Abstract
20% of world population face the risk of disease and death due to the lack of access to healthy drinking water. A certain portion of water resources can no longer be used because of being polluted while some other parts pose danger for public health because of substructure incapacity. Water footprint is a remarkably crucial concept in terms of sustainable water management. Within the context of this study, consumption habits of university students and related changes in water footprint values have been investigated. Water Footprint Survey has been administered to participant university students and water footprint profiles of the students have been designed based on water footprint values computed according to survey results. At the end of the conducted analyses in Istanbul University-Cerrahpasa Avcilar Campus, mean annual rate of water footprint per person has been computed as 1848.78 m3 for students. Components of this water footprint has been designated as; green water footprint 1329 m3/per person/year, blue water footprint 199 m3/per person/year, grey water footprint 320.78 m3/per person/year. In addition, by transferring the data attained from surveys to IBM SPSS environment, presence and/or absence of a significant relationship between variables has been analyzed. It was then observed that parallel to the rise in students' income level a corresponding climb emerged in general water footprint.
Highlights
Water resources are being depleted by every new day and there has been a resultant increase in the number of societies facing water scarcity
Water footprints of the participants based on age are as shown in Figure 1 (Green, blue, grey water footprints and total water footprints)
According to Falkenmark Index Turkey is not a water rich country but rather a country stricken with water stress
Summary
Water resources are being depleted by every new day and there has been a resultant increase in the number of societies facing water scarcity. Under these circumstances “Ecologic Footprint”, “Water Footprint” have gained wider acclaim as the concepts vital to prevent uncontrolled consumption of natural resources critical for living beings and essential to form a sustainable environment approach. As of 2017-dated statistics issued by the State Hydraulic Works in Turkey, per person rate of fresh water resource is estimated around 1386 m3. According to this Index, Turkey is a country challenged with water stress. Under the heading of “Water Stress”, it is projected that with a population expected to reach 100 million until 2023 there will be 1120 m3/per year left per person; by the year 2050 Turkey will be a country facing “water scarcity”(TKSB, 2019)
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