Water, energy, and food – this “nexus” of interrelated resource issues continues to garner attention from analysts, policymakers, and the media. Over the next four decades global population is projected to increase to about 9.6 billion and, worldwide, demand for water is projected to increase 55 percent; energy, 80 percent; and food, 60 percent. In a new video about the first of a series of workshops on this nexus, the International Union for Conservation on Nature and the International Water Association explain how they are working to bring together private and public sector water infrastructure experts from across Africa and the world to build partnerships and create some consensus on a “nexus-based approach” to managing scarce resources.

The first regional Nexus Dialogue on Water Infrastructure Solutions took place in May in Nairobi, Kenya.

According to a 2010 report by the Kenya Food Security Steering Group, about 45 percent of slum-dwellers in Nairobi have no access to safe drinking water or food, and over 30 percent of Kenya’s population is food insecure, exacerbating the need to manage water resources effectively.

Between 60 and 70 percent of the active labor force in sub-Saharan Africa is employed in the agricultural sector, and as climate change presses on, soaring temperatures are expected to increase water scarcity and threaten yields. Africa also generates one-third of its electricity from hydropower, and the UN estimated in 2012 that with better cross-border cooperation, hydropower could actually meet the continent’s entire electricity needs.

However, environmental changes could hinder that potential. A 2012 International Water Management Institute (IWMI) report, for example, projects that temperatures will increase by 3.6 degrees Celsius in West Africa’s River Volta Basin, one of Africa’s five largest rivers, over the next century and reduced rainfall could see water flows decrease by 24 percent in 2050 and 45 percent in 2100. Such a water loss could deprive millions in the region of food and hydropower.

Water Infrastructure Solutions

The two premises of the nexus conference were: 1) that these sectors – water, energy, and food – are intricately connected; and 2) that nations must approach management of them in an integrated way.

Participants in the Nexus Dialogue discussed the Lake Victoria, Niger, Orange Senqu, Pangani, and Tana basins specifically. Some of the solutions proposed revolved around strategic water storage while continuing to use the rivers for hydropower. Another solution devised for keeping water sources clean was to use agricultural waste to add “bio-gas” to the energy mix, keeping it out of rivers while contributing to the grid. The conference also put forth a plan to preserve the biodiversity and ecosystem services of Kenya’s Lake Naivasha Basin, recognizing the importance of the basin’s natural integrity for people’s livelihoods.

Participants emphasized the importance of working with the private sector to increase sustainable practices, particularly in upgrading infrastructure, introducing newer and more efficient technologies for irrigation, and increasing water storage capacity.

To Bogotá and Bangkok

“Integrated resource planning is the future,” says Joseph Magochi of the East Africa Power Pool (EAPP), an attendee of the conference, in the video. “When you are planning for power like EAPP, we have to consider the implications it will have over the entire population in terms of food security, in terms of water availability, and in terms of the energy that will be required to make that possible.”

Matthew McCartney of IWMI notes that, in the future, he hopes the forum will include more discussion of the importance of ecosystem services:

I think the thing that’s maybe lacking from the nexus thinking, or is not made explicit, is actually the environment and ecosystem services, and I think this somehow needs to be incorporated into the way we plan and manage…My personal belief is that ecosystem services should be the integrating factor and that consideration of built infrastructure…should be integrated more closely with the natural benefits that also come from natural infrastructure, so for me that’s what needs to be brought into the dialogue in a more explicit way.

Of course, water scarcity and water insecurity are not unique to Africa, and the Nexus Dialogue organizers are planning two other regional workshops for Latin America and Asia. The second regional workshop will take place in Bogotá, Colombia, this September, while the third will take place in Bangkok, Thailand, in November. An international conference is also in the works, with the location presently undetermined.

As the workshops move to new regions and new challenges, it will be interesting to see how this brand of water-heavy “nexus thinking” evolves and deals with a multitude of unique challenges worldwide.

Video Credit: “Nexus Dialogue on Water Infrastructure Solutions: Nairobi Workshop,” courtesy of IUCN.