#waterfootprint #water #environment
Episode 1: Water footprint: The hidden cost of food
Climate change and population growth are sparking fears about the world’s freshwater supplies. We need to save water, but how?
A good place to start is rethinking the food we eat. According to the Water Footprint Network, a kilo of beef requires more than 15,400 liters (about 4070 gallons) of water, while a kilo of nuts needs 9,063 liters. And about 132 liters goes into just one cup of coffee. That’s taking the entire production chain into account.
So reducing individual water use has a lot more to do with what’s on our plates than the length of our showers.
Interviewee featured in this episode:
Ertug Ercin, senior researcher with the non-profit foundation Water Footprint Network
On the Green Fence is produced by DW studios in Bonn, Germany.
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Chapters:
00:00 Intro
01:59 Neil digs out his water bill
03:57 Why everything we consume needs water
04:52 What is the water footprint of apples, coffee and beef?
06:41 How much water is wasted?
07:58 Outsourcing our water footprint
09:20 What’s the problem with water?
10:53 Is climate change reducing the availability of water?
13:12 How much water is there on earth?
14:02 Why can’t we turn seawater into drinking water?
14:46 Is water too cheap?
16:16 Do we need a water footprint label?
18:25 Raising awareness
20:54 Three tips to reduce water consumption
21:30 Neil’s takeaways
On the green fence does anybody else need to use the toilet Okay Neil here at home with my kids as you can hear there in the background and in this episode it’s all about water how much we use and waste it and why it’s high time that we took better care of it we need more water and more water climate is changing availability is
Changing quality is changing so we need to understand that that’s U aen he’s an expert with the dutch-based nonprofit organization water footprint Network and we’ll be hearing a lot more from him in just a minute but first a few stats on water before we head into the interview
Water is a basic human right and thanks to the water cycle we always have the same amount of water on this planet however Global heating is changing weather patterns to such a degree that some regions are going dry While others are being flooded by rain so things are
Increasingly out of joint and population growth is not making this any easier about 4 billion people that’s nearly 2/3 of the global population already experience severe water scarcity during at least one month of the year now here in Germany we still are very fortunate when it comes to water we
Have outstanding water quality and we still have plenty of it coming out of the Taps despite a series of severe droughts these past years but just how sustainable is our water footprint in Germany and Beyond and how do our actions here contribute to water shortages in far away countries time to
Bring in a to airen from the dutch-based water footprint Network on This at just to get the the ball rolling here I I dug out my water bill you know for last year and uh my family and I that that’s three kids my wife and myself we used about 140 cubic meters of water and um that figure it it it meant
Nothing to me so I tried to sort of translate it into bathtubs you know full standard sized bathtubs and if I did the maths ride that is the same as almost 800 bathtubs so more than two bathtubs a day um and I was kind of stunned by that
Uh because that sort of put it into context for me I mean from your experience how well or how badly am I doing with my family you know compared to the average here you’re five people right 140 by 5 is approximately 28 L uh M Cub per year which is okay ultimately U
Because you’re living in Germany in Germany uh there is a good system of water supply I mean this the the pipes and everything are in good condition and also probably have shower caps which are efficient shower caps you’re using a dishwasher washing machine and these kind of things you become very very uh
Efficient in water use but of course this is a one part of the story this is the thing isn’t it CU I was on your website as well the water footprint network.org where you have this water calculator and um because this figure these 140 cubic meters that’s just the
Direct water consumption right the stuff that comes out of my TAPS in the house or out of the toilets the showers the bath Etc and your organization it also factors in the the hidden water consumption right and um I went through this calculator I had to put in a bit of
Data for the for the slim down version and it put me at about 3,200 cubic m per year and that’s 22 times more than it’s coming out of my Taps uh so yeah what’s the story here at everything we consume everything including this microphone this computer internet energy food everything needs
Water to be produced we we’ll go into a few examples in just a minute just for our listeners I’d like to sort of try put this in in in a more Global context CU this simplified water calculator that you have on your website waterf footprint. org you can also put in other countries
And you know have it calculated and um for example in Germany this is approximately 1,426 meter cube on average in India it’s approximately 1,000 meter cube in a country like us it’s 2,800 why because of what we eat mostly so in countries like us as you can
Imagine there’s a big meat sector or there’s a big consumption sector just some examples you know on your website also you have a list of products um that people can click through just to find out you know how much water goes into the production of these products and uh
