Introduction
This paper focuses on the interdependencies and interconnections in the Water, Energy, and Food (WEF) nexus. Underlying relationships of the WEF securities have attracted increasing attention across the globe. Insufficient understanding of the nexus concerns is a crucial global economic problem. The nexus approach has been an essential aspect of sustainable development. To tackle the need to notify policy-makers and other stakeholders regarding research of the WEF nexus, researchers identify the necessity of reviewing relevant, recent, and credible literature (Badran, Murad, Baydoun, & Daghir, 2017).
Understanding the WEF nexus may be valuable in different ways. To start with, it could allow public policymakers to establish risks of their operations as usual practices of addressing water, food, and energy problems. Secondly, it will assist in underscoring the main private participants in the WEF supply chains and the significance of managing ecosystems of biodiversity and water. Thirdly, it will allow energy and water scientists and experts to participate in nexus science and practice more successfully. The Middle East region has provided proof that there have been numerous instances in environmental accounts when human interventions were unsustainable.
Background
Recently, frequent scientific conferences on the WEF nexus have resulted in scientists, civil societies, private sectors, and policymakers working together over a spectrum of diverse fields. The WEF nexus is highly dynamic and futuristic advancements in the sector signify that the collective comprehension of the topic under the scientific perspective is continually expanding. The Middle East region is rich in solar energy despite it being a resource that is yet to be mobilized successfully. Mobilization and consumption of hydrocarbons have had negative effects on the atmosphere. Water resource endowments of the Middle East do not satisfy the requirements of its present economies (Sommariva, 2018). All through history, the susceptible Tigris-Euphrates floodplain has been overpowered by irrigation endeavors easily.
Early civilizations severally witnessed tremendous impacts caused by mismanagement of the rivers. On the contrary, the Nile delta and its flood plains are highly resilient to extensive interventions such as hydraulic practices for the production of food and fiber for the Egyptian population. The Nile silt was elastic, and levels of water it contained were adequate, up to the time the Egyptian population rose to over 50 million by around 1975.
In the 1970s, following two decades of campaigns by activists with the aid of scientific practices, the significance of employing efficiently, socially, and environmentally sustainable approaches to utilizing natural resources internationally became apparent. By that time, negative ecosystem effects of the utilization of natural resources were particularly evident in neo-liberal economies. National and global talks changed from the established assurances of the period of industrial modernity, from mid 19th century to the 1980s, to the enhanced wakefulness of the qualms of the late modernity, past 1980 (Al-Saidi & Saliba, 2019).
Assurances had been anchored in the presupposition that rising supplies of energy and water may satisfy the increased demand for their support, for instance, in food production. Such an approach was referred to as supply management. By 1979, it was progressively affirmed that sustainable approaches should entail the notion of demand management. Risk-aware strategies and processes increasingly reinstated the hydraulic operation period of the late 19th century coupled with the early decades of the 20th century.
Governments, private sector agencies, and public organizations in the Middle East have started to take up preventive measures and adoption of clean and sustainable operations. The increasing identification of the dangers linked to the mismanagement of natural ecosystems and the necessity of using strategies and processes that propel them considerably was mainly accelerated by the 2008 global financial crisis. The World Economic Forum established that approaches in which energy and water resources were being mobilized to satisfy people’s needs were not environmentally and economically optimal.
The forum devised the term Water-Energy-Food nexus to achieve the interdependence, mutuality, and intricacy of managing them effectively (Badran et al., 2017). The idea was to encourage commitment that would recognize and promote the most favorable results and optimize the utilization of energy and water to reinstate extant sub-optimal processes. Problems of addressing the raw intricacy are facilitated by the way international political establishments control and mishandle energy and water in the production of fiber and food. Policies and supply chains have evolved with deeply entrenched and difficult to change directives that cannot guarantee sustainable market establishments, which can manage and safeguard natural ecosystems.
Statement of the Problem
The Middle East is presently experiencing the challenge of producing sufficient water, food, and energy for every person. Attributable to the increasing population and reducing economic growth, over and above rising urbanization and varying lifestyles, the demand for such resources is mounting.
Nevertheless, natural resources from which the three services are obtained are limited. Moreover, factors such as climatic changes and deprivation of natural resources are decreasing the capacity to continue generating them. Such problems necessitate innovative management practices that will guarantee a sufficient supply of water, energy, and food for everyone while concurrently securing the sustainability of natural resources (Sommariva, 2018). The provision of services in all the segments is based on the management of one natural resource base with the practices involved affecting one another in several ways.
The projected future demands of water, energy, and food differ significantly although there is the agreement that utilization in the three segments will drastically rise over the next couple of decades while natural resources base will gradually be reduced through environmental deprivation and climatic changes. Arising threats portray the connection between climate and WEF in terms of worldwide predictions. The demand for energy and food will rise by 50 percent and that of water by 30 percent by 2030 (Hameed et al., 2019). The greatest challenge that governments and private sector operators in the Middle East are grappling with is the adaptation to and alleviation of the effects of climate change.
