Abstract: In developed and developing nations household water consumption increased exponentially during the last and present century; the same can be said of the individual water footprint of each inhabitant. The most worrisome part is not individual households and personal consumption, but the collective, aggregate, ones. There are nations in grave overshoot not only considering their total water resources and real availability, but also considering many other critical inputs for life, as food, energy, and climate. Some people trust that technology and international trade treatises will always save the day and avoid serious stresses and conflicts. History and present evidences in many places contradict those premises and hopes. So called efficient and whatever-saving technology should be always tested against a series of requisites for real efficiency. A decalogue for such efficiency conditions is ahead of the traditional (light, superficial) requisites, which have only caused more consumption instead of real resources savings; as long ago was expressed by the Jevon's paradox, and more recently also demonstrated on the Khazzoom–Brookes postulate.

There is no paper for this media entry. This was a contribution to a scientific session at the 4th International Degrowth Conference in Leipzig in 2014, which doesn't exist in written format or is not published under open access.