Water consumed for producing some typical foods:

1. 1 Egg – 196ltrs
2. 1 Apple – 70 ltrs
3. I Kg Wheat – 4000 to 8000 ltrs
4. 1 Watermelon – 400ltrs
5. 1 Kg Rice – 2500 to 8000 ltrs
6. 1 Kg Groundnut – 3,100 ltrs
7. 1 Kg Millets – 300 ltrs
8. 1 Kg Potatoes – 300 ltrs
9. 1 Kg Meat – 10,400 ltrs
10. 1 Kg Pork – 6000 ltrs
11. 1 Kg Chicken – 4300 ltrs
12. 1 Kg Sugar – 1500 ltrs to 28,000 ltrs
13. 1 Kg Cotton – 10,000 to 20,000 ltrs

The export value of food items, should incorporate the value of water embedded in them, and thus perhaps would make barter / exchange with the goods that country produces ( Ex: Oil) a more equitable payment method than currency.

Water consumed for some ubiquitous modern industrial items

1. 1 microchip – 140 ltrs
2. 1 Kg Plastic – 183 ltrs
3. 1 Tonne Cement – 5150 ltrs
4. 1 Tonne Steel – 234760 ltrs

Direct links exist between health and hydration. About 3.5million people die annually from water related diseases. Hence, the importance of availability of clean drinking water for everyone.Alternately we could also look at compensatory investments in our Hydro and Irrigation projects and Transport Infrastructure, Ports, Shipbuilding, and even Cold storage, Agri- machinery, and other Agro-development Projects.

As Peter H.Diamandis and Steven Kotler write in their book ‘Abundance’ – The thirst for modern agricultural, industrial and bottled water (50 bn/ltrs/yr) practices have pushed the water eco-system toward collapse. We now urgently need to use every tool in our technological tool box to revive this system. Our Agricultural, Industrial and even Domestic use need total revamp.

Most water problems are exacerbated by information problems. A smart water grid that senses many parameters including condition of piping (See – Smart pipe – Chicago University) and leaks of water should be put in place (IBM is working on such a system). Hewlett Packard is working on smart metering systems. Many other companies even in India are also, working on such technological solutions both in the Agriculture and Industrial spheres and must be encouraged to develop effective workable products at the earliest.

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