I thought it was really interesting because uh just from examples here for our listeners you know one apple uh was at 125 L of water goes into one apple and at the same time one liter of apple juice so processing it uh is 1,140 L of water which I thought was
Staggering and I mean it goes on you also just mentioned meat you know the global average footprint of beef according to your website is 15,400 lers per kilogram which is just crazy but what I mean personally what I find even more surprising I knew coffee
Had a bad footprint but I I had no idea how bad it was um it’s at1 18,9 900 L per kilogram um so just one standard siiz coffee cup and I have like five of those per day equals 130 L of water and uh just to spin this a bit
Further I I just compared that with um uh the water consumption when I have a shower when I in my house and for me with the shower that I’ve got one kilo of coffee is the equivalent of me having a 4minute shower every day for the whole
Year um I mean that just blew my mind I could basically stay clean all year round with just one kilogram of coffee uh you know with that water footprint um so I mean it’s these products as your website also outlines anybody can go there can check it out waterf footprint
.org um they have a huge waterf footprint that we need to factor in um but perhaps if we talk about not just the consumption air tool but also how much of this water is actually wasted that changes per country because production systems and consumption systems changing because how you
Manufacture a certain product is not the same in every country the weather changes the there’s a every some places it rains a lot some people it’s hot and humid so all these numbers change but where do we waste most first in our households every food you waste means
The water indirectly or hidden way you’re just wasting the water so this is approximately can come to 20 to 25% of this food waste is is related to this wasted water in Europe of course the another element is that there is a food losses and food waste during the
Production of the product this is changes per country in Africa in South subsaharan Africa this is high because there the the eff icy of the production is low so in subsaharan Africa can go up to 20% 30% but 15% is approximately production is loses so this is what we eat at food
So as a consumer if I were to you know get rid of my food waste is my water footprint sustainable then or or when does it become sustainable this is this is a important question so it is important where it is coming from for example in Germany or water FR
Approximately 1,400 M Cube per capita per year around 80% of this is coming outside it’s not from the German Water Resources in the Germany so the sustainability lies outside the borders of Germany in overall this is 40% in Europe you look at your T-shirt you’re wearing where is it coming from
Bangladesh India China it’s not Germany and cuton is a very water intensive product it’s not the German Water Resources sustainability but it’s about the sustainability in India probably or in in Gan River Bas where the cutton is grown and when you look at there there is a big problem water pollution problem
Go to Bangladesh rivers run dry or rivers run black why because the texti industry and just by the by as you mentioned the textile industry I came across one figure also for a pair of genes um that’s around 6,000 lers of water um that goes into that at having
You know talked about that it matters where the waters come comes from also the hidden uh water uh Supply that goes into products Etc I mean some people might also say and I’ve come across this also you know with with relatives of mine when the issue’s been about water
Who’ve said you know oh water’s a renewable source there’s the water cycle which means that you know we have the exact same amount of water on this planet today as we had when it was formed so water goes round and round it never disappears so you know where’s the
Problem problem is availability of fresh water resources is quite limited it’s approximately 3% of the global Water Resources are available for human use and of course this is we need to manage it but also at the same time the availability changes per time per location but also the quality changes a
Lot so we cannot use it all the time we need most of the time infrastructure to use it made the Investments so we need to abstract it we need to clean it most of the time then we need to distribute it and so it the question we need to
Understand we have limited amount and we have huge consumption patterns we are getting more populated and more populated we need more water and more water but the approximately the amount stay same and it circulates around the around the world and then is changing this availability is changing quality is changing so we need
To understand that the I mean the climate change aspect you just mentioned that climate change is it something that is going to reduce the availability of water in the short term that changes per location water availability will not change but extremity of it changes so
When it rains it will rain more so your infrastructures cannot hold it anymore when it’s dry it is more dry and longer dry maybe in the whole year it is the same but what you experience as a dry and a trout will be longer it will be more frequent and more
Intense to um agriculture uh I mean you mentioned it um it’s um it is quite problematic in this in this context isn’t it because it accounts for about 70% of water consumption I mean can you perhaps explain where is water wasted in this area and where could we avoid
Wasting it most of it um approximately you say 70% some researchers says up to 90% of the water produce lies in agriculture where does it go first of all there’s a part that we cannot avoid because it is EV translated what do mean is that it is
