform the next actions to decrease your “water footprint”:

• Follow healthy lifestyle;
• Consume less products which high “water footprint”;
• Reduce number of products emitted: 30% of all food produced in the world is not eaten, and water is used for its production;
• Produce more products with higher quality and less use of water for production.

You can calculate your own “water footprint”, using the electronic calculator from the website:

http://www.waterfootprint.org/?page=cal/WaterFootprintCalculator