Effects of GDP per Capita on Water Footprint

Fresh water is one of the main resources which have special importance in achieving sustainable development. The water footprint of a country is defined as the volume of water needed for the production of the goods and services consumed by the inhabitants of the country. A nation’s water footprint has two components; the internal and the external water footprint. As countries go through industrialization, it is valuable to be able to predict the impact of economic growth on consumption habits. In this paper, the relationship between national income and water use were studied. National water footprint per capita was analyzed as a function of per capita income. We utilized cross sectional data to estimate the above relations. Results show that income is an important factor in increasing the water footprint per capita in the industrial sector and the external water footprint.