Used by the plants plants this new water to grow what happens this grow it’s just they they it goes to the air so it evaporates but what we can do there is also a lots of wasting of that water during the irrigation phase I always believe the solution to water
Problems starts with the educating the people who directly uses it in the world what you see is that the farmer the actual water user is really uh not aware of these issues and not aware of and not using this optimally most of is wasted they over irrigated or there are some
Systems so for example if you cover your soil with some organic mulching they call it so simply you’re covering the soil with some so that it evaporates less that’s important there are Simple Solutions and sometimes a little bit less water than what is required helps we call it water stress if you just
Stress the plant a bit more it also gives the same amount of water this knowledge it’s not there on the farming level if we just look at the volume uh the global volume I mean I saw this stat that the total volume of water on Earth um is estimated at about 333 million
Cubic miles um and that the vast majority of it like 79% of the Earth’s water is um in the oceans and it’s saltwater um and that 2% of the Earth’s water is stored as fresh water in in glaciers or ice caps and snowy Snowy Mountains um so only just
1% of the Earth’s water available to us is um yeah is it’s that fresh water it’s just 1% and uh so you know it’s something we really should cherish right it’s it’s is it is a very small chunk of of the water that’s available in the
World but but just having a look at that stat of the salt water just how much salt water there is I mean why don’t we just take the salt out of the sea water and turn it into drinking water I mean how do you feel about that
Technology and it’s a great solution but it’s still very expensive and polluting it’s also about the energy use of course it’s a great solution for If you experience extreme water stress or if you don’t have fresh water resources like in some small island countries they
Have to do it because there is no fresh water okay I mean you you just mentioned the cost that it’s not it’s not an economical um viable solution yet um but Ian if we look at the cost of water I mean got my water bill here from last
Year and you know it strikes me as really quite cheap here in Germany I paid just over €300 for almost 140 cubic meters last year is water too cheap in Europe is I mean is that can you say that as a blanket statement not on Europe I think in
Everywhere it is not the real cost for sure what they usually charge you is the infrastructure maintenance cost plus a bit operational cost that’s all it’s not about the water itself you’re paying for it’s about the Distribution Systems no one values the water and resource so that price doesn’t include
That that price assumes that the water itself is for free which is somehow is a human right right that’s also important to acknowledge of course but I mean okay water in Germany it’s not scarce in Germany we’re very fortunate uh you know we we water always comes out of the tap
It’s got a fantastic quality um you don’t have to worry about drinking it at all uh many cases it’s better than the mineral water you can get um but um at the same time we don’t really value it that much do we I mean how can we I mean
How would you suggest how can we learn to Value water more first understanding the Germany’s water fruit lies out of its borders first understanding this is important but at the same time psychologically of course is a human behavior if it is not IM immediate concern they may not consider themselves
As an ex a risk um but I always believe it’s everything starts with a awareness I mean why isn’t there a label on products detailing water consumption we’ve got labels you know outlining how many calories everything’s got but why can’t we have water consumption on those labels there is a big resistance from
The Producers to put this on the market businesses are reluctant to that why because it’s a the numbers are big they cannot communicate well and that’s why I think people are avoiding it it’s also at the moment how can you write if it’s 15,000 someone can argue yes but I have
Water enough and that’s a difficult argument to to say something against but just the comparison I mean that would help if I were in a supermarket now and I saw one product you know has got like 15,000 lers per kilo and then another product has only 1,000 you know I mean
Just that comparison in itself would show me oh um you know these products maybe I should buy more of these and less of those yeah but efficiency is just one thing sustainable has another dimension in water is the total amount I think it’s the carbon is the similar you
Can be super efficient your product maybe Del least but you can be a super producer because you’re producing five times more than the other people so it’s it’s a bit there are different questions here to be answered but I I agree that on a consumer level maybe it is a
Awareness saving water is saving water and but there’s no consensus and there’s a resistance from the businesses disclose this I that’s why B is not happening but do you see this changing I mean climate change is a reality um you know politics are beginning to shift
Right we we we want to get to Net Zero by 2050 I mean how long until we have these labels it’s just a mind shift probably and either it will be introduced by the governments this is also again the individual I always believe that these sustainability issues