Policy-making systems focusing on natural resources management have traditionally been typified by sectoral progressions and secluded strategy reactions that weaken the intricate connections between sectors and existing networks. This has usually led to segmented development and resource stresses, which deteriorate livelihoods and weaken sustainable development. It has become apparent and pressing that more effective management of water, energy, and food systems is required to deal with the ever-changing ways of life and increasing demand for services and resources (Al-Saidi & Saliba, 2019).
From the time that the connection between threats related to the mismanagement of the WEF nexus was strongly underscored more than ten years ago, it has been established that available public strategy agreements and private sector markets are intricate systems. Furthermore, climatic changes have augmented the rates of risk linked to intricate international trading and market settings. Sadly, talking about certainties and misgivings of underlying challenges has proved to be exceedingly controversial. An agreement has been hard to attain not only at the extensive global platforms but also at sub-country policy settings.
Research Questions
- What is the best approach to implementing the nexus concept?
- What should be done to ensure sufficient water, energy, and food for everyone in the Middle East?
- Which are the best practices for mitigating the impacts of climate change?
Objectives
- To offer an effective approach to the challenges in the Water-Energy-Food nexus
- To give an overview of vital nexus concepts and strategies that may be employed in policies and practices
- To bridge the gap between strategies and science in the implementation of the nexus view
- To provide vital information for experts responsible for nexus pertinent determinations either in funding, planning, or implementation
Definitions
In this research paper, the following definitions have been considered:
- Water security: The ability of people to ensure sustainable access to sufficient levels of suitable, quality water for supporting livelihoods, their welfare, and socio-economic development (“Global water,” 2017). This also guarantees safety from water-borne pollution and associated disasters, in addition to the preservation of ecosystems in an atmosphere of serenity and political stability
- Energy security: The constant accessibility of sources of energy at an affordable price
- Food security: A situation where every person, all the time, has physical and financial access to adequate, safe, and healthy food that satisfies their nutritional needs and inclinations for an active life and enhanced well-being.
Literature Review
The nexus concept should recognize and adapt its plan to deal with the intricate set of political economy and environmental factors to which supply chains are inferior. It should also seek to address problems linked to climatic change and global trade. Thus far, supporters of the nexus idea have not started to seek an understanding of the way markets operate or how regulations and public policies drive businesses as normal systems (Sommariva, 2018). These engagements are vital to establishing successful markets that will ensure the continued provision of economically and environmentally sustainable water, energy, food, and trade as vital elements of the nexus.
The people who operate energy and food supply chains have become blind to the significance of ecosystems. For instance, consumers, who are calling for cheap food and energy, are deliberately ignoring discourse on the preservation of natural resources and well-managed ecosystems. They are also not conscious of the task of global trade in the utilization of natural resources on which they depend.
From the 1950s, global trade has been a vital element in the provision of and ensuring food security in the Middle East economies (Hameed et al., 2019). The nexus concept encourages moderate consumption and effective production in networks that manage water, the environment, and biodiversity. Efforts to realize such an approach may be tried through a radical, top-down, enforcement of new laws that would optimize the incorporation and unavoidable support of water, energy, and food provision and consumption.
Supply Infrastructure
Increased shortages of water and land resources in nations in the Middle East are strongly compensated through high-energy reserves and fiscal abundance. With rainfall being less than 100 mm every year in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries such as Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, and Oman, water resources have equally become inadequate and gradually overexploited. Although the GCC region does not have considerable agricultural potential, utilization of water in farming activities is the chief driver behind overexploitation and exhaustion of the resource.
Agricultural land is limited and is an average of about 4% of the Gulf region. Additionally, the level of water used for livestock and irrigation in the area is equivalent to the international average of 70% or even more in some countries within the Middle East. Similarly, the benefit of agricultural activities to the economic value or the Gross Domestic Product is insignificant and is approximately 1.0% on average (Hameed et al., 2019).
The increased shortage of land and water resources in the Middle East is contrary to the rising reserves of fossil fuel in the region. Nations in the GCC region manage about 40% of internationally existing oil reserves and about 25% of all the natural gas produced (Hammad, Al-Saidi, & Zaidan, 2019). Although most of the oil is exported and leads to huge national revenues, the majority of the gas reserves are utilized domestically, except in Qatar. The standard energy utilization level in the region significantly exceeds the global average consumption. Attributable to elevated energy production and utilization in the Middle East, countries in the Gulf region are in the top 25 nations with a high per capita quantity of carbon dioxide.
