EN 
DE The water in our food, clothing and consumer goods
The average German citizen consumes around 120 litres of drinking water per day.
But the production of food and consumer goods also consumes water. If you add this water to our consumption, a German citizen uses around 5,300 litres of virtual water plus 120 litres of drinking water every day.
Did you know that enjoying a cup of coffee is only possible because around 140 litres of water were used to grow the coffee beans for that one cup?
Similar examples can be continued endlessly. For example, around 2,000 litres of water were used to grow and process the cotton for the T-shirt you are wearing.
These values describe the amount of water that was used for production and that we consume without actually being aware of our consumption.
This awareness needs to be increased, for example by determining the personal water footprint: the water footprint of a person or a nation is defined as the total amount of fresh water needed to produce the food, goods and services consumed.
| Numerical examples | |
| Water consumption for the production of ... | |
| 1 DIN A4 sheet (80g/m²) | 10 litres |
| 1 tomato | 13 litres |
| 1 microchip | 32 litres |
| 1 cup of tea (250 ml) | 35 litres |
| 1/4 litre beer | 75 litres |
| 1 cup of coffee (125 ml) | 140 litres |
| 1 hen's egg (60 g) | 200 litres |
| 1 kg wheat | 1,100 litres to 1,350 litres |
| 1 T-shirt (cotton) | 2,000 litres |
| 1 kg rice | 3,000 litres to 5,000 litres |
| 1 kg chicken meat | 3,900 litres |
| 1 kg cheese | 5,000 litres |
| 1 kg beef | 14,000 litres to 16,000 litres |
| 1 average car | 20,000 litres to 300,000 litres |
Water export and import
The global volume of virtual water flows is 2,320 billion m³ per year, which corresponds to 2,320,000,000,000,000,000 litres. Virtual water describes the amount of water used to produce a product. The term "virtual water" was defined in 1994 by J. A. Allan, a water expert at the Institute of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London.
Agriculture accounts for the largest share of water consumption. In Europe, agriculture consumes around 641TP3 tonnes of water, worldwide it is around 70 to 80 1TP3 tonnes. In Schleswig-Holstein, water consumption in agriculture is far below average.
The use of water for production in rainy areas is to be assessed differently than in dry areas. If water-intensive products are produced in dry areas, this leads to water stress.
Germany, as a comparatively rainy region, is one of the 10 largest importers of virtual water. This means that in addition to our already rich water resources, we import a considerable amount of hidden virtual water in the form of goods and products, often from regions that are not as blessed with water as we are.
This is due in particular to the import of water-intensive agricultural products such as tea, coffee and cocoa.
Knowing about virtual water consumption gives consumers the opportunity to consider how much precious water is used to produce the goods they put in their shopping trolleys when shopping.
Water supplies are finite. In this respect, it is a special responsibility of everyone to use our resources sparingly. Of course, this applies not only to everyday consumption, but also to construction work, for example. It is therefore a matter of course for the MuP Group to implement measures using processes that conserve resources as much as possible.