As a lots of related to human behavior if you talk about these things in Spain they get it very quickly and they do things to save it because they directly experience lots of huge water problems but that’s sort of the thing you know with the I mean it it it feeds into one
Another doesn’t it if we want to educate people and you know raise awareness um I mean I’m pretty sure that a lot of people are not aware you know just how much water a kilo of coffee has you know um 18,900 lers and I think if they knew
This and they could see it you know on every product that would change Behavior it has to I mean how could you not change your behavior if you saw that that figure every time you bought it you’re totally right the governments initiated and that comes not quick and I
Think it will hit us when we experience a problem I think this is the same for for any type of resource use the water is not it is there always but it is not infinite and it’s there is a cost to produce it and what we our mind says
Produce more there is more water take it more clean it more well why don’t we think about oh let’s let’s pollute it or oh let’s let’s use it and I think switch from that mentality that mentality will solve lots of problems we are in a in a
In a crisis we are getting crowded world is population is increasing we are getting richer which means our consumption pattern changes the the most populous countries in the world China and India type of countries are not still consuming as we do in Europe and one day till when they
Get richer and richer they will start consuming as we do today in Europe or or in America and then that’s where the problem gets imagined and a bit problematic because there are billions and becoming more billions and then ultimately the change of pattern of of what we consume is changing this is
Alarming at the same time availability patterns are changing we will not find it the water where we need most when we need most we see this couple of years ago in South Africa huge problems in California these things are become more and more problematic and and it is on
Goinging an alarming stage unless we stop and we understand that in individually we can do something and individually we can change we can lead to a collective change perhaps just on a on a final note then at um individually you say we we can change things perhaps
What what would you say are the three most important single steps that we can take as consumers to bring down our water front print and make it more sustainable consume less not only the water TS but also consume less or waste less of food ask for transparency from
The Producers about their Footprints and ask for more regulations from the governments at Ain from the water footprint Network thank you very much for joining us here with on the green F thanks for inviting me than okay so time for my main takeaways from this episode first off my hidden
Water consumption is far greater than my direct consumption so at least for me here in Germany it’s not so much about the water that comes out of the Taps but um although that shouldn’t be wasted either of course but it’s more about the products that I buy many of which come
From abroad um which means I’m kind of exporting water scarcity to other countries in a way so um as to saving water um since agriculture accounts for 70 to 90% of global Water use I can actually save water best um by reducing my own food waste and eating less
Products that are water intensive um you know such as meat or dairy cut down on those and you save way more water than if you try to save water by you know use getting less water out of the tap if that makes sense also um the fact that
Uh you know just one kilo of coffee is the I know I keep hopping on about coffee but I just couldn’t get over this one kilo of coffee is the equivalent of one whole year of daily Showers of about 4 minutes for me you know with the
Shower I’ve got at home that’s just mindboggling I just can’t get over that so um I’m certainly um reducing my my coffee intake after this um what else I I really think that we need more accurate labeling on our products I mean that goes for so many things but you
Know especially you know with water consumption and CO2 I we need more pressure here on legislators to actually push this through and if businesses claim that it’s you know too hard or complicated to come up with something that’s super accurate um you know um and varies depending on the production
Process Etc I’m telling you now if any any businessman has listening to this I’d be perfectly happy to have just a rough average estimate or margin so that I can at least I can compare the various products groups when I go shopping so you know I wouldn’t I wouldn’t pin you
Down on it has to be exactly you know that stat a margin would be fine for me and I think it’d be fine for a lot of other people as well and it would help raise a lot of awareness among consumers obviously some businesses aren’t interested in this because they they
Know full well just how water or CO2 intensive their products are and it doesn’t look good on the label but um that’s something I think we really have to push for anyway that’s my two cents for now if you have anything to add or any questions please do get in touch you
Can send an email to on the greenfence dw.com and please do feel free to leave us a rating or review wherever you get your podcasts if you can in our next episode I’ll be taking a closer look at Water scarcity which affects about half the world’s population to varying
Degrees many thanks to my colleague and producer Natalie Mueller and my sound engine get geogi and many thanks to you and yes I mean you who’s listening right now um many thanks for tuning into on the green fence and sharing it with your friends and family my name is Neil king
Take it easy and take Care