Biofuels ‘could cause serious water shortages’

The race to increase the percentage of bio-diesel used in cars around the world could create serious water shortages and pollution problems in the US, China and India, according to two independent studies released this week.

Plans to massively expand the amount of green ethanol manufactured from crops such as maize and sugar-cane will cut carbon emissions but also aggravate water shortages and drive up the prices of food for the world’s poor, researchers warn.

The first report, from the Colombo-based International Water Management Institute, (IWWI) singled out India and China, which already suffer from chronic water shortages in some areas, the two countries that could be worst affected.

“Domestic production of bio-fuels derived from crops will put greater stress on these countries’ water supplies, seriously undermining their ability to meet future food and feed demands,” said Charlotte de Fraiture, lead author of the IWMI study.

China has already announced plans to quadruple its bio-diesel production by 2020 to 15 billion litres, but would need to increase maize output by 26 per cent to meet that target. India has similarly ambitious plans based on sugarcane production.

However the IWMI, a group of 100 scientists from 16 countries, calculated that it required 2,400 litres of irrigation water to produce a single litre of ethanol from maize in China and 3,500 litres from irrigated Indian sugarcane.

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Source: The Telegraph

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