4. The Water-Energy-Food Nexus: Part 1

In my last two blog posts (link and link) I have focused upon the colonial legacy of water rights in Africa and its implications for food, water and development. Presently, the conclusions I can draw about this nexus in Africa are that asymmetric power relationships, which inform the allocation of water resources, serve as a significant obstacle to food facilitating development. Consequently, in this blog I would like to further explore these dynamics in the context of transboundary river basins and how the water-energy-food nexus (WEF Nexus) provides a conceptual tool for overcoming these embedded power dynamics and their subsequent impacts upon development. 

Transboundary river basins are defined as crossing the boundaries of two/or more countries. There are two opposing principles which characterize a nation’s use of transboundary river basins. The first is territorial sovereignty, taken from the Haden doctrine, which stipulates that a nation has absolute right over the water that passes through it. The second is riverine integrity, which states that every riparian is entitled to the natural flow of a river system crossing its borders.  Transboundary river basins are of particular importance in Africa, as a consequence of its geography ‘71 transboundary aquifers cover 42% of the continent and 30% of the population’ (Altchenko & Villholth. 2013: 1479). The actions of nations sharing transboundary river basins, as a result, can have profound effects upon food as a diminished flow limits a downstream riparian’s capacity for food production. Furthermore, as outlined in previous blogs food insecurity is a significant barrier to development. 

The current approach to managing water resources within transboundary river basins is state-centric and fragmented, often dealing with issues surrounding water, food and energy independently. The primary consequence of this is a lack of cooperation within transboundary river basins and analytical tools that often yield limited evaluations of the implications of development schemes upon other aspects of water use in the basin. For example, a development scheme intended to provide hydropower for a nation may not provide a clear enough representation of this scheme’s impacts on water, thus food and thus development. Presently it is precisely ‘the failure of fragmented management of the different WEF sectors has led to the emergence of the Water-Energy-Food nexus (WEF nexus) thinking which promotes an integrated and systematic approach for managing WEF (Basheer, M. 2018: 1310)

Consequently, the adoption of WEF nexus thinking within international development may prove a valuable systematic approach in overcoming the obstacle of asymmetric power dynamics. This being attributable to its capacity to consider multiple facets of water, energy and food across space. More pertinently for this blog it is argued that ‘through a WEF Nexus perspective, benefit-sharing options can be extended to key sectors such as agriculture and energy’ (Al-Saidi & Hefney, A. 2018: 822). Moreover, that a WEF nexus approach means ‘synergies can be created, and trade-offs avoided, resulting in the acceleration of sustainable development’ (Terrapon-Pfaff. 2018: 410). 

As a result, theoretically, the WEF nexus approach serves as a valuable system for approaching water, food and development in Africa. The WEF nexus can facilitate a consideration of multiple users with competing needs for water use, which is of particular pertinence in Africa given the high dependence upon transboundary water sources. Furthermore, having established the role of food as a vehicle for development a system that serves to extend considerations of water use to the agricultural sector consequently appears, theoretically, to offer an efficient way to achieve sustainable development. Thus, potentially being the optimum system for overcoming the current asymmetric power dynamics embedded in the allocation of water in Africa. 

I will revisit the WEF nexus in my next blog with specific reference to case studies where the WEF nexus has been incorporated in an attempt to provide a thorough overview of its practical application and potential results in Africa for water, food and development.