The story of the global textiles trade is, at its core, a story of water. From the cotton fields of South Asia to the polyester mills of China, dye houses and textile factories in Bangladesh, to the second-hand clothing markets of cities like Accra or Bucharest, every stage of the textile life cycle carries a water footprint – an indicator of the amount of water embedded in the production, trade, consumption and end of life of textiles.
It is also a story of a system that externalizes and obscures responsibility for the environmental and societal costs of textile production and waste. The impacts of water use, scarcity and pollution are highly visible where they occur, but are largely unseen – or disregarded – as products travel towards markets further along the value chain. This leaves consumers largely unaware of the hidden social, environmental and economic costs of the water needed to produce their clothing.
Among the textile industry’s many environmental challenges, water stands out as the most pressing. Textiles exert pressures on rivers, lakes and aquifers at multiple points along their life cycle, making their water footprint unusually complex and globally dispersed. Textile production consumes vast volumes of water at every stage: ‘green’ water from rainfall and soil moisture through natural fibre cultivation; ‘blue’ water from surface and groundwater used in irrigation, manufacturing, consumer use and recycling; and ‘grey’ water arising from pollution caused by fertilizers and pesticides used in agriculture and forestry, as well as untreated or inadequately treated wastewater generated during all life cycle stages. (See Box 2 for a fuller note on the terminology used in this paper.)
Global production of textile fibres has nearly quadrupled since 1975, and production per person has increased from 8.3 kilograms (kg) to 16.2 kg in 2024. Approximately 16 per cent of unsustainable water use and 11 per cent of groundwater depletion globally are embedded in global imports and exports. Impacts ripple across the value chain, and are increasing as markets – including for textiles – continue
to expand.
The consequences of these pressures are profound. Intensive water use and pollution deplete aquifers, contaminate rivers, lakes and coastal waters, and undermine access to safe drinking water and economic opportunities for communities living alongside textile processing and manufacturing clusters. Often, the resulting degradation disproportionately affects regions and people who are least able to respond and recover. The economic dividends arising from these water uses may also be inequitably distributed, with those who are most directly impacted by water consumption and pollution receiving relatively few direct benefits from the production and use of textiles.
This research paper makes the case that, across the textile industry, shifting towards sustainable, efficient and equitable production is vital for producing regions, and that this transition is inseparable from efforts to promote equity, good governance and resilience in both established and shifting supply chains. Using trade data and case studies, the research sets out to identify where water impacts are most acute across production, use, re-use and disposal of textiles, with a focus on three principal fibre types used in the textile industry: synthetics, cotton and man-made cellulosic fibres.
The textile industry employs around 90 million people worldwide, more than half of whom (some 55 per cent) are women. Textiles-related activities play a notable role in poverty alleviation and employment generation in many developing economies. In the case of cotton, for instance, UN studies have estimated that, on average, every tonne of cotton produced provides year-round employment for five people.
The industry has become emblematic of both immense opportunity and significant controversy. Persistent labour rights abuses, underscored by tragedies such as the Rana Plaza disaster in Bangladesh, have spurred efforts to improve workers’ safety. Simultaneously, environmental concerns have intensified with the rapid expansion of fast fashion and online retail, as accelerated production cycles and flexible return policies have introduced new complexities to global value chains in which fibres, finished goods and waste are traded across borders. The paper explores existing mandatory and voluntary measures developed to reduce the social and environmental costs of textile production, and presents examples of initiatives and best practices that can be replicated and expanded on. Recommendations are provided to address the governance gaps that leave the people and natural environment of producer countries and regions, together with onward supply chains and consumers, exposed to mounting water risks.
While trade can be an important tool for improving the overall efficiency of production, ensuring the sector’s water use is put on a more sustainable and equitable footing requires more than simple geographic shifts in production. It necessitates a fundamental reinvention – transforming the textile sector from an extraction-based model to one built on principles of fair water footprints and circularity. This requires engaging actors across the textile value chain to strengthen governance frameworks, bolster water security through effective use of trade levers and accelerate the implementation of technological innovations. Our research shows that the tools and precedents exist – what is urgently needed is the political and commercial will to apply them at scale.
