Virtual Water Trade,Sustainability and Territorial Equity across Phases of Globalisation in India

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to bring out the effect of economic reforms introduced in India on the direction of virtual water trade (through trade of agricultural products). The study also identifies the dual role that virtual water has in an economy. It is a source of export earnings (benefit side), but at the same time there is a loss of virtual water (cost side) through agricultural trade. The study is novel in the sense that it not only identifies the trade-off between benefits and costs of virtual water trade for India, but also tries to capture the impact of phases of globalisation on the trade-off. The cost side has serious implications on sustainability and territorial equity. In order to address the issues more coherently, we have to introduce a concept of virtual water miles. Then we argue with intuitive reasoning about the possible effects of virtual water trade on sustainability as well as on territorial equity.

Keywords

Trade off virtual water miles phases of globalisation transfers of sustainability

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Adhikary

and Chowdhury

2008. ‘India's alternative trade policy from the perspective of water loss’. ICFAI Journal of Applied Economics, VII (5): 76–86.

Adhikary

and Mazumder

. 2006. ‘Manufacturing sector productivity in West Bengal across phases of liberalization during 1981–2006’. Journal of Social and Economic Development, 8(1): 1–14.

Allan

J.A.

1993. ‘Fortunately there are substitutes for water otherwise our hydro political futures would be impossible’. In ODA Priorities for water resource allocation and management (London: ODA), pp. 13–26.

Allan

J.A.

1997. “’Virtual Water”: A long term solution for water short Middle Eastern Economies?’ SOAS occasional paper http://www.soas.ac.uk/waterissues/papers/file38347.pdf.

Barbier

E.B.

1998. ‘Environmental project evaluation in developing countries: Valuing the environment as input’. http://www.feem.it/NR/rdonlyres/1F24A45E-C239-4C74-9C34-5796E44B0561/153/8698.pdf (Accessed February 2008).

Bateman

J.J.

1993. ‘Valuation of environment, method and techniques, the contingent valuation method’, in Turner

R.K.

(ed), Sustainable Environment Economics and Management: Principles and Practice (London and New York: Belhaven Press), pp. 120–191.

Brown

R.L.

, Durbin

, and Evans

J.M.

. 1975. ‘Techniques for testing the constancy of regression relationships over time’. Journal of the Royal Statistical Society, Series B, 37: 149–192.

Chapagain

A.K.

and Hoekstra

A. Y.

. 2003. ‘Virtual water flows between nations in relation to livestock and livestock production’. Value of Water Research Series no. 13, UNESCO-IHE, DELFT, The Netherlands. http://www.waterfootprint.org/Reports/Reportl3.pdf (Accessed June 2007).

Chapagain

A.K.

and Hoekstra

A.Y.

. 2004. ‘Water footprints of nations’, Volume 1 Main Report. Value of Water Research Series No 16, UNESCO-IHE, DELFT, The Netherlands, http://www.waterfootprint.org/Reports/Reportl6Vol1.pdf.

10.

Chapagain

A.K.

and Hoekstra

A.Y.

. 2006a. ‘Water footprints of nations: Water use by people as a function of their consumption pattern.’ http://www.waterfootprint.org/Reports/Hoekstra_and_Chapagain_2006.pdf (Accessed April 2008).

11.

Chapagain

A.K.

, and Hoekstra

A.Y.

. 2006b. ‘The water footprints of Morocco and The Netherlands’. Value of Water Research Series no. 21 UNESCO-IHE, DELFT, the Netherlands http://www.waterfootprint.org/Reports/Report_21_WFP_Morocco_and_Netherlands.pdf (Accessed April 2008).

12.

Chow

G.C.

1960. ‘Tests of equality between sets of coefficients in two linear regressions’. Econometrica, 28(3): 591–605.

13.

Fraiture

, Cai

C. X.

, Amarasinghe

, Rosegrant

and Molden

. 2004. ‘Does international cereal trade save water? The impact of virtual water trade on global water use’, Comprehensive Asseessment Research Report 4, IWMI, Colombo.

14.

Dutt

1993. ‘New economic policy and its impact on industrial relations and employment in India’. Indian Journal of Labour Economics 36(1): 66–76.

15.

Economic Survey. Various issues. Government of India, Ministry of Finance, Economic Division.

16.

Falkenmark

, Lundquivst

and Widstrand

. 1989. ‘Macro scale water scarcity requires micro scale approaches. Aspects of vulnerability in semi arid development’. Natural Resources Forum 13(4): 258–267.

17.

Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations. Trade and Commerce Yearbook. Various volumes.

18.

Guan

and Hubacek

. 2007. ‘Assessment of regional trade and virtual water flows in China’. Ecological Economics 61(1): 159–176.

