What is more important than oil?

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: Approximately, it takes 2.5litres of water to produce a litre of petrol, 1,000 litres to make one litre of biofuel, 2,700 litres to make one cotton T-shirt, and 4,000 litres to produce 1kg of wheat These astounding statistics were offered early this year in an article coauthored by the chairmen of Nestlé and the World Economic Forum. The Forum itself devoted no less than nine sessions to the emerging water challenge. Their thrust: water is the oil of the 21st century. It’s getting scarce and expensive, even as global industry now needs its lubrication more than ever.

And now, with consumers cutting on oil consumption, reports are trickling in from various corners of the world where water has become more expensive than oil. Back-of-the envelope calculations have proved the trend in India, if only after factoring away all but the basic costs for oil and accounting only for bottled water prices. Australia has reported a similar drift in December.

Unlike oil, however, there are no alternatives to water, no substitutes that science promises to deliver in the future. What it can do is help improve efficiencies. Nestlé, for example, cut its water consumption by 29% between 1997-2006. More interestingly, the food volumes produced by the company almost doubled during this period.