Framing the water-energy nexus for the post-2015 development agenda

World leaders are increasingly recognizing the importance of the water-energy nexus perspective as a conceptual framework to facilitate integrated planning and decision-making for the post-2015 development agenda. We present three fundaental narratives of the United Nations Sustainable Energy for All (SE4All) initiative to reinforce the argument for a global nexus perspective aimed at sustainable development: i) energy ought to be placed at the center of the global development agenda to address development challenges such as hunger, poverty, gender empowerment, education and access to water and sanitation; ii) by changing the way we produce and use energy, GHG emissions can be decoupled from economic growth with the possibility to stabilize climate change below 2 degrees Celsius; and iii) the energy system is intertwined with other global systems (e.g. water, climate change, land and food production systems, etc.), which are strongly interdependent. All three narratives require systems thinking and a nexus framewok for a more coordinated approach to sustainable resources management, which in turn requires concerted action in all spheres of influence and at all levels of implementation. We seek the attention and support of international development partners to commit resources and support ongoing initiatives aimed at operationalizing the nexus perspective into concrete actions for the post-2015 development agenda

Examining the Relative Impact of Drivers on Energy Input for Municipal Water Supply in Africa

This study examines supply-side and demand-side drivers of municipal water supply and describes how they interact to impact energy input for municipal water supply in Africa. Several key compound indicators were parameterized to generate cluster centers using k-means cluster analysis for 52 countries in Africa to show the impact of water supply–demand drivers on municipal water supply and associated energy input. The cluster analysis produced impact scores with five cluster centers that grouped countries with similar key compound indicators and impact scores. Three countries (Gambia, Libya, & Mauritius) were classified as outliers. Libya presented a unique case with the highest impact score on energy input for raw water abstraction, associated with largescale pumping from deep groundwater aquifers. Multivariate analysis of the key indicators for 20 countries in sub-Saharan Africa that are either water-secure or water-stressed illustrate the relative impact of drivers on energy input for municipal water supply. The analytical framework developed presents an approach to assessing the impact of drivers on energy input for municipal water supply, and the findings could be used to support planning processes to build resilient drinking water infrastructure in developing countries with data challenges

Assessing Future Water Demand and Associated Energy Input with Plausible Scenarios for Water Service Providers (WSPs) in Sub-Saharan Africa

This study examined the current state of water demand and associated energy input for water supply against a projected increase in water demand in sub-Saharan Africa. Three plausible scenarios, namely, Current State Extends (CSE), Current State Improves (CSI) and Current State Deteriorates (CSD) were developed and applied using nine quantifiable indicators for water demand projections and the associated impact on energy input for water supply for five Water Service Providers (WSPs) in Kenya to demonstrate the feasibility of the approach based on real data in sub-Saharan Africa. Currently, the daily per capita water-use in the service area of four of the five WSPs was below minimum daily requirement of 50 L/p/d. Further, non-revenue water losses were up to three times higher than the regulated benchmark (range 26�63). Calculations showed a leakage reduction potential of up to 70 and energy savings of up to 12 MWh/a. The projected water demand is expected to increase by at least twelve times the current demand to achieve universal coverage and an average daily per capita consumption of 120 L/p/d for the urban population by 2030. Consequently, the energy input could increase almost twelve-folds with the CSI scenario or up to fifty-folds with the CSE scenario for WSPs where desalination or additional groundwater abstraction is proposed. The approach used can be applied for other WSPs which are experiencing a similar evolution of their water supply and demand drivers in sub-Saharan Africa. WSPs in the sub-region should explore aggressive strategies to jointly address persistent water losses and associated energy input. This would reduce the current water supply-demand gap and minimize the energy input that will be associated with exploring additional water sources that are typically energy intensive

Epistemological dimensions of the water–energy–food nexus approach: reply to discussions of “Challenges in operationalizing the water–energy–food nexus”

We thank the authors, Varis and Keskinen, and Nauditt, for their constructive contributions. We endorse their key comments, further referring to recent literature and events, including the UN 2018 High Level Political Forum on sustainable development. Here, we elaborate on the epistemological perspective of the water–energy–food nexus conceptualization, assessment, discourse and operationalization

