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Strategies & Market Trends : Commodities - The Coming Bull Market -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: craig crawford who wrote (440)	7/6/2001 2:02:41 AM
From: craig crawford	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1643

Avoiding war over natural resources by Tony Allan icrc.org Tony Allan received his doctorate from the University of London in 1971. He specializes in the renewable natural resources of arid regions and especially water in the Middle East. He has written and edited a number of publications on the subject and advises governments and international agencies on water issues. ........................................................................................................................ Virtual water Virtual water is the very substantial volume of water embedded in water-intensive commodities such as grain. About 1,000 tonnes of water are required to produce a tonne of wheat. When an economy imports a tonne of wheat it is in effect importing 1,000 tonnes of water. The Middle East and North Africa region was importing annually about 40 million tonnes of grain and flour by the end of the 1990s. About 40 billion tonnes of water would be required to produce this volume of grain. Such a volume reflects about 20% of the region's annual water use and is equivalent to the water used each year by Egypt in its agricultural sector. Engineers could not contemplate moving so much water, but those involved in the international grain trade take the challenge in their stride. There is a very clear "nexus" involving "water, food and trade" which is of major strategic significance to grain-importing economies in arid and semi-arid regions. Virtual water has, since the early 1970s, ensured the economic stability of this major arid region in the world. Future economic stability here will depend on its capacity to sustain the trade in virtual water