The issues surrounding water are getting so complicated that each consumer needs to be aware of his or her consumption graph. It is not a simple matter of the presence or absence of water in the household tap, the missing monsoon or the impending flood. What the consumer needs to focus on is whether water-related information is really as disparate and eclectic as it is wont to appear. Ultimately it is all a matter of how much consumption, in what form and by whom. Water concerns have taken to popping up in the oddest of places, almost everyday: irate and angry consumers out on the roads carrying empty pots, pictures of hapless people floating on minuscule islands of grass in a river in spate, villages drowning and disappearing from the country's map, homeless millions stranded in urban slums crisscrossed by mosquito-infested stagnant water, dying rivers clogged with urban garbage, and rain water nullahs pulsating through cityscapes, filled with filth and muck.

Our cities are an amalgam of strange dichotomies of water-less taps and Barista coffee shops round every corner, selling coffee that not only costs over much, but actually uses a hundred and forty litres of water per cup before it materialises as your order. This calculation by a couple of Dutch economists reported in Business World takes into account the volume of water used in the production processes involved in making a single cup of coffee. This calculation also shows up the strange phenomenon of 'distant' or 'virtual' consumption in the post-globalised, rapidly democratising world. To cut a long story short, coffee producing countries of the developing world are exporting whole seafulls of water along with coffee shipments. According to the same economists a cup of tea, however, is the end-product of only 34 litres of water.

We are already familiar with cola factories sucking the ground water resources dry to supply cola drinks to consumers. Incidentally, 10 million tonnes of hoarded wheat in storage as free meal to rats translates to 11 billion litres of wasted water.
'Embedded water' or what is now being labelled 'virtual water' is the amount of water used during the production process of any commodity marketed across the globe. Mind-boggling figures emerge when calculations are made of how much virtual water is exchanging hands through trade of agricultural commodities. Such issues emerge in even more complex figures when it is realised that "currently upto 90% of all managed water is used to grow food" (The Guardian), which is sunk in the high seas or burnt as standing crop as often as it is used to feed malnourished masses in countries suffering routinely from natural and man-made disasters.
Water policies in the post-globalised period will almost certainly divide the world into countries based on their ability to either import and export virtual water. Those who can afford to buy will choose to conserve local water for domestic use while their food is grown in lands with an abundance of free water but with a dearth of purchasing power.

Most futurologists are surmising that the present dietary pattern of the North will increasingly become environmentally unsustainable. It is being calculated that meat eaters consume the equivalent of 5000 litres of water everyday compared to the 1000 litres used by vegetarians. According to a rough estimate, it takes 1790 litres of water to grow one Kg of wheat, as against 9680 litres of water for one Kg of beef. Research suggests that the present rate of deterioration in world's ecosystems will result in an alarming reduction in marine foods, which are the staple diet of poor in the coastal regions of the developing world.

So what are the options before a world on the brink of acute water scarcity in the foreseeable future? Indians, if they were to count their blessings (not easily done in our times), are not so badly off. Large parts of our population consist of people who are vegetarians and tea drinkers by choice, as well as agrarian by profession. We have an apparent abundance of rivers, other water bodies and a large coastline. The monsoon is kind to us most times. To top it all we are in possession of the world's best know-how of traditional systems of water conservation.

What is being suggested as a possible way out of the impending water crisis is a combination of high-tech and traditional water conservation methods. This includes scientifically worked out agricultural practices to improve yields, not including GM crops. Another increasingly considered option in the fast urbanising world, is to use waste water for irrigation purposes.

The day is not far when food packages will carry information on the quality of water being used to produce food along with other mandatory notices. We already have the usual non-decipherable and incomprehensible details along with vegetarian and organic-produce symbols. Now water quality symbols are not far ahead, unless we all agree to at least reconsider consumption patterns and choices regarding water. We consumer activists have our work cut out ahead of us, whatever the consumer chooses to do or not to do in this regard.