American Journal of Engineering Research (AJER) 2016 American Journal of Engineering Research (AJER) e-ISSN: 2320-0847 p-ISSN : 2320-0936 Volume-5, Issue-7, pp-169-175 www.ajer.org Research Paper Open Access www.ajer.org Page 169 Environmental Assessment on the Operative Mode of Tanneries And Brickfields In India Using Water Footprint Tool Zareena Begum Irfan a,* and Mohana Mondal b a, Associate Professor, Centre of Excellence in Environmental Economics, Madras School of Economics, Gandhi Mandapam Road, Chennai – 600025, Tamil Nadu, India b Research Associate, Centre of Excellence in Environmental Economics, Madras School of Economics, Gandhi Mandapam Road, Chennai – 600025, Tamil Nadu, India ABSTRACT: Humanity relies on ecosystem products and services .These products and services include resources, waste absorptive capacity, and space to host urban infrastructure. Careful management of human interaction with the biosphere is essential to ensure future prosperity and sustainable development. Regenerative capacity and waste absorbing capacity of the environment has to be taken into account in order to pave way for progress in a sustainable manner. The National Footprint Accounts includes the supply and demand sides of the ecology along with prevailing historical trends and aim to provide ways that may be applied across countries over time. “Water footprint” means the amount of water used by a household or a country, or the amount used for a given task or for the production of a given quantity of some product or crop. The term “water footprint” is often used to refer to the amount of water used by an individual, community, business, or nation. The water footprint of a product is the volume of freshwater used to produce the product, measured over the full supply chain. It includes the water used directly (e.g., from a tap) and also indirectly. It also includes the water it took to produce the food we eat, the products we buy, the energy we consume and even the water we save when we recycle. We may not drink, feel or see this virtual water, but it makes up the majority of our water footprint. The concept of „„virtual water‟‟ deserves special mention in this regard. Virtual water trade refers to the hidden flow of water if food or other commodities are traded from one place to another. The concept of virtual water enables us to realize how much water is needed to produce different goods and services. Water footprint is a multidimensional indicator, showing water consumption volumes by source and by type of pollution; all components of a total water footprint are specified geographically and temporally. The issue of water scarcity in India is getting serious day-by-day. Water scarcity is fast becoming urban India's number one woe, with government's own data revealing that residents in 22 out of 32 major cities have to deal with daily shortages. In this paper the authors calculate the water footprint in Indian brick manufacturing industry and leather industry to assess their water intensity. Keyword: tanneries, brick field, virtual water, water footprint, water intensity, direct indirect impacts. JEL CODES: P-28, Q-25, Q-29, Q-50, Q-53, Q-56, Q-57, Q-59 I. INTRODUCTION Humanity relies on ecosystem products and services .These products and services include resources, waste absorptive capacity, and space to host urban infrastructure. Human demand has well exceeded the levels of regenerative and absorptive capacity of the biosphere which is evident from the present scenario of environmental degradations like deforestation, collapsing fisheries, accumulation of carbon dioxide in the environment in excess amount leading to global warming. Careful management of human interaction with the biosphere is essential to ensure future prosperity and sustainable development. Regenerative capacity and waste absorbing capacity of the environment has to be taken into account in order to pave way for progress in a sustainable manner. The National Footprint Accounts includes the supply and demand sides of the ecology along with prevailing historical trends and aim to provide ways that may be applied across countries over time. ―Water footprint‖ means the amount of water used by a household or a country, or the amount used for a given task or for the production of a given quantity of some product or crop. The term ―water footprint‖ is often used to refer to the amount of water used by an individual, community, business, or nation. The water footprint of a