Challenges in operationalizing the water–energy–food nexus

Concerns about the water–energy–food (WEF) nexus have motivated many discussions regarding new approaches for managing water, energy and food resources. Despite the progress in recent years, there remain many challenges in scientific research on the WEF nexus, while implementation as a management tool is just beginning. The scientific challenges are primarily related to data, information and knowledge gaps in our understanding of the WEF inter-linkages. Our ability to untangle the WEF nexus is also limited by the lack of systematic tools that could address all the trade-offs involved in the nexus. Future research needs to strengthen the pool of information. It is also important to develop integrated software platforms and tools for systematic analysis of the WEF nexus. The experience made in integrated water resources management in the hydrological community, especially in the framework of Panta Rhei, is particularly well suited to take a lead in these advances

Conceptual framework for scenarios development in the Water futures and Solutions project

The major purpose of the Water Futures & Solutions (WFaS) initiative is to develop a set of adaptable resilient and robust solutions and a framework to facilitate access to and guidance through them by decision makers facing a variety of water-related challenges to sustainable evelopment, and a set of optional pathways to achieve plausible sustainable development goals by 2050. The WFaS Initiative addresses the multidimensional aspects of the water system and is guided by stakeholders representing these various aspects. The Initiative views freshwater systems as being strongly interweaved with human activities (Economy, Society) and Nature as a whole. Dynamics and health of freshwater systems is critical to human well- being. The Initiative will go beyond scenario production and model comparisons and will focus on exploring solutions and necessary innovations to address the growing water challenges. Solutions can be combinations of technological innovations, regulatory approaches, manageent or institutional changes that improve the balance of water supply and demand, improve water quality, or reduce water-related risks for society. Solutions will often be embedded in and cut across all sectors of social and economic activities. In order to represent the aspirations and interdependencies as described above, the conceptual framework has been developed, to communicate project results to the target audiences. This document describes this conceptual framework that will be used: -to support development of qualitative water scenarios -to identify and select critical dimensions of the water scenarios -to guide integration of scenarios with quantitative models -to guide integration of information from various data sources into the scenarios -to support development and assessment of solutions -to support collaboration between project and stakeholder groups -to facilitate presentation of results to target audiences The WFaS conceptual framework is developed using the 'concept maps' technique (Caqas and Carff, 2005; Novak and Caqas, 2006b). Concept maps method was develop to represent knowledge in an organized way. It allows practitioners to represent concepts and specific relationships between concepts. It is flexible enough to adapt to different knowledge domains to support better understanding and communication between individuals and groups from different backgrounds

Building global water use scenarios

The Water Future and Solutions Initiative (WFaS) develops consistent, multi-model global water scenaros with the aim to analyze the water-food-energy-climate- environment nexus and identify future hotspots of water insecurity and related impacts on food and energy security. WFaS coordinates its work with on-going scenario development in the fifth assessment review of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which has developed climate scenarios based on the Representative Concentration pathways (RCPs) and alternative futures of societal developments described in the Shared Socio-economic Pathways (SSPs). In its 'fast-track' scenario assessment WFaS applies available multi-model ensembles of RCP climate scenarios and population, urbanization, and economic development quantifications of the SSPs. Here we interpret SSP narratives to indicate direct or indirect consequences for key water dimensions. Criical scenario assumptions are assessed for different conditions in terms of a country or regions ability to cope with water-related risks and its exposure to complex hydrologcal conditions. For this purpose a classification of hydro-economic challenges across countries has been developed. Scenario assumptions were developed for defined categories of hyro-economic development challenges and relevant features of SSPs. In this way we systematically assess qualitatively key scenario drivers required for global water models We then provide quantifications of assumptions for technological and structural changes for the industry and domestic sector. For the quantification of global scenarios of future water demand, we applied an ensemble of three global water models (H08, PCR-GLOBWB, WaterGAP). Ensemble results of global industrial water withdrawal highlight a steep increase in almost all SSP scenarios. Global amounts across the three models show a wide spread with the highest amounts reaching almost 2000 km^3 yr^-1 by 2050, more than doubled compared to the present industrial water use intensity (850 km^3 yr^-1). Increases in world population result in global domestic water withdrawals by 2050 reaching 700-1500 km^3 yr^-1 depending on scenario and water model. This is an increase of up to 250% compared to the present domestic water use intensity (400-450 km^3 yr^-1). We finally suggest improvements for future water use modelling

