The water‐energy nexus in the Middle East: Infrastructure, development, and conflict

Abstract

Water and energy are closely linked in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) through coupled networks of infrastructure. This review explores the water‐energy nexus of infrastructure to explicate different patterns of development and de‐development in the MENA. First, the review highlights why states, donors, and firms have long built large‐scale coupled water‐energy infrastructures to provide urban services, expand irrigated agriculture, and foster development. Yet, too often the adverse social and environmental impacts from the construction of dams, water conveyance structures, groundwater mining, and desalination plants have been overlooked. We then examine the water‐energy nexus through infrastructure for the most important users of water and energy in the MENA region: urban populations and the agricultural sector. Third, the review illustrates that while investments in water and energy infrastructure generated significant gains in human development for much for of the region, the post‐2011 wars reversed many of these development gains in conflict‐affected countries through the destruction and deterioration of water‐energy infrastructures. The unprecedented displacement of populations within and across borders has also created new challenges for host communities, where infrastructures for providing water and energy services were already overstretched. The review further highlights the growing role of humanitarian assistance in providing water and energy services to refugees, internally displaced populations, and host communities. Overall, this review examines how the nexus of water and energy infrastructure shapes human security, livelihoods, and political economies in the MENA region. This article is categorized under: Human Water > Water Governance Engineering Water > Planning Water

What is climate security? Framing risks around water, food, and migration in the Middle East and North Africa

“…Parsing the implications for human security in many parts of the MENA requires understanding how climate factors interact with socio-economic vulnerabilities that are magnified when water and energy systems are decimated in conflict. While water weaponization has been discussed in this journal and elsewhere (Daoudy, 2020b;Gleick, 2019;Heldeweg et al, 2020;Weinthal & Sowers, 2020), we provide some examples to illuminate how the destruction of water systems and infrastructure negatively impacts human security in multiple ways. This work provides a baseline for examining how vulnerability and adaptation is understood within the climate security and human security debates.…”

Emerging Themes and Future Directions of Multi-Sector Nexus Research and Implementation

“…While several studies continue to show the benefits of integrated planning (Mirzabaev et al, 2015;Pittock et al, 2015;Rasul and Sharma, 2016;Dhaubanjar et al, 2017;Kurian, 2017;Stoy et al, 2018;Munoz Castillo et al, 2019;Payet-Burin et al, 2021;Wu et al, 2021), explicit implementation of nexus considerations at a decision-making level-and particularly across multiple scales-has been limited (Cremades et al, 2019;Johnson et al, 2019;Simpson and Jewitt, 2019;van Gevelt, 2020). The few examples of operational nexus implementation seem to be a response to shared resource conflicts rather than a result of long-term nexus foresight (Abbott et al, 2017;de Amorim et al, 2018;Kalair et al, 2019;Olawuyi, 2020;Weinthal and Sowers, 2020). Similarly, water needs for power plant cooling have prompted several energy ministries to take the water-energy nexus into serious consideration at an operational level.…”

“…One of the main challenges to the implementation of nexus concepts continues to be the inertia in the continued segregation of individual sector institutions and decision-making bodies (Shannak et al, 2018;Cremades et al, 2019;Kurian, 2019;Simpson and Jewitt, 2019;Payet-Burin et al, 2021). This segregation is further strengthened by the lack of mutual benefits across sectors, stakeholders, and geographical entities competing for limited shared resources (Abbott et al, 2017;de Amorim et al, 2018;Kalair et al, 2019;Urbinatti et al, 2020b;Olawuyi, 2020;Weinthal and Sowers, 2020). Additionally, insular, sector-specific training and expertise results in ignorance about the broader picture and can result in apathy towards system-wide losses in favor of individual sector gains.…”

The Role of Water Situation in Iraq in Exacerbating the Problem of Food Security in Iraq

“…One of the water problems in Iraq is the waste of water use in various uses (Ewaid, Abed, Chabuk, & Al-Ansari, 2021). For example, water uses in developing countries goes to the agricultural sector, amounting to approximately 90 percent of the total water consumed (Weinthal & Sowers, 2020). In contrast, the industrial sector and domestic use consume up to 10 percent of the water available.…”