19.

Hodrick

R.J.

and Prescott

E.C.

. 1997. ‘Postwar U.S. business cycles: an empirical investigation’. Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, 29(1): 1–16.

20.

Hoekstra

A.Y.

and Hung

P.Q.

. 2002. ‘Virtual water trade: A quantification of virtual water flows between nations in relation to international crop trade’. Value of Water Research Series no. 11. UNESCO-IHE, DELFT, The Netherlands. http://www.waterfootprint.org/Reports/Reportll.Pdf (Accessed June 2007).

21.

Hoekstra

A.Y.

and Hung

P.Q.

. 2003. ‘Virtual water trade: A quantification of virtual water flows between nations in relation to international crop trade’, in Hoekstra

A.Y.

(ed), Virtual Water Trade: Proceedings of International Expert Meeting on Virtual Water. IHE, Delft Value of Water Research Series no. 13,.

22.

UNESCO-IHE, DELFT, the Netherlands http://www.waterfootprint.org/Reports/Reportl2.pdf (Accessed June 2007).

23.

Hoekstra

A.Y.

(ed.) 2003. Virtual Water Trade: Proceedings of International Expert Meeting on Virtual Water. IHE, Delft Value of Water Research Series no. 13, UNESCO-IHE, DELFT, the Netherlands http://www.waterfootprint.org/Reports/Report12.pdf (Accessed June 2007).

24.

Hoekstra

A.Y.

2007. ‘Human appropriation of natural capital: comparing ecological and water footprint analysis’. Value of Water Research Series No. 23. UNESCO-IHE, DELFT, the Netherlands http://www.waterfootprint.org/Reports/Report23-Hoekstra-2007.pdf (Accessed May 2008).

25.

ICWE, 1992. The Dublin Statement and report of the conference, International Conference on Water and Environment: Development Issues for the 21st Century, 26–31 January, Dublin.

26.

Iles

2005. ‘Learning in sustainable agriculture: food miles and missing objects’. Environmental Values 14(2): 163–183.

27.

International Financial Statistics, IMF. Various issues. Millennium Assessment Report. 2005. ‘Ecosystems and human well being: current state and trends’, in Chapter on Freshwater http://www.millenniumassessment.org/documents/document.276.aspx.pdf (Accessed July 2009).

28.

Oki

, Sato

, Kawamura

Miyake

, Kanaye

and Musake

. 2003. ‘Virtual water trade to Japan and in the world’, in Virtual Water Trade: Proceedings of International Expert Meeting on Virtual Water. IHE, Delft Value of Water Research Series 12 (UNESCO-IHE, DELFT, The Netherlands), pp. 221–235 http://www.waterfootprint.org/Reports/Reportl2.pdf (Accessed June 2007).

29.

Shah

and Verma

. 2008. ‘Co management of electricity and groundwater: an assessment of Gujarat's Jyotirgram Scheme’. Economic and Political Weekly, Special Article February 16.

30.

Sharma

K.D.

2009. ‘Groundwater management for food security’. Current Science 96(11): 1444–1447.

31.

Soma

2006. ‘Natura economica in environmental valuation’. Environmental Values 15(1): 31–50.

32.

Turner

R.K.

1993. ‘Sustainability, resource conservation and pollution control, an overview’, in Turner

R.K.

(ed.), Sustainable Environment Economics and Management: Principles and Practice (London and New York: Belhaven Press), pp. 1–36.

33.

Wackernagel

and Rees

W.E.

. 1996. Our Ecological Footprint: Reducing Human Impact on the Earth. Gabriola Island, BC, Canada: New Society Publishers,.

34.

Wissenburg

2006. ‘Global and ecological justice: prioritising conflicting demands’. Environmental Values 15(4): 425–394.

35.

Yang

, Wang

, Abbaspour

K.C.

and Zehnder

A.J.B.

, 2003. ‘Water resources threshold and its implications for security’, in Virtual Water Trade: Proceedings of International Expert Meeting on Virtual Water. IHE, Delft Value of Water Research Series no. 12, UNESCO-IHE, DELFT, The Netherlands.

36.

Zimmer

and Renault

. 2003. ‘Virtual water in food production and global trade: Review of methodological issues and preliminary results’, in Hoekstra

A.Y.

(ed), Virtual Water Trade: Proceedings of International Expert Meeting on Virtual Water. IHE, Delft Value of Water Research Series no. 13, UNESCO-IHE, DELFT, The Netherlands http://www.waterfootprint.org/Reports/Report12.pdf (Accessed June 2007).

37.

Zuindeau

2007. ‘Territorial equity and sustainable development’. Environmental Values 16(2): 253–268.