Over the past decade as the global challenges of water scarcity have become more real and better understood, we've somehow all begun to learn more about our water efficiency, how much we consume, and how we can become better at conserving this precious resource. With this better understanding—and concerted efforts to improve efficiency—forward thinking residents of planet Earth have made significant advances in water conservation.

For example, through application of water saving faucets such as the sensor tap at ‘Ko Sewe a.k.a Ranalos’ (too techie though) and wastewater treatment and recycling systems, a number of consumers have been able to cut their daily per capita consumption of potable water by as much as 50%.

The hope is we are all getting better at monitoring the amount of water we consume for drinking, cooking, cleaning, and the numerous other things we use water for in our everyday lives.

What we often don't recognize is that we use far more water in terms of the various goods and products that we consume—the food, clothes, consumer goods, and so on—because they often take large amounts of water to produce.

Currently most people think of their conservation or efficiency in terms of direct water use, not in terms of indirect water use— water that is needed to produce everything else we buy and consume. The water that is embedded or 'hidden' in all these commodities and products is increasingly being referred to as 'virtual water'.

This more accurate measure of our total water consumption is coming to be called our 'water footprint'— identical in concept to the much more widely discussed carbon footprint.

By thinking about our total water footprint from this broader perspective, we can open up a whole new world of understanding and insight—as well as troubling new concerns!