Virtual water trade and its implications on water sustainability

Limited and declining water resources, increasing demand of water resources from different sectors has posed a major challenge for maintaining water sustainability and thus overall sustainability for a populous and water scarce country like India. Over extraction and changing climate have put additional pressure to maintain water sustainability. Therefore, there is a need of proper planning of utilization and management of water resource. Recently, virtual water trade has received much attention and become important tool for balancing the water budget. On the other hand, virtual water trade may also adversely effects on water balance of exporter's country as well as economy. Analysis of virtual water trade with its implications on water resources are missing, hence, there is a need of such analysis that will help in management of water resources. In this study an attempt is made to present a quantitative analysis of virtual water trade and its implications on water sustainability. For this study rice crop is considered only due to its characteristics as rice is major water consumer crop and water exporter crop from India.