Most of the energy produced in the Middle East is utilized for water production. Traditional estimates of electricity used for desalination in the GCC nations are approximately 5 to 12% of all electricity generated although higher estimations might be evident in the United Arab Emirates (20%), Qatar (13%), the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, and Kuwait (Dodds & Bartram, 2016). In some regions, electricity is utilized in surface and groundwater acquisition activities, in addition to hydropower generation, use as a coolant in power plants, and fossil fuel extraction.
With reference to the utilization of water in fossil fuel extraction, some nations in the Middle East use valuable desalinated water in the process and other mining activities. This shows that water and energy production practices in the Middle East are mutually dependent. They are also successful when it comes to the realization of the universal provision of electricity and water services for the people. The vital infrastructure in the attainment of water and energy security encompasses desalination institutions, power plants, electric grids, and other supply systems. Moreover, infrastructural projects such as wind farms, as well as solar power establishments, are progressively being deployed to facilitate renewable energy resources.
National strategy targets predict a rise in the utilization of renewable energies, at a fraction of full capacity. For instance, there are forecasts of 16% in Kuwait and 6% in Bahrain by 2020, 25% in the United Arab Emirates by 2021, 21% in Qatar, and 55 Gigawatts in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia by 2040 (Al-Saidi & Saliba, 2019). For the case of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the projection is presented in terms of the present capacity of 80 Gigawatts.
Besides renewable energy objectives, policies for the construction of nuclear power plants in nations such as the United Arab Emirates are in progress. In contrast, the realization of food security depends greatly on imports of food products. Nations in the area are attempting to offset the dependence through investment in large-scale establishments for aquaculture. A widespread challenge to the infrastructure in energy, water, and food is their susceptibility to the rising rate of development, planning, expertise, and market-associated risks.
Security Notion
A broad scope of concerns is assessed under resource security encompassing endowments of nations, transboundary differences, trade, commercialism, rivalry in the global network, or supply shortage of critical services such as energy, food, and water. Recently, the rising perspective of energy, food, and water security nexus has underscored the idea of the centrality of the issue in environmental strategies (Friedman, 2019).
The nexus concern positions insecurities associated with the supply of resources at the focus of worldwide environmental strategies. This has encouraged practitioners and scientists to establish many tools and approaches to uphold interconnections among food, energy, and water services that may weaken or reinforce operations of the three systems. Comprehension of resource security in the nexus with regard to availability and access to food, energy, and water services is similar to the traditional sector-propelled security agreements.
Though there has been a rising level of research studies on the nexus in the Arab countries, very little consideration has been given to particular regional ways of facilitating resource security, or the discrete context of the Gulf region. Badran et al. (2017) condemned reactive approaches set to tackle the nexus in Arab countries. They affirmed that adaptive management might boost local resiliency thus enhance resource security in the Middle East.
Such contributions strengthen the significance of the nexus for the extensive Arab area and resource security element in terms of augmented intricacy, interconnections, and uncertainty. Therefore, there is a need to conceptualize and split the security aspect into regional contexts. Although security is a highly researched topic in energy, food, and water systems, its absence or existence is mainly associated with the capacity of the supply networks to deliver required services. In their study, Al-Saidi and Saliba (2019) reaffirm that the process of defining energy security under the four As of affordability, accessibility, acceptability, and availability is increasingly dominant.
Hameed et al. (2019) present a security focus that is based on resilience and threats to the realization of low susceptibility of crucial energy networks. Techniques for the examination of security may be classified under the supply chain phases they tackle. Researchers identified a lack of an effective means of incorporation and the need to center on aspects that have a likelihood of lessening the susceptibilities of systems.
Food security is usually highlighted based on the network’s capacity to operate under rising threats. Aspects such as facilitation of productivity and effectiveness signify vital practices of guaranteeing food security in the Middle East and across the globe. In such a comprehension of security, governance processes are positively identified as problem-resolution endeavors. Additionally, concerns regarding the water security notion have evolved into a major topic in the field of resource management. Water security is usually described with respect to suitable quality and quantity for diverse uses on the subject of water-associated risks, threats, and vulnerabilities or harmony and serenity during reforms among numerous establishments.
Akin to food security, essential governance practices of attaining water security should be prioritized. The focus on dissimilar attributes of the supply system is common to several perspectives of resource security in the energy, water, and food sectors (Vishwanath, 2015).
The practical focus on the supply network in resource security is supported by the resolution of recurrent challenges instead of an assessment of the driving forces (such as inequalities) or the effects (for instance, conflicts). Different definitions and evaluations of resource supply networks may be categorized as to whether they are inclined to system management and regulation, risks emanating from arising changes, or the degree of performance. The study of resource supply in the Middle East should be future-oriented. Focusing on the increasing threats linked to variations in systems is currently a priority factor for policymakers.
