Water-Energy-Food Nexus in Large Asian River Basins

Abstract

Abstract:The water-energy-food nexus ("nexus") is promoted as an approach to look at the linkages between water, energy and food. The articles of Water's Special Issue "Water-Energy-Food Nexus in Large Asian River Basins" look at the applicability of the nexus approach in different regions and rivers basins in Asia. The articles provide practical examples of the various roles and importance of water-energy-food linkages, but also discuss the theoretical aspects related to the nexus. While it is evident that any application of the nexus must be case-specific, some general lessons can be learnt as well. Firstly, there are a variety of interpretations for the nexus. These include three complementary perspectives that see nexus as an analytical approach, governance framework and emerging discourse. Secondly, nexus is-despite its name-a predominantly water-sector driven and water-centered concept. While this brings some benefits by, e.g., setting systemic boundaries, it is also the nexus' biggest challenge: If the nexus is not able to ensure buy-in from food and energy sector actors, its added value will stay limited. Ultimately, however, what really matters is not the approach itself but the processes it helps to establish and outcomes it helps to create. Through its focus on water-energy-food linkages-rather than on those themes separately-the nexus is well positioned to help us to take a more systemic view on water, energy and food and, hence, to advance sustainable development.

Central Asia’s Ili River Ecosystem as a Wicked Problem: Unraveling Complex Interrelationships at the Interface of Water, Energy, and Food

“…Among them was the concept of Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM), with its emphasis on coordinated management of water and related environmental resources to achieve the triple bottom line of economic, ecosystem, and social benefits [113,114]. IWRM has been embraced by international agencies and was soon applied to the Ili River ecosystem and other parts of Central Asia, but inherent difficulties with the concept, as well as a lack of regional cooperation, has impeded progress [115][116][117][118][119].…”

“…Several international agreements intended to facilitate regional cross-border cooperation [5,62,103,104]-an admittedly difficult goal to achieve, especially in Central Asia [95]-have proven to be ineffective in enabling IWRM [118]. Alternative expert strategies, including sustainability assessment via the All Quadrants-All Levels approach [28], creation of a River Basin Vulnerability Index [24,120], and analysis within the framework of Basins at Risk [107,121] have also been applied to deal with the Ili River ecosystem's complexity.…”

“…An alternative approach, the WEF nexus, has been examined as a framework to overcome the water bias, in general and specifically with respect to the Ili River ecosystem [7,10,112,113,118,119,[122][123][124][125].…”

“…Nexus thinking is useful, because it emphasizes tradeoffs, interdependencies, and synergies between the three components (Figure 4), as well as the existence of externalities that often play out over distances and in time [7,9]. It draws attention to several of the thorniest challenges for the Ili River ecosystem: the ill-defined implications of climate change, lack of comprehensive coordination, the fluid and evolving status of transboundary issues, the constraints imposed by water scarcity, and the inevitable conflict in values between those seeking to exploit and those motivated to preserve the ecosystem [10,118,[126][127][128][129].…”

“…No one would dispute the link between good data and sound environmental management, and so it should come as no surprise that the absence of such data is routinely identified as a serious constraint, in general [139,140], and specifically with respect to the Ili River ecosystem [7,24,94,115,118]. The challenge is not merely a question of the existence of needed data.…”