Virtual water flows between world regions
Gross virtual water flows between and within 13 world regions are presented in Table 3.
The regions with the largest virtual water export are North and South America. The largest
importers are Western Europe and Central and South Asia. The single most important
intercontinental water dependency is Central and South Asia (including China and India)
annually importing 80 BCM of virtual water from North America. This is equivalent to
one seventh of the annual runoff of the Mississippi. Ironically, the African continent, not
known because of its water abundance, is a net exporter of water to the other continents,
particularly to Europe. This can be seen in Figure 2, which shows average virtual water
balances over the period 1997–2001 at the level of the 13 world regions. The figure shows
the biggest virtual water flows between the different regions insofar as they are related to
trade in agricultural products.