Water: Characteristics
Why salt and location, not chemistry, set water's value
Why salt and location, not chemistry, set water's value What this tab covers The supply and physical characteristics of the commodity. Supply: current production, inventories and stocks, capacity utilisation, geographic and producer concentration, how fast supply responds to price, the project pipeline and capital spending, and logistics and export flows. Material: the physical and chemical properties that set its grade, price and end uses (for example purity and conductivity for metals, API gravity, sulfur and energy content for fuels, moisture, protein and fibre quality for crops).Supply volume characteristics
| Characteristic | Figure | What it means | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Current production volume | 3,855 km³ freshwater withdrawals (2022); 3,851 km³ in 2015 | Agriculture took 71%, industry 15% and municipal uses 13%. India (647.5 km³), China (568.5 km³, 2020 value carried forward) and the United States (444.3 km³) were the largest users. Desalination supplies under 1% of withdrawals. | FAO AQUASTAT Water Data Snapshot 2025; IEA 'Wired for water' |
| Inventory and stock levels | not published globally; reservoirs, aquifers, snowpack and glaciers are the working stocks | Renewable freshwater was 5,326 m³ per person in 2022, down 7% since 2015 (FAO). India's annual extractable groundwater is 408 bcm, of which 247 bcm (60.6%) is extracted each year (CGWB 2025). Southern Murray-Darling storages saw a 5,023 GL in-season drawdown in 2024-25, the largest in over two decades (Ricardo). India's Central Water Commission publishes weekly reservoir storage. | FAO 2025; CGWB 2025; Ricardo 2025 |
| Capacity utilisation | not published as a utilisation rate; India's stage of groundwater extraction 60.63% (2025); world water stress 18% (2022) | The closest measures compare use with renewable supply. SDG 6.4.2 water stress was 18% for the world, 66% for India and 110% for Pakistan in 2022 (FAO). In India, 10.8% of 6,762 groundwater assessment units are over-exploited and 3.0% critical (CGWB). | FAO AQUASTAT 2025; CGWB 2025 |
| Geographic and producer concentration | India 16.8%, China 14.7%, US 11.5%; top-3 about 43%; HHI about 740 (2022, all countries, calculated) | Withdrawals follow population and irrigated land, so use is unconcentrated. Ownership is fragmented too: most supply is run by public utilities and farmers. Large private operators include Veolia (110 million people supplied) and Suez (67 million). | FAO AQUASTAT 2025 (HHI computed); company reports 2025 |
| Supply elasticity | low short-run (set by rain, storage and allocation rules); medium long-run (desalination, reuse and efficiency at higher energy cost) | In a drought supply cannot be raised quickly, so traded prices jump, as California's NQH2O did to $1,282 per acre-foot in September 2022. Over years, new dams, transfers and desalination plants add supply; seawater RO needs 2.5-6 kWh/m³ (IEA). | Nasdaq via FRED; IEA 'Wired for water' |
| Project pipeline and CapEx | desalination expansion in MENA; utility capital plans: United Utilities about GBP 11.5 billion (AMP8, 2025-30), American Water Works USD 46-48 billion over 10 years | Morocco aims to supply 60% of drinking water from desalination by 2030, up from 25% in 2025, and a Jordan plant is due to supply 40% of drinking water by 2029 (IEA). Acciona completed Shuqaiq 4 in Saudi Arabia to serve 3.5 million people. India's Jal Jeevan Mission is the main public rural programme. | IEA; United Utilities FY2025/26; American Water Works 10-K FY2025; Acciona (2026) |
| Logistics and export flows | almost all water is used in its own basin; virtual water trade about 2,320 km³ a year (1996-2005) | Physical transfers run through canals and pipes, such as China's 1,232 km South-North middle route (over 80 billion m³ moved in 12 years). Long pumped transfers use about 0.79 kWh/m³. Trade mostly happens as water embodied in crops and goods. Bottled water (HS 2201) is a small branded trade. | CGTN 2026; IFI TWG 2020; Hoekstra and Mekonnen 2012, PNAS 109(9) |
Material characteristics Water / renewable natural resource
Water's commercial value depends on its quality and location, not on its chemistry as H2O. Salinity, hardness and contaminants decide whether it can be drunk, used to irrigate or fed to boilers, and how much treatment it needs. Its weight, one tonne per cubic metre, makes it very costly to move far, which is why water markets are local.
| Property | Value / specification | Why it matters | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Density and bulk | about 1,000 kg per m³; 1 acre-foot = 1,233.5 m³ | Heavy and low-value, so pumping and transport set delivered cost | physical constant; NQH2O pricing unit (CME) |
| Total dissolved solids (salinity) | Drinking water (India): acceptable 500 mg/L, permissible 2,000 mg/L if no other source; seawater about 35,000 mg/L (indicative) | Sets treatment route: brackish RO is far cheaper than seawater RO (0.95-1.94 vs 4.0 kWh/m³, IFI TWG) | BIS IS 10500:2012; IFI TWG AHSA-004 (2020) |
| Salinity for irrigation (electrical conductivity) | no restriction below 0.7 dS/m; severe restriction above 3.0 dS/m (indicative) | Salty water cuts yields and salinises soils | FAO Irrigation and Drainage Paper 29, Ayers and Westcot 1985 (indicative) |
| Fluoride | India: acceptable 1.0 mg/L, permissible 1.5 mg/L; WHO guideline 1.5 mg/L | Excess causes fluorosis; a key problem in Indian groundwater (39 of 584 Bihar samples exceeded limits in 2025) | BIS IS 10500:2012; WHO Guidelines for Drinking-water Quality; CGWB Annual Ground Water Quality Report 2025 |
| Arsenic | WHO provisional guideline 0.01 mg/L (10 µg/L); India acceptable limit also 0.01 mg/L | Toxic at low doses; affects aquifers in the Ganga-Brahmaputra plains | WHO Guidelines for Drinking-water Quality; BIS IS 10500:2012 |
| Nitrate | India limit 45 mg/L (no relaxation); WHO guideline 50 mg/L (as nitrate) | Comes from fertiliser and sewage; 78 of 584 Bihar samples exceeded limits in 2025 | BIS IS 10500:2012; WHO Guidelines for Drinking-water Quality; CGWB Annual Ground Water Quality Report 2025 |
| Hardness (as CaCO3) | India: acceptable 200 mg/L, permissible 600 mg/L | Causes scale in boilers, pipes and membranes, raising industrial treatment cost | BIS IS 10500:2012 |