A Comparative Assessment of the Water Footprint of Agricultural, Industrial and Domestic Practices in India

Water footprint assessment is done to quantify direct and indirect water consumption by categorizing it into blue, green and grey categories. The present study has analysed water footprint of India in contrast to global consumption using the national water footprint data as available online on WaterStat. For the years 1996 to 2005, India has the 2nd largest water footprint value of 1182 Gm3∕year and 1144 Gm3∕year for both production and consumption, respectively. This value accounts for 13% and 13.4% of global total. In terms of blue water footprint, India has the largest share of 243 Gm3∕year, which is 24% of global aggregate blue WF of national production. India too has a very small external water footprint of consumption, i.e., 2.5% of its total value. High footprint values can be attributed to the high population of the country and partly to the consumption patterns and the inefficient production processes.