The consideration of rising risks is a critical regional issue in the Middle East attributable to overdependence on the partially closed water body of the Gulf region to cater for the needed freshwater, food, and energy resources. Nations in the Gulf region experience similar risks influencing their supply networks that strongly depend on resources obtained from ecosystems having attributes of common-pool reserves (Hameed et al., 2019). Irrespective of the increasing salinity, failure threats, and environmental issues, waters in the Gulf region are mainly utilized for marine food, the supply of water, and the generation of energy.
Discussion
Economic growth and population in the Middle East are the main factors that have established the size and usefulness of the energy, food, and water supply networks. The population in GCC nations has been rising by about 4% every year and is anticipated to keep on increasing. A huge proportion of population growth may be associated with the inflow of expatriate workers who form around 31% of the Saudi-Arabian populace, 45% in Oman, 50% in Bahrain, 70% in Kuwait, 80% in Qatar, and 89% in the United Arab Emirates (Badran et al., 2017). Moreover, the average Gross Domestic Product level for the countries in the Middle East was 5% for the five years preceding 2015.
Economic development and population growth are both highly susceptible to external threats such as the recent decrease in the price of oil. The extent of economic growth influences the consumption of energy and other processes associated with sustainable development. Energy utilization per capita in the Middle East ranks as one of the highest internationally and has been progressively greater than economic development hence leading to a hurry to take up renewable energies in the Middle East given unpredictable prices of oil.
Similar to the case of energy consumption, water, and calories utilization level per capita in the Middle East is considerably greater than the global average and may be attributed to varying lifestyles. Among the most pressing entire-system risks to the economic development of GCC countries is presented by decreasing income from oil because of increasing internal energy requirements. Such a general threat may influence supply networks negatively as reducing proceeds translate to economic and demographic pressures that have a tremendous impact on all systems and their fundamental operations. Nevertheless, it is hard to contain this threat using sectoral strategies such as infrastructural and supply practices since the situation is more urgent in some nations than in others (Hammad et al., 2019).
For instance, with its huge population, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has had a nine-fold rise in internal oil generation in the last four decades and may have the domestic utilization equal to the rate of export in the next ten years. Smaller nations that have a reasonably lesser resource base (such as Bahrain and Oman) could experience a similar problem if the high level of growth and utilization proceeds.
Tackling problems linked to the water, energy, and food nexus demand the examination of trade-offs among WEF segments. For instance, the increase in biofuel utilization may result in a decrease in the quantity of water and land that could be used for practices such as food production. The rise in the demand for water for agricultural practices and energy affects the availability of more drinking water and increased application of energy-extensive desalination establishments for purposes of domestic use and irrigation (Al-Saidi & Saliba, 2019). Despite systems being physically interlinked, resolutions and strategy planning in all sectors are mainly done separately.
The nexus governance discussion proposes that to address underlying risks, optimize benefits, and maximize trade-offs in the utilization of resources, governments and all stakeholders should not only comprehend the way systems are physically linked but also how they get institutionally connected. Water is deemed the most important component in the majority of nexus studies (“Global water,” 2017). The rationales behind the vital nature of water in the nexus concept include its representation of a basic need for the continued existence of humankind and development practices such as the production of both energy and food. Additionally, the inadequate nature of water and nonuniform distribution of the resource across the world has been found critical in all the economic and environmental aspects.
Increasing local demands draw off carbon revenues and this may only be dealt with through alteration of the entire economic model. GCC countries have embarked on monetary restructuring and economic diversification, and this has had a temporary impact on the increase, size, and composition of the labor force. Current economic diversification strategies may have an impact on the composition of manufacturing sectors, workforce, and resource systems though there are numerous structural fiscal hindrances to realizing such variegation (Hammad et al., 2019).
Water, food, and energy conservation strategies, in addition to subsidy developments, should be established in the context of declining revenues and growing consumption. Additionally, diversification and policies of environmental conservation may assist in addressing overarching problems such as huge ecological footprints, resource security, and climatic change.
Conclusion
Underlying connections of the water, food and energy securities have attracted mounting attention around the world. Attributable to the rising population and reducing economic growth, over and above increasing urbanization and varying ways of life, the need for such resources in the Middle East is mounting. However, natural resources from which they are acquired are limited. Additionally, factors such as climate change are lessening the ability to continue generating adequate resources. This paper effectively answers the raised questions such as practices that should be carried out to ensure enough energy, food, and water for everyone in the Middle East. It also meets the set objectives.
For instance, the nexus concept should recognize and adapt its plan to deal with the intricate set of political economy and environmental factors on which supply chains depend. For example, diversification and approaches to environmental preservation will assist in addressing overarching issues such as environmental degradation, resource security, and climate change. Resource-supply systems are susceptible to any rise or decline in water, energy, and food availability. Risks emanating from key changes regarding statistics of the population, economic development models, and sustainable resource utilization are not well understood. The sensitivity of such networks and their capacity to accommodate unexpected economic and demographic variations necessitate comprehensive research in future studies.
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