Seeing “invisible water”: challenging conceptions of water for agriculture, food and human security

Climate change and variability combined with increasing population shape a discourse of “water crisis”, with a heavy emphasis on scarcity, particularly in the Global South. The primary metric used is freshwater availability, defined as annually available surface and groundwater. We challenge the accuracy of this metric and introduce the concepts of green water and virtual water. Applied to the case of cotton production in Uzbekistan, we show that there is enough water and land for food security for all. Shortages are most often the result of decision making based on narrow economic criteria rather than satisfaction of basic human needs.