Footprinting

                    Water footprinting is not only a communication and awareness raising tool to inform customers of the water impacts of products, but is increasingly seen also as a powerful tool to inform water allocation strategies and spatial and land-use planning. With the recent advances in underlying methods and data, the tool has the potential to inform optimal intra- and inter-sectoral water allocation as well as the formulation of national and catchment water policies. Water footprint assessments of national consumption can illuminate where in the world countries have their biggest freshwater impacts and answer questions such as do we get water intense products from water scarce countries? National footprints have not yet influenced public policy directly, but have broadened thinking and taken the global dimension of water use into account.

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