The Energy-Freshwater Nexus

Humanity has created an inter-dependency between water and energy that would be impossible to take apart. The most recent example of this inter-dependency are the recent blackouts in India.
600+ million people without electricity

Auto traffic at a standstill
Source - geekosystem.com

Candle light for a haircut
Source - theaustralian.com.au

While the causes of the blackouts of July 2012 are still being determined, a root cause has been suggested: "... northern states may have been drawing more than their allocated power quota to help stricken farmers pump groundwater from bore wells ..." (The Financial Times dated 30 July 2012).  This large and unprecedented demand for ground water was fueled by a large monsoon deficit.
Hydropower

Tehri Hydroelectric Power station - India's largest
Source - wikipedia.org

Freshwater is also the fuel for 19% of India's electric power supply.
As in most parts of the world, the first electric power generating station in India was also a hydroelectric station commissioned in 1897.
This nearly one-fifth of India's electricity generating capacity requires reservoirs of freshwater which, in July 2012, dropped to just 24% of their capacity.


Water Consumption for Different Energy Fuels

Source - World Economic Forum

• Minimal water is consumed in production of traditional oil and gas resources - 3 to 7 liters/GJ   (GJ=gigajoule)
• Enhanced oil recovery require 50-9000 liters/GJ
• Oil sands require 70-1,800 liters/GJ
• Petroleum refining requires 25-65 liters/GJ
• Unconventional gas resources require 36-56 liters/GJ
• Corn grown for bio-fuels require 9,000-100,000 liters/GJ
• Soy grown for bio-fuels require 50,000 - 270,000 liters/GJ
• Coal mining requires 5-75 liters/GJ
• etc

Energy production is water-intensive just like water production is now energy-intensive

A Common Remedy for Differing Freshwater Consumption?

The most commonly quoted global statistic is that 70% of the world's freshwater is used in agriculture, 22% to make the industrial (i.e. non-agricultural) goods we cannot do without, and 8% for residential and personal use by people. What this statistic is missing is that this global breakdown is not the situation in any country
How Freshwater is Actually Used

Source - Scientific American.com

From the accompanying chart it does indeed appear that the global segmentation of 70%-22%-8% for agriculture-industry-residential is quite correct but the segmentation of individual countries is quite different. 
The only point of agreement might be that, generally speaking, the major users of freshwater do consume the most in the agricultural industry and the least in peoples' home.
Some conclusions:
- China and India, the countries with the largest numbers of people, do use the most water as could be expected. The US is the third larger user of freshwater in the world
- Nigeria, the last country in the top 10 list, seems to consume nearly all its freshwater to grow food, with tiny amounts spent on personal and industrial needs.
"Virtual Water" Exporters and Importers
Virtual water is defined as the amount of water consumed to create a product that is exported or imported. The exporter if the product is labelled an exported of virtual water while the importer of the product is known as an importer of virtual water. Some interesting conclusions:
- The US, an extremely large consumer of freshwater measured in terms of "per capita consumption" is also a large exporter of virtual water through all the food stuff it exports
- Japan, a consumer of small amounts of freshwater, is the largest importer of virtual water.
Resolving the Freshwater Crisis
Recognizing the different ways individual countries consume their water, implies that a different remedy may be required for each countries' specific situation. This conclusion must, however, be balanced against the "time" it will take to develop and deploy all the many necessary solutions.
Would it not be ideal if we could all pool our resources to develop a solution applicable to everyone?
Making this point again using different words:
- What is the equivalent of the "cell phone" for the freshwater industry?
or,
- What, in the freshwater industry can lead to the same result as the cell phone did in the personal communications industry, namely, hook the 60%+ people who had no hope of getting a land-line connection in their lifetime, but got connected using wireless technology embedded in the mobile handset!