5th World Water Forum tackles Food – Energy Conflicts over Water / High Level Panel seeks pragmatic synergies among vital resource sectors

 

 

5th World Water Forum tackles Food – Energy Conflicts over Water / High Level Panel seeks pragmatic synergies among vital resource sectors

 

ISTANBUL, Turkey, March 19, 2009/African Press Organization (APO)/ — Representatives from the agriculture and energy industries convened here at the 5th World Water Forum to debate how, why, where and whether humankind’s rising demands for food and energy will lead to conflict or cooperation.

 

Food

Agricultural global food production has so far kept pace with population growth. Yet 900 million people remain undernourished, rural migrants are leaving farms for cities, and from 2000 to 2030 demand for food crops in developing countries will increase 67 percent, straining the already over-tapped water resources.

 

“Population growth means that in the next 40 years there will be increased demand for energy, food and water services,” said Alexander Mueller, Assistant-Director, United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization. “The question is how to manage these linkages and our natural resources. Business as usual is not an option for us.”

 

Energy

Demand for power will stress watersheds to an equal extent but in a different direction. Energy production mobilizes a quantum of water whether for hydroelectricity or for cooling thermal and nuclear plants. Billions of poor in lower income countries seek access to electricity for poverty alleviation, improved health and well being.

 

“There is role for hydroelectricity, but it is not panacea,” said Richard Taylor, Executive Director of the International Hydropower Association. “Stored water is stored energy. We are at the very early stages of understanding the water footprint in the energy sector. We have a long way to go.”

 

Three stress multipliers for conflict in the water/food/energy nexus are population growth, development, and global warming. Demand rises exponentially with scale and income; the world is adding 3 billion more appetites and a richer world is a thirstier world.  And climate change disrupts the reliability of water supply with extreme flood and droughts.

 

No country is immune from potential conflicts. California adds millions more each year, and as the snowpack shrinks, tensions rise between upstream farmers who want water stored for summer irrigation and hydropower operators struggling to meet immediate demand for clean energy. Similar food vs. energy flashpoints emerge in hotspots ranging from Kirgizstan to Spain, Guatemala to India, Tanzania to Uzbekistan.

 

“With only a patchwork of information available, we must develop a more coherent view towards understanding the nexus between water and energy and water and food ad how they are interlinked,” said Ger Bergkamp, Director General, World Water Council. “Once we map out the relationships, we can see the challenges and move towards solutions.”

 

Despite the potential for conflict, panellists and participants found common ground for technocratic and governance synergies to emerge. One proposed solution was conjunctive use of groundwater, where dams can be operated in ways that release river currents through energy turbines but store the water in aquifers or floodplains. Better metering and pricing on the demand side of utilities and water districts could result in new efficiencies – in production, transmission, and consumption – shared across food and energy sectors.

 

 

SOURCE : World Water Council