World Water Day 2014 // Does the Nexus mask a bigger debate? 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, " says Jeremy Allouche, member of the IDS Water Justice Programme and the STEPS Centre.
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. #box:addon <>Jeremy Allouche
is an IDS Fellow and member of the IDS Water Justice Programme and the STEPS Centre. He has 14 years of experience in managing and designing projects in the fields of water governance, security and development, and international political economy analysis. He previously worked at the University of Oxford, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology - MIT, ETH Lausanne, the Swiss Graduate Institute of Public administration, and at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, Geneva.
This article is a repost from the {http://www.knotsids.blogspot.co.uk/2014/03/world-water-day-time-to-consider-low.html|IDS blog "Knowledge, Technology and Society"} with kind permission by the author.
#box 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.