Abstract:
Ceylon Tea takes a unique place in the global market. Freshwater availability is essential
for tea productivity as a determinant factor (Hajiboland,2017). As a result, the entire supply
chain of tea production generates both direct and indirect water impacts on freshwater
resources. The main purpose of this study is to quantify the virtual water footprint of black
tea from tea cultivation up to packaging based on low-country regions. All relevant
calculations to quantify the water footprint of black tea comply with the recommendations
of the water footprint assessment manual in 2012 developed by Water Footprint Network.
CROPWAT 8.0 model under irrigation schedule option is used to quantify crop water use
of tea crop during tea cultivation. This study revealed that 7963.33 liters of rain water are
required to produce 1kg of fresh tea leaves in the tea estate. As per the findings, the total
water footprint of black tea is 44,171.55l/kg, with the composition of 87.25% of green
water, 0.01% of blue water, and 12.74% grey water. Further, a larger fraction of the water
footprint of black tea (99.96%) goes to tea cultivation, and remain fraction goes to tea
processing (0.01%) and packaging (0.03%). Therefore, the fraction of indirect water
footprint (99.99%) is much higher than the direct water footprint (0.01%) of black tea.
Further, the month of March and December can be seen as a significant variation of the
virtual water footprint of black tea. Based on the findings of the study, when made tea
production increased 1kg it is expected to decrease per unit water footprint of black tea by
0.856 liters. Further, there is a significant difference in average water consumption of black
tea in cultivation compared to tea processing and packaging. This study has identified tea
cultivation as an environmental hotspot based on the water scarcity index. Therefore, it is
recommended that suitable crop and land management practices should be implemented in
tea estates to improve land productivity in order to reduce per unit water footprint of black
tea. According to this study, Sri Lanka is virtually exporting 44,171.55 liters of freshwater
whenever 1kg of black tea is exported, and it generates economic benefit through the main
use of rainwater which has a low opportunity cost.
