Blog

By Rebecca Welling, Project Officer with IUCN’s Global Water Programme.
 
Recognition and understanding of the closely-bound interaction between water, energy and food production and use – the 'nexus' – is established in these sectors, but perhaps for many, ‘this nexus’ is still not entirely understood.

So the IUCN Global Water Programme decided to better communicate what this nexus on water-energy-food is all about through infographics. As IUCN recently launched the new Nexus Dialogue on Water Infrastructure, the nexus concept needs to be clearly understood.

The Nexus project, developed in partnership with the International Water Association (IWA), will be compiling and sharing case studies and solutions to crucial questions such as “How does watershed management help hydropower”?, “What ways of operating dams sustain wetland fisheries”?, “What technologies make irrigation more water efficient?”. A new website was set up (www.waternexussolutions.org) and contributions are welcomed through this platform.

As a newly-appointed IUCN Water Project Officer, I’ve been involved in work under the Nexus Project: designing an infographic on the nexus to turn science into more accessible knowledge. Getting back to basics – asking questions and drawing diagrams – is where we started.

In essence, the nexus refers to the links that exist between water, energy, and food, how the functioning of one depends on the other. For example, hydropower needs a steady supply of water in order to generate energy. No water, no hydropower. Farmers need access to water for irrigation to grow their crops. No water, no food. And so on.

If we think about connecting the nexus in terms of a ‘metro map’, as the infographic illustrates, where water, energy and food are ‘metro stops’, we can begin to see that various ‘metro lines’ run back

By Claire Warmenbol, IUCN Global Water Programme Communications Officer.
  
What is hydro-diplomacy? I was able to find the answer to that question last week when I interviewed leading water experts, scientists and politicians at the IUCN Hydro-diplomacy conference in Chiangrai, Thailand. I asked the question many times and received as many different answers. Clearly, it is a vast and complex topic.

For the purpose of producing a short conference video, I switched from programme communicator into video journalist to capture the insights of the bright minds present at the conference which gathered over 140 participants from all over the world.

I felt quite privileged to listen first-hand to what Ghandi’s grandson, H.E. Ambassador Gopalkrishna Ghandi, had to say about the current and future state of water resources; to how the CEO of the Mekong River Commission, Hans Guttman, thought about sharing water to meet the needs of growing demands for food and energy in the Mekong region; where Dr. Khaled AbuZeid, Director of the Arab Water Council, saw solutions for his water-scarce region; or which key elements Ian Makin from the Asia Development Bank identified as crucial for hydro-diplomacy. All shared their own interpretations, but also their hopes and visions for a safer water future.

From plush conference lobby to the rugged banks of the mighty Mekong, at the point where it crosses Thailand, Myanmar and Laos, the interview locations varied greatly. In short, appropriate places for hydro-diplomacy as a topic that spans from the highest political echelons to the widest stretches of borderless ecosystems.
 
And yet, to those who know

By Dr. Mark Smith, Director, IUCN Global Water Programme

My first day in Rio was yesterday. I was off the plane at 6 am, to the hotel and then straight to Rio Centro for a lunchtime side event with the Ramsar Secretariat on the upcoming TEEB study on water and wetlands. We are aiming for this study to gather the economic numbers behind nature as water infrastructure. The ‘not the usual suspects’ are very interested in this – the engineers and the bankers – and saying “natural infrastructure, we can work with that!”. The same people that yawn and go off to the next meeting when the topic of ecosystem services comes up. The secret is that it’s the same thing wearing engineer’s boots instead of ecologist’s sandals. The 60 or 70 people who came along to the Ramsar event were happy with that….
 
… And, heaven forbid, they were interested too in new ideas that might help to solve some of the problems people are coming to Rio to work on. After the side event I stopped in on the negotiations. First, I went to the session on green economy. There I witnessed a debate amongst diplomats on whether to use the verb ‘commit’ or ‘encourage’. We had the EU pushing to commit and the G77 preferring merely to encourage. Normal fare for these events it’s true, even if always disappointing. Feeling inspired I headed for a taste of the negotiations on water. Oh, here was the real action! Brackets, we know, are put around the words that are disputed in a negotiating text. Here we had brackets around [, clean], as in ‘safe [, clean] water’. Somebody, from somewhere on planet Earth, is apparently arguing over the idea that

By Katharine Cross of IUCN’s Eastern and Southern Africa Office

This is my second World Water Forum. In Istanbul, three years ago I was running around, organizing sessions, looking after speakers and preparing presentations. This time, coming from IUCN’s Eastern and Southern Africa Regional Office, I can take things at a slightly different pace.

I’m bringing the regional perspective into discussions on various subjects from implementing Integrated Water Resources Management in practice to climate resilience. This has given me the time to step back and look at what the forum is achieving, and where we go next. Sometimes the feeling is that the Forum is just a talk shop, but what an event like this brings is the nudge factor – ideas are exchanged, alliances formed, problems discussed and solutions showcased.

These experiences and ideas are taken back to our respective corners of the globe and integrated into our work on the ground. Different approaches can then be showcased at follow-up events to continue this valuable knowledge exchange. For example, in many of the sessions I have participated in there is recognition of the need to invest in natural infrastructure as a solution to addressing changing water availability from climate and other factors. IUCN is demonstrating this concept on the ground by integrating natural solutions to increase resilience through actions such as catchment protection, reforestation, and strengthening institutions so they can protect water sources and allocate water fairly to the different users, including the environment.

We can’t change the world overnight, but by continuing to present nature’s solution, we can nudge the world towards a future that ensures healthy people and healthy ecosystems.

Read more about Katharine’s work on conserving water resources in Africa.