The importance of water
 

Water has a vital role for living beings because all living beings need water for their lives. Without water, life is not possible. Almost 50-60 percentage of human body consists of water and major part of plants and animals consist of water as well. Water exists in three faces which are solid, liquid and gas but existence of living beings depend on the liquid face of water.  Water fulfils very important functions in living beings such as carrying energy and materials to the cells for their reparation. Moreover, water is the major component of 

photosynthesis. The role of water in economy is as same as its role in the existence of living beings. For instance, the cheapest transportation is water transportation. Most civilizations located by the sides of sea, river and lake because water transportation is the cheapest way for the transportation of goods and services. Furthermore, water plays significant role for both fossil energy resources (oil, gas and coal) and renewable energy resources (hydroelectric, industrial plants). Likewise, growth of animals depends on water as well. 

 

There is a concept called “virtual water” which means how much water is required for producing something. For instance, producing one kilogram of wheat requires 1, 16 ton (1160 kg) water. Furthermore, it requires 13,5 ton water to produce one kilogram of beef, 1,4 ton water to produce rice, 2,75 ton water to produce one kilogram of soy bean, 4,1 ton water for fowl, 2,7 ton water for egg and 0,79 ton water for milk. However, we need no water to produce fish. New nutrition policies have to be evaluated by considering these figures. For instance, in American style nutrition which is more beef-centric, 5, 4 m3 water is needed per capita in one day, however,  1 m3 water is required per capita in one day to survive. Besides, in vegetarian style nutrition, 2,6 m3 water is needed in one day. American style nutrition needs 1971 m3 water for one person in one year and it is much more than that of Turkey. If everbody begins to be nourished in American style in Turkey which has an increasing population, the current water potential will not be enough for people to be nourished. Furthermore, it is not enough for the world, too. Therefore, we can not be nourished in American style and we should consider these evaluations to create new nutrition policies.