The water scarcity and use of external water resources for some selected countries are
presented in Table 4. India has a very high national self-sufficiency ratio (98%), which
implies that at present India is only a little dependent on the import of virtual water from
other countries to meet its national demands. The same is true for the people of China,
who have a self-sufficiency ratio of 93%. However, India and China have relatively low
water footprints per capita (India 980 m3/cap/yr and China 702 m3/cap/yr). If the consumption
pattern in these countries changes to that like in the US or some Western European
countries, they will be facing a severe water scarcity in the future and probably be unable
to sustain their high degree of water self-sufficiency.