Going against the flow: A critical analysis of inter-state virtual water trade in the context of India’s National River Linking Program

By Shilp Verma, D. Kampman, Pieter van der Zaag, Arjen Y. Hoekstra. Physics and Chemistry of the Earth, Parts A/B/C, 2009

171 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Virtual water trade has been promoted as a tool to address national and regional water scarcity. In the context of international (food) trade, this concept has been applied with a view to optimize the flow of commodities considering the water endowments of nations. The concept states that water rich countries should produce and export water intensive commodities (which indirectly carry embedded water needed for producing them) to water scarce countries, thereby enabling the water scarce countries to divert their precious water resources to alternative, higher value uses. While progress has been made on quantifying virtual water flows between countries, there exists little information on virtual water trade within large countries like India. This paper presents the results of two MSc theses which quantify and critically analyze inter-state virtual water flows in India in the context of a large inter-basin transfer plan of the Government of India. Our analysis shows that the existing pattern of inter-state virtual water trade is exacerbating scarcities in already water scarce states and that rather than being dictated by water endowments, virtual water flows are influenced by other factors such as “per capita gross cropped area” and “access to secure markets”. We therefore argue that in order to have a comprehensive understanding of virtual water trade, non-water factors of production need to be taken into consideration.

Subfields: Environmental Engineering, Ocean Engineering, Water Science and Technology

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/afeec5a296929a38641c779ae334191f72e5b209

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Citations in the corpus

The danger of naturalizing water policy concepts: Water productivity and efficiency discourses from field irrigation to virtual water trade (2012, background): “Verma et al. (2009) found that relative dry states in India were net exporters of virtual water to relatively water-rich states in India.”
The water footprint of the EU for different diets (2013, unknown): “(Bulsink et al., 2010; Verma et al., 2009).”
International trade of scarce water (2013, background): “A region is therefore considered to have comparative advantage in producing a water-intensive good if the opportunity cost of producing it is lower in that country than in its trading partners (Verma et al., 2009).”
The water footprint of Indonesian provinces related to the consumption of crop products (2009, background): “The current study for Indonesia differs from the India study in that the latter showed export of virtual water from the most water-scarce regions (Punjab, Haryana), whereas the current study will show import of virtual water to the most water-scarce region (Java).”
The Global Dimension of Water Governance: Why the River Basin Approach Is No Longer Sufficient and Why Cooperative Action at Global Level Is Needed (2010, background): “However, the two countries have relatively low water footprints per capita (China 700 m 3 /cap/yr and India 980 m 3 /cap/yr).”
Global virtual water trade and the hydrological cycle: patterns, drivers, and socio-environmental impacts (2019, background): “Therefore, the US had to find other wheat importers outside Europe, targeting particularly developing countries in Asia and Africa (Friedmann 1993).”
Virtual Water: A Helpful Perspective, but not a Sufficient Policy Criterion (2010, background): “As Kumar and Singh (2005 )a nd Verma et al. (2009) have suggested, access to arable land and secure markets likely are better predictors of agricultural trade patterns than a country’s water endowment.”