The amount of water used for needs of the national economy and population which is drawn from own intakes, water supply network or purchased from other units.

In the statistic it is the sum of water consumption for the purposes of:

• industry - water consumed for production, operational, social, administrative purposes (except for water supplied to residential buildings, eg. plant buildings) excluding water sold and losses in water network;
• agriculture and forestry - water consumed is water withdrawn for irrigation in agriculture and forestry as well as for filling and completing fishponds;
• exploitation of water supply network - water delivered to households, individual farms, residents of lon-term collective accomodation facilities (dormitories, orphanages, nursing homes, monasteries etc.), entrepreneurs and manufacturing plants in all sectors of the national economy - whether it was used for production or social and living purposes (eg. in bathhouse, canteens, office buildings) and other purposes.