AS SELANGOR steps back to assess its water demand against available water resources, one useful tool to help us better allocate our water and financial resources is the water footprint analysis.

Water footprint refers to the total water used in the provision of a product or service. The concept is similar to that of carbon footprint whereby the water demand for a product or service is determined through its entire supply chain. Thus, for an egg, it includes the water needed to grow the grains that are fed to a chicken apart from all the water needed to raise it and deliver the egg to a customer. This is estimated at 200 litres.

The average water footprint for some other products, as determined by the Water Footprint Network, are as follows: beef – 15,500 litres a kg, chicken – 3,400 litres a kg, a litre of milk – 3,100 litres, a pint of beer – 160 litres, an apple – 70 litres and a slice of bread – 40 litres.

The wide range in these numbers, even after considering size per serving, points to some products being simply more water intensive than others.

Just like a product or service, a state has a water footprint for all the goods and services its residents produce and consume. It includes water use that is “imported” through products made elsewhere.

According to the Water Footprint Network, the annual water footprint per capita for the Philippines is 1,543 cu m, Indonesia (1,324 cu m), Vietnam (1,317 cu m), South Korea (1,179 cu m) and Japan (1,153 cu m) while the global average is 1,243 cu m.

The comparable figure for the US is among the highest in the world at 2,483 cu m but Malaysia is not far behind at 2,344 cu m. The portion of the footprint that lies outside of country is 19% for the US and 28% for Malaysia. However, the GDP per capita of the US is more than three times that of Malaysia.

These figures show that Malaysia uses enormous quantities of water for the goods and services it produces (and consume) as well as for domestic use. An analysis for Selangor would produce similarly startling results.

The solution is certainly not to engineer new mega supplies but to creatively reduce water demand to sustainable levels.

JC Tansen
Petaling Jaya

Source: The Sun – August 3, 2010