The political ecology of our water footprints: Rethinking the colours of virtual water

Virtual water trade and external water footprints could be regarded as a proxy for environmental damage and negative effects for local water users in water scarce areas of export production. A political ecological approach to virtual water trade looks at winners and losers of social metabolism in the Anthropocene and representation and recognition of local assessments of effects of the use of water for export production. Water scarcity weights have been added to virtual water analyses to better assess negative environmental and positive social effects of water use for export production. However, the commensuration of values and aggregation of data at country level result in indicators that miss out on a lot of local environmental and social effects of export agriculture and industry. This article proposes a contextualized bottom-up approach in which “red” virtual water indicates hotspots of water competition, water grabbing, and severe over-exploitation and contamination of water resources, negatively affecting ecosystems and the water security of local water users. “Silver” virtual water, or social water productivity, indicates local benefits of water use for export production in the form of income creation for smallholder farmers and workers. The concepts of red and silver virtual water can inform development studies as they bring to the fore the negative and positive effects of water use for export production. Red and silver virtual water analyses by local and national stakeholders can inform policy choices in directions of more sustainable and equitable supply chains. The bottom-up approach, with region and national organizations making the assessments of red and silver virtual water use, would empower groups affected and benefiting from water use for export production.