Meat-hungry Hongkongers told to curb appetite to address ballooning ‘water footprint’
Adopting healthier diet could slash city’s global water consumption impact by 40 per cent, EU study finds
Hong Kong – one of Asia’s biggest per capita users of fresh water – could slash its “water footprint” by 40 per cent simply through healthier diets with less meat and sugar, a new study has found.
Eating more in line with national recommended guidelines would benefit public health while alleviating global pressure on fresh water and food security, given that over 90 per cent of the city’s food is imported, the researchers contend.
“The food consumption behaviour of Hong Kong is very different from that of the average mainland Chinese,” said Davy Vanham of the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre, the lead author of the study.
“Hong Kong people live in a heavily urbanised environment. People are on average richer and eat more Western diets, which contain more meat, livestock products, fats, fish, sugar and processed foods.”
The city’s direct water use from the taps is now about 326 litres per capita per day. However, if indirect water use related to food consumption is accounted for, the entire water footprint balloons to 4,727 litres per capita per day, the study found.