Components and drivers of household water footprint inequality in China

Abstract

A comprehensive investigation of household water footprint inequality components and internal drivers is the prerequisite for equal water availability. This paper applied the input-output model to depict household blue and grey water footprint and decomposed the sources of household water inequality and the internal drivers of its changes in China from 2002 to 2012. Results indicated that the average household water footprint has decreased by about 8.52 %, mainly due to the reduction in household direct grey water footprint during the period. Household grey water footprint is distributed more unevenly in households, and indirect grey water footprint from food, clothing, and residence composed more than 80 % of the overall inequality. From 2002 to 2012, the household water Gini coefficient increased from 0.285 to 0.286. The structural changes in household water footprint offset most of the increasing pressure caused by the actual inequality changes in household water footprint. Specifically, structural changes in household water footprint from “necessities” made the overall inequality decrease by 0.015, while the “luxury” counterparts made a positive contribution by 0.009. Notably, clothing, and transport and communication services contributed most to the overall inequality increase, most of which is neutralized by that from residence.