Coffee. Pasta. Jackets. Bedsheets. Smartphones. At first glance, all of these seem unrelated, but one common denominator links them: water. Everything, quite literally, needs water. Eight thousand litres of water are needed to produce one pair of jeans alone, according to a Water Footprint Network report. Large quantities of water are used to manufacture everyday goods such as paper, plastic, metal, and textiles. In order to conserve water, understanding how much water is actually needed to produce basic materials cannot be ignored. Take the production of a jacket as an example. Water is consumed at numerous times during the process of the jacket’s production. Water is used in the production of power for the jacket’s manufacture, and for moving vehicles to deliver the jacket to the fashion stores. What is virtual water and why is it important? Professor Tony Allan, an intellectual pioneer at King’s College London, first proposed the idea of virtual water— the water consumed during the process of production —to explain how Middle Eastern countries’ water needs have outpaced available supplies since 1970. Allan suggested that economic systems solved the water supply problem for the region by…
