Thanks for the nice post. I do agree with the criticality, but I question your data about agricultural use of water. Have a look at our review https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/challenges-water-waste-climate-change-cities-kees-van-leeuwen?trk=prof-post and especially this part: Hoekstra et al. (2012) estimate that agriculture accounts for 92 % of the global blue water footprint. Land, energy and climate studies have shown that the livestock sector plays a substantial role in deforestation, biodiversity loss and climate change. Livestock also significantly contributes to humanity’s water footprint, water pollution and water scarcity (Jalava et al. 2014; Hoekstra 2014). Furthermore, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) estimates that 32 % of all food produced in the world was lost or wasted in 2009 (Lipinski et al. 2013; FAO 2011a).Therefore, consumers, i.e. citizens, can play a major role in the reduction in the global water footprint by both reducing the fraction of animal products in their diets and by curbing their food waste.

Published May 3, 2016 10:38 by Kees Van Leeuwen, Chief Science Officer & Professor in Water Management and Urban Development