Alberta exports water.
It’s virtual water, the kind contained in goods.
Jon Fennell, a hydrologist and director of water resources for WorleyParsons Canada, has calculated Alberta’s water exports at 12.1 billion cubic metres per year from wheat, canola and beef.
“At the end of the day, we’re an exporter of water, and that’s a lot of water,” Fennell told a Alberta Irrigation Projects Association meeting Nov. 29.
Japan, the United States, Mexico, China, Iran and Indonesia are the recipients of most of Alberta’s virtual water.
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In contrast, he said the province imports less than one billion cubic metres from other parts of the world.
The Council of Canadians pegs Canada’s virtual water exports at 95 billion cubic metres annually and its imports at nearly 35 billion cubic metres.
In a report earlier this year, the council said irrigation agriculture in Alberta is a problem because it has two percent of the country’s water supply, uses two-thirds of it for irrigation and exports much of it through goods.
Roger Gibbins, president of the Canada West Foundation, looks at virtual water another way.
Given mounting concerns about food security, he suggests virtual water is Canada’s contribution to remedy shortages in other countries.
“We’re not going to export water to Darfur, to India or other places, but we can export the food we produce, so we can build a virtual case of how we’re trying to address climatic challenges and water challenges in other parts of the world by growing the stuff here and shipping it out,” Gibbins said in an interview at the AIPA conference.
He noted growing moral pressure to conserve water worldwide but added that conservation in Canada has no real impact on the rest of the world.
“If we can put more agricultural land into production, if we can be more efficient, that’s our contribution. We’re being kicked around so much for not contributing to world challenges, this is really an opportunity to do something.”
That doesn’t excuse irrigators from working to improve water use efficiency, said Gibbons.
As the major user of agricultural water, irrigators have to demonstrate efficient use.
