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Another inconvenient truth: Making a dent in the world’s energy problems with biofuels will require much more water than the world can afford to give up, says commentary

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on October 6, 2008 at 6:03 am

From the International Herald Tribune, this commentary by Peter Brabeck-Letmathe, the chairman and former chief executive of Nestlé:

At last, many of the world’s political leaders have begun to realize that diverting land and food crops to produce biofuels leads to higher food prices. But an equally important consequence of this policy folly is being largely ignored in the public and political debate: Producing biofuels will further deplete the world’s already overtaxed water supply.

This is emblematic of a larger and increasingly dangerous disregard for the world’s most valuable, irreplaceable and finite natural resource: fresh water.

Seventy percent of all water withdrawal is already used in agriculture, and while all such activity requires water, growing enough soy or corn to create biofuels is especially water-intensive. For example, to produce just one gallon of diesel fuel up to 9,000 gallons of water are required. Up to 4,000 gallons are needed to produce enough corn for the same amount of ethanol. By way of contrast, producing enough food to meet the caloric needs of one person for one day in, for example, Tunisia or Egypt requires about 666 gallons of water, and twice as much in California (caloric needs and intakes vary widely from region to region due to dietary customs).

If all of the biofuel targets and timelines set by governments across the world are met, we can expect water withdrawals for agriculture to increase by up to one-third. Making a dent in the world’s energy problems with biofuels will require much more water than the world can afford to give up. There simply isn’t enough; water tables are falling throughout the world. While there are substitutes for oil, there are none for water.

October 6, 2008 · Filed Under Biofuels

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