Rethinking the
food-energy-water nexus and a low water economy
In the water sector, the food-energy-water nexus is slowly
replacing the concept of Integrated Water
Resources Management. The idea of the nexus essentially gained momentum in
the business community after the “food and energy crises” in 2007 and 2008. In
a very paradoxical way, this was the first time that the business community,
essentially through the World Economic Forum, came to realise the limits to
growth.
The nexus is therefore about managing the relationship between
food, water and energy security. Integrated water resource management was more
land and ecosystem-led. Of course, there are different ways of managing this
relationship but a number of key actors, including The World Bank, World
Economic Forum and most donors and international organisations have been looking at water storage as a site of control for
managing food and energy needs.
Storage is also seen as a way to manage water in the face of climate-related
uncertainties.
We need plural systems, we need to provide space for innovation
Considering the nexus of food, energy and water has helped dam
building to come back to the forefront of the political agenda by focusing on
water storage, and has driven a new STEPS centre project exploring dams as a pathway to
sustainability.
Big dams were indeed side-lined for a few years following the
recommendation of the World Commission on Dams, but are now seen as a ‘clean
energy’ option within the green economy paradigm. However, storage solutions
should not be limited to dam building: there is a diversity of pathways that
exist. Natural wetlands, enhanced soil moisture, groundwater aquifers, ponds
and tanks, or small dams or reservoirs; all these make the water storage
continuum.
Many specialists, especially in International Water Management Institute,
have proposed the idea of the continuum but it has never been applied to
concrete projects. There is perhaps a need to move away in the policy world
from multipurpose projects - which have largely failed - to
multipurpose systems - and this idea of storage
continuum.
The key problem is that aiming for optimal use and project
conception does not allow space for more innovative solutions to take place.
Dam optimization is about narrowing down to one single solution which does not
allow for broad participation. While optimization may lead to one preferred
solution, it also creates considerable risks. Diverse spontaneous policy
solutions are needed to manage water in a time of risk and uncertainty.
Pathways to sustainability and a low-water economy
While the food-energy-water nexus needs to consider multiple
solutions to storage systems, and while clumsy solutions may provide a risk
mitigation strategy compared to optimization, would these provide the way
forward to a pathway to sustainability?
Given that there are underlying tensions between sustainability
and growth, it is a time to reflect on the growth issue from a low economy
water perspective.
As Ramaswamy
R. Iyer, former Water Resources Secretary in the Government of India, stated at a recent JNU STEPS Symposium: “A ‘low water economy’ may mean a ‘water-efficient economy’ - up
to a point.
But beyond that it will have to mean a ‘low demand economy’ or a
‘low consumption economy”.
Overall, the nexus masks the bigger debate, which really lies
around resource sustainability and growth. World Water Day 2014 provides a
timely opportunity to reflect on the need for a ‘low water economy’.
By Jeremy Allouche. Dr Allouche is an IDS Fellow and member of the IDS Water
Justice Programme and the STEPS
Centre.
