A response to water scarcity: the virtual water trade

Today's post will analyse a North African response to water-scarcity: the virtual water trade. 

Virtual Water

Virtual water goods, such as cereals, vegetables, meat, or dairy, require important quantities of water to be produced (El-Sadek, 2010).  For instance, the production of 500g of rice requires 1,700 litres of virtual water in total (Fig. 1). When countries import these water-consuming products rather than produce them, they save significant amounts of water. 

Fig. 1: Virtual water used for the production of food products (Yiran Wang, 2015)

North Africa is the biggest virtual water importer in the world after Central & South Asia, and Western Europe (Table 1). The Table reveals that only North Africa addresses its water scarcity through virtual water trade on the continent: North Africa is the third biggest importing region in the world, while Southern and Central Africa import the least virtual water in the world. 

Table 1: Ranking of regions in terms of virtual water import and export (IHE Delft, 2003)

Hence this strategy could be an answer to the previous post's interrogation. I raised the question of why North Africa, which lacks more water resources than any other region in Africa, manages the needs of its population much better than the other regions in the continent. I now understand that virtual water imports make up for a part of that deficit.

Politics of the Virtual Water Trade in North Africa

Virtual water has various advantages. First of all it helps governments meet the needs of their population by providing them with essential water-consuming goods. For instance, Egypt's virtual water imports account for 23% of the country's water resources (El-Sadek, 2010). These imports enable the country's freshwater to be used for purposes other than agricultural production, such as domestic water use. Furthermore, the virtual water trade has avoided geopolitical tensions (Allan, 1996). Virtual trade imports in the last two decades have indeed prevented conflict between riparian countries of the Nile: the Nile would have never been able to simultaneously meet the water demands of Burundi, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Sudan and South Sudan.

Virtual water can be beneficial for states by meeting the needs of their population and avoiding transboundary conflict. However, virtual water trade is limited. North Africa imports most of its virtual water from North America followed by Southeast Asia and Western Europe (Table 2). North Africa is thus highly dependent on the exports of these highly developed regions. If North America interrupts its exports to North Africa -a plausible narrative- North Africa would lose a great water resource, something the region would have to compensate for with difficulty. The virtual water trade hence places North Africa in a dire position and at the mercy of Western action (El-Sadek, 2010).

Table 2: Gross virtual Water trade between world regions -1995-1999- (IHE Delft, 2003)

This post therefore highlights how virtual water trade efficiently responds to North Africa's significant water-scarcity today. However, these imports are not a sustainable and equitable response to water-scarcity; they perpetuate power dynamics.