Cotton
The global average water footprint of cotton fabric is 10,000 litre per kilogram. That means that one cotton shirt of 250 gram costs about 2500 litre. A jeans of 800 gram will cost 8000 litre. These figures are global averages. The water footprint of cotton fabric varies from place to place. The water footprint of cotton fabric made with cotton from China is 6000 litre/kg. For cotton from the USA this is 8100 litre/kg, for cotton from India 22500 litre/kg, for cotton from Pakistan 9600 litre/kg and for cotton from Uzbekistan 9200 litre/kg (Mekonnen and Hoekstra, 2010, 2011).The proportion of blue water in the water footprint of cotton is relatively large, because cotton is often irrigated. On average, one third of the water footprint of cotton is blue water. For some countries, the blue water proportion is much larger, like for example in Uzbekistan (88%) and Pakistan (55%).
The water use of cotton has often great local impacts. In Central Asia, for example, excessive abstractions of water from the Amur Darya and Syr Darya for cotton irrigation have resulted in the near-disappearance of the Aral Sea.
In the period 1996-2005, global cotton production contributed 3% to the total water footprint of crop production in the world (Mekonnen and Hoekstra, 2010, 2011).
The global blue water footprint of UK's cotton consumption in the period 1996-2005. Source of data: Mekonnen and Hoekstra (2010).
Publications
| 2011 | Mekonnen, M.M. and Hoekstra, A.Y. (2011) The green, blue and grey water footprint of crops and derived crop products, Hydrology and Earth System Sciences, 15(5): 1577-1600. | Download 1.2 MB | |
| 2010 | Mekonnen, M.M. and Hoekstra, A.Y. (2010) The green, blue and grey water footprint of crops and derived crop products, Value of Water Research Report Series No.47, UNESCO-IHE. | Main Report Volume 1 | Download 1.2 MB |
| Appendices Volume 2 | Download 9.7 MB | ||
| 2006 | Chapagain, A.K., Hoekstra, A.Y., Savenije, H.H.G. and Gautam, R. (2006) The water footprint of cotton consumption: An assessment of the impact of worldwide consumption of cotton products on the water resources in the cotton producing countries, Ecological Economics, 60(1): 186-203. | Download 0.9 MB | |