Towards Innovative Solutions through Integrative Futures Analysis - Preliminary qualitative scenarios

This report presents preliminary results of developing qualitative global water scenarios. The water scenarios are developed to be consistent with the underlying Shared Socio- Economic Pathways (SSPs). In this way different stakeholders in different contexts (climate, water) can be presented with consistent set of scenarios avoiding confusion and increasing policy impact. Water scenarios are based on the conceptual framework that has been developd specifically for this effort. The framework provides clear representation of important dimensions in the areas of Nature, Economy and Society and Water dimensions that are embedded in them. These critical dimensions are used to describe future changes in a consistent way for all scenarios. Three scenarios are presented based on SSP1, SSP2 and SSP3 respectively. Hydro-economic classes are introduced to further differentiate within scenarios based on economic and water conditions for specific regions and/or countries. In the process of building these preliminary water scenarios assumptions that are presented in this report, the number of challenges have been met. In the conclusions section these challenges are summarized and possible ways of tackling them are described

Analysing the temporal water quality dynamics of Lake Basaka, Central Rift Valley of Ethiopia

Abstract: This study presents the general water quality status and temporal quality dynamics of Lake Basaka water in the past about 5 decades. Water samples were collected and analysed for important physico-chemical quality parameters following standard procedures. The result showed that Lake Basaka water is highly saline and alkaline and experiencing a general reducing trends in ionic concentrations of quality parameters due to the dilution effect. About 10-fold reduction of total ionic concentration occurred in the Lake over the period of 2 decades (1960-1980). There was a sharp and fast decline in EC, Cl, SO4, Na, and K ions from early 1960s up to the late 1980s, and then became relatively stable. Some ions (eg. Na, Ca, Mg, Cl, SO4) are showing increment in recent years. This characteristics of the lake water is terrible in relation to its potential to inundate the nearby areas in the near future. The expansion of such quality water has negative effects on the water resources of the region, especially soil quality, drainage and groundwater, in terms of salinity, sodicity and specific ion toxicity. The regimes of soil moisture, solute and groundwater could be affected, concurrently affecting the productivity and sustainability of the sugar estate. Thus, there is an urgent need to identify the potential sources of water and chemicals to the lake and devise an appropriate mitigation and/or remedial measures

The role of pediatric nursing in the provision of quality care in humanitarian settings: a qualitative study in Tonkolili District, Sierra Leone

Purpose: Evaluate nurses' and caretakers' perspectives of quality care, barriers to its delivery, and its study in a humanitarian setting. Methods: A qualitative study using semi-structured interviews and direct observation was conducted in the pediatric department of Magburaka Hospital, Tonkolili district, Sierra Leone. Interviews were recorded, transcribed, and inductive coding was used to identify prevalent themes. The observation was used to compare and elaborate on interview findings. Results: Three themes emerged holistic care; the nursing community; and organization and systems of care. For caretakers, holistic care related to their child’s survival, with quality care described as the availability of free medication, provision for basic needs (food, water, shelter, sanitation), hospital cleanliness, and psychosocial support. For nurses, this involved medication administration, cleanliness, and carrying out nursing tasks (e.g., taking vital signs). Observation revealed caretakers, without nursing involvement, performed the majority of “activities of daily living” (e.g., bathing, toileting). The nursing community describes nursing employment types, attitudes, and how a lack of teamwork impacted quality nursing care. The third theme outlines the importance of organization and systems of care, in which training and a good salary were perceived as prerequisites for quality nursing care, whilst a lack of resources and inadequate operational systems were barriers. Conclusion: Caretakers play an integral role in the delivery of quality care. This and important quality care components outlined by nurses and caretakers identified a patient and family-centered approach could contribute to improving quality nursing care in humanitarian settings