Significance of Water Footprints of a Nation in Water Resources Management

Water is a scarce resource and needs to be treated economically. All human activities consume and pollute a lot of water. Agriculture consumes a substantial volume of water and domestic and industrial sector pollute the water. There is an urgent need to develop appropriate concepts and tools to tackle the problem of water shortage in India. A bridge is required to be built between water management practices and economic thinking. The water has to be allocated efficiently. At local level the water user plays a key role. Local water use efficiency can be increased by creating awareness, charging prices based on full or marginal cost and by use of water saving technology. The paper highlight the concept of water footprint of a nation, average water footprint per capita per country, and comparison of water footprint of different nations. It also suggests measures to reduce water footprints and relevance of the concept.