Globalisation of Water: Opportunities and Threats of Virtual Water Trade

With increasing trade between nations and continents, water is more and more often used to produce goods that are exported. Can international trade be a tool to enhance global water use efficiency, or is it a means of shifting the environment burden to a distant location? The water footprint of nations is a consumer-based indicator of water use which reveals the impacts of local consumption on global water resources and the dependency of any country on external water resources.