Climate & Environment
Virtual Water
The water embedded in traded goods — the hidden flows that let water-scarce economies import what they cannot grow.
Definition
Virtual water is the volume of water consumed to produce a good or service, "embedded" in it through trade — coined by Tony Allan (1993, Stockholm Water Prize 2008) to explain how Middle Eastern economies survive water scarcity by importing grain rather than growing it. Virtual water flows are vast: agricultural trade moves thousands of cubic kilometres of embedded water annually, meaning importing regions' water footprints fall heavily on distant basins — Spanish strawberries, Indian rice, and American almonds carrying their aquifers abroad.
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