5. The Water-Energy-Food Nexus: Part 2

In my last blog I provided a brief introductory post to understanding the water-energy-food nexus (WEF Nexus) approach. The post also served to introduce the potential positive outcomes of incorporating this system into Africa’s water planning. These positive impacts were identified as a capacity to consider multiple facets of water use across transboundary sources, which are the predominant water resource in the continent. As a consequence of the WEF Nexus approach considering multiple facets of water use many argue that sustainable development stemming from preserving the agricultural sector is most likely to arise out of water projects that have assessed their impacts through a WEF Nexus system. As a result, in this post I wanted to outline some practical examples of where a WEF Nexus approach has been utilized, thus allowing me to outline the positive impacts of the WEF Nexus as well as the potential limitations that were uncovered in its practical application. 

Southern Africa is the region where the WEF Nexus has been most thoroughly assessed. As a consequence, research that evaluates the practical implementation of the approach often focuses upon Southern Africa as a whole as well as specific areas within the region. It has been previously established that the ‘cross-sectoral management of WEF resources is vital to achieving the SDGs as the WEF nexus approach is designed to integrate resource development in a coordinated manner’ (Dhesigen, N. 2018:10) and as a result the Southern Africa region has ‘produced the WEF Nexus Action Plan… due to the need to respond to the recurrence of drought in the region’ (Dhesigen, N. 2018:11). An outcome of the WEF Nexus Action Plan has been identifying that ‘the promotion and cultivation of indigenous underutilized crops that suit local harsh environmental conditions’ (Dhesigen, N. 2018: 9) is necessary to sustain development through the process of climate change in the region. Furthermore, in cultivating indigenous crops it is noted cultivating indigenous crops would allow for agricultural expansion… without increasing water withdrawals for agriculture which currently stands at 70% of available water resources’ (Dhesigen, N. 2018: 9). This consideration for not increasing water withdrawals demonstrates the utility of the WEF Nexus approach to ensuring sustainable development through agriculture. Whilst it has been identified that within this region a shift must occur in agricultural practices in order to meet and satisfy the sustainable development goals the WEF Nexus approach also ensures that water as a resource will still be available to other sectors. Thus, demonstrating the merits of the WEF Nexus’ practical implementation. 

Furthermore, the WEF Nexus approach has also had positive impacts in the Karoo Region of Southern Africa where it was employed and evaluated at a more local level. The principal reason behind this specific local area being evaluated through a WEF Nexus approach is the fact it has attracted ‘serious interest for extracting unconventional energy sources such as shale gas or coalbed methane’ (Olalade, O. 2017: 135) However, the Karoo Region presently faces severe constraints on its water infrastructure and the water intensive processes used to extract energy from these sources would have profound effects upon the agricultural sector of the Karoo Region. In using a WEF Nexus approach these impacts were uncovered and subsequently ‘the integration of irrigation and nutrient (nitrogen) inputs in food production was successful at increasing milk yields by improving pasture conditions’ (Olalade, O. 2017: 137) occurred meaning that the impacts of energy extraction would no longer be as badly felt by the agricultural sector. Hence, demonstrating where the impacts of a WEF nexus approach are positive. 

However, a number of limitations of the WEF Nexus approach in Southern Africa have also been exposed. Primarily, ‘the issue of political sovereignty is still strong at the national level (Luxon, N. 2018: 10) in Southern Africa. This has meant that the effective implementation and enactment of a WEF Nexus approach has been constrained by member states who are unwilling to cooperate. Furthermore, ‘some member states are delaying rectifying protocols on shared watercourses as they do not envisage the need at the moment.’ (Luxon, N. 2018: 11), which has further constrained the effective implementation of WEF Nexus action plans. Finally, and more specifically to this blog series, maintaining the agricultural industry as an effective vehicle for development has been marred because ‘investment in agricultural water management is very low’ (Luxon, N. 2018: 11) meaning that the information that informs the WEF Nexus plan and permits its continuation is often misleading in Southern Africa. Further limitations where exposed where the WEF Nexus approach had been implemented in Morocco, here it was concluded that ‘policies focused on issues of scarcity and efficiency may exacerbate other dimensions of poverty and inequality.’ (Jobbins, G. 2015: 393). This demonstrates a fundamental limitation of the WEF Nexus approach’s implementation in Africa generally as these dimensions have to be contested with regularly. 

However, comparatively, in Ethiopia where ‘27 million out of the nearly 79 million Ethiopians live within the UBNR basin’ (Stamou, A. 2018: 5055) which is relied upon for ‘hydropower, irrigation, domestic, industrial, livestock and touristic purposes’ (Stamou, A. 2018: 5055) once again the merits of a WEF Nexus approach where demonstrated. Within this case study the WEF Nexus approach modelled ‘the theoretical utopian solution, as the best compromise’ (Stamou, A. 2018: 5063) between irrigation and hydropower generation, whilst also evidencing what the most effective compromise would be when certain objectives were weighted more favorably. As a consequence, demonstrating the effectiveness of a WEF Nexus approach to water, food and development in Africa through its capacity to consider and favor multiple water users using the same water source. This flexibility when considering intersecting criteria could be invaluable to Africa’s future sustainable development and permits the continued operation of water and food as a pathway to development as a WEF Nexus approach will limit other water project’s impacts on these resources.