Virtual water trade – a realistic concept for developing countries?

Project description

Research Question:
Strategic virtual water trade is a future-oriented concept for reaching a regional balance, that is, for reallocating water resources. The aim of virtual water trade is, accordingly, for water-poor countries to counteract water deficits by importing increasing amounts of food from water-rich countries, utilising more of their own, scarce water resources for industrial production. This, in turn, would enable them to earn the foreign exchange they need to import food. But is the concept realistic, and for what country groups or actors would it prove actually advantageous? What impacts, risks, and opportunities would be associated with its implementation, and what intermediate measures would be reasonable and promising?
The research project provides a basis for defining a position on the concept of virtual water trade. It thus contributes to efforts to increase the level of differentiation in the contentious public debate on the issue. The project’s design was participatory and discursive, that is, pro and con statements were used as a basis to work out and discuss the important controversial aspects of the strategy, i.e. its practicability and the associated chances and risks.
The political, social, economic, and ecological aspects (risks and chances) of virtual water trade were dealt with in the framework of workshops and discussions of goal assertions and elaborated statements, with a final analysis and assessment being prepared.

Relevant publications:
Horlemann, Lena / Susanne Neubert (2007): Virtual water trade: a realistic concept for resolving the water crisis?, Studies 25
Horlemann, Lena / Susanne Neubert (2006): Virtueller Wasserhandel – Ein realistisches Konzept zur Lösung der Wasserkrise?, Studies 22
Horlemann, Lena / Susanne Neubert (2006): Virtueller Wasserhandel zur Überwindung der Wasserkrise?, Externe Publikationen