We human beings are now suffering the most severe shortage of water. There are billions of people who cannot approach to safe water all over the world. Therefore, it is one of most significant issue that we should solve the water crisis. Virtual Water, as a newly developed term, may be a key to the problem.
First of all, Virtual water provides us the idea that a country can save water through importing agriculture goods. For every country, agriculture is the main consumer of the water resource. And some 70% water is irrigated to the farm land. So the international trade that the water-poor countries import agriculture food from the water-rich countries, which process comparative advantage on virtual water, will be a very effective way to save water. The trade considering the virtual water acutally efficiently reallocates the world’s water resource.
What’s more, the idea virtual water changes the system of water management. The former framework managing water is established based on tangible water. So the decision maker used to focus on water itself and look for the solutions within their own country. The actions such building reservoir or transporting water from one area to another are always expensive and not flexible. Virtual water makes people manage water through controlling the products which embedded a large amount of water. This approach is obviously more economic and efficient.
Last but not least, the spread of the thought of virtual water will renew people’s view of water. Water is a necessary factor for every good and service we use. Theorically, we can compute the volume of virtual water of every commodity. So people will realize the amount of water they expend more explicitly while they consume goods through the labeling of virtual water volume. Such as, if people know that a shower will usually cost as much as about 1t water, they will reduce the times of shower.
Conclusively, the virtual water will be beneficial to using water efficiently and saving water. It can be applied as a basic thought to solve the water crisis.