The Virtual Water Nexus: Misleading Metaphor?

Week 6:

The Virtual Water Nexus: Misleading Metaphor?

Last week’s blog post introduced virtual water, the concept capturing the amount of water required to produce a product, or the volume of water integrated into our society but not in the form of water. In the blog a discussion was started about virtual water trade and how water stressed nations can reduce their water usage by being tactical with imports and exports (Lillywhite, 2010). Essentially virtual water trade is about importing products that have large volumes of integrated or virtual water and exporting products that have low virtual water.

Whilst the discussion was opened last week, it certainly wasn’t finished. This week I want to more critically analyse the concept of virtual water and the trade of it. I will specifically focus on the impact of the concept on agriculture in Africa. Whilst the blog will take a critical focus, it is important to note that there are multiple benefits of the concept that have been discussed in past and the following should not be considered to be the only attributes of virtual water.

Virtual water captures the relationship between water, commodities and trade at a global level. However, It lacks a tangible nature, reducing its subsequent usefulness in providing policy advice (Antonelli, 2014). The criteria applied to the concept is not consistent, implying the introduction of “governance schemes that improve neither efficiency nor sustainability” (Gawel, 2012: 169). The concept is therefore not applicable to the communities in Africa who are most impacted by water stress.

Source: (National Geographic)

The image depicts the lives of many people in water stressed African communities, unaffected by the romanticised notion of virtual water

Since 1995 the use of the term virtual water has grown significantly. There is now a debate about whether the term is really scientifically respectable or whether it stands just as a metaphor. Whilst the concept is striking, the utility doesn’t reach far beyond a consideration into consumption (Gawel, 2012). Water-related problems should be solved in the respective arenas and not by global governance schemes or trade barriers.

The concept’s linkage of water and food have implications on crop production. The idea that indigenous food production can be limited locally by the availability of water, and the product being traded is the food not the water. However, the extensive linkages between the product and the national economy create ideas that are more applicable to a global level. However, action at a global level cannot be taken from the concept (Allan, 2003). This leaves virtual water in a position of ineffectiveness. According to academic Stephen Merrett, the term is scientifically redundant.

Virtual water can’t tell us anything about trade-flows or sustainable practices with water resources. Virtual water is also unable to provide sound information to guide economic and political decisions. The concept lacks the necessary economic information about water sources, with no indication of the sustainable impacts of trading with virtual water . Ultimately, the virtual water concept does not address or even take into account the really impactful factors in local water stress; “unfair trade regime, poverty and inequality, or local environmental problems” (Gawel, 2012: 180).

Alongside inconsistency, one of virtual water’s greatest flaws is paternalism. The concept is highly presumptuous as it promotes global equity without accounting for the equal needs of individuals in different parts of the world (Allan, 2003). It denies developing countries of making trade and economic decisions in the interests of their nation, potentially causing the concept to drift towards “eco‐imperialism”.

In conclusion, the concept of virtual water does have its limitations. Despite the limitations that reduce its capability as a critical concept for systemic shift, the concept still has its benefits. It is important to recognise that even with the limitations it has, virtual water still makes us consider our consumption and in the case of Africa, might be able to capture the minds of local farmers (VirtualWater, 2019).

Thanks for reading!