Stockholm International Water Institute » water & energy

Open Call for submissions to International Journal of Water Governance Special Issue

Sanna — Tue, 02 Apr 2013 16:14:14 +0000

SIWI calls for abstracts to a Special Issue of the International Journal of Water Governance that will zoom in on the linkages between transboundary waters and energy. Proposals (250 words) should be submitted to Anders Jägerskog (anders.jagerskog@siwi.org) by April 26, 2013.

Transboundary Water Management (TWM) is a complex matter. Often the perspective in analysing the transboundary water interactions that occur in a basin is on the drivers inside of the basin, such as development hydropower and irrigation infrastructure. While those are important as factors to consider when analysing and seeking to understand TWM interaction, they are far from the only (or even the most important) factors to consider. One should also include factors external to the basin of which the race for energy is a key factor. This special issue aims to zoom in on the linkages between TWM and energy both from a basin perspective as well as beyond the basin to the wider regional and global scales. How transboundary water management relates to energy development is not well understood at present. A broader perspective on TWM that include issues such as energy linkages and potential, power generation and interconnections, electricity generation, regional integration and regional power pools are all areas that will be covered. The special edition seeks to explore in greater depth than previously done these linkages which are expected to, apart from generating new and important research results also contribute in identifying new clusters of related issues for further research.

A provisional list of topics includes:

Water transfer schemes – inter as well as intra basin, donor and recipient,
Electricity generation and related infrastructure
Electricity transmission and provision
Regional power pools and regional integration
Conflicts of use – trade-offs between water for energy (electricity generation and biofuels) and water for food
Urbanisation and energy
Regional economic communities – transboundary water cooperation and regional power pools
International actors – donors, IFIs, NGOs, private companies including construction companies etc
Regional and national conflicts (including non-water ones)
Regional and international trade in goods and services
Off-shoring of production and associated water demands and pollution
Land acquisitions and water storage
Economics of cooperation – external drivers

SIWI at the International Water Summit in Abu Dhabi

Sanna — Thu, 17 Jan 2013 10:19:09 +0000

SIWI is present at the International Water Summit in Abu Dhabi, which takes place 15-17 January, 2013, as a part of Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week. The summit gathers the leading minds from the global water community in policy, business and science to accelerate the development of sustainable water solutions for arid regions, with the water-energy nexus as a focal point.

SIWI’s Executive Director, Torgny Holmgren, is moderating a Panel Discussion on Strategic Water Resource Management. The discussion highlights water as an essential element for socio-economic development and maintaining healthy eco-systems. How may water resource management be approached to optimise available resources?

SIWI’s Chairman Peter Forssman is participating in a Workshop on the Future Challenges Affecting Water Availability, identifying the depletion, allocation and distribution challenges that arid regions face, and project how they may develop in the coming years climate change is a key factor affecting water availability.

SIWI encourages everyone to join the Thematic Consultation on Water and Energy

Sanna — Mon, 14 Jan 2013 16:30:18 +0000

The Thematic Consultation on Water in the post-2015 development agenda is now open, waiting for your inputs on the www.worldwewant2015.org/water website.

The water consultation is part of the UN-system led “global dialogue” comprising of 50-100 Country Consultations and eleven global Thematic Consultations, including one on water. The water consultation is mainly taking place as an online discussion using different social media. The purpose is to bring voices from a broad range of stakeholders to build consensus around key future challenges related to water and the need for a new global water goal in the post-2015 development agenda.

The thematic consultation on water is divided in three sub-consultations:

Water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH)
Water resources
Wastewater management and water quality

On January 14, all sub-consultations started their online activity inviting everyone to share their insights and opinions on different topics. Stockholm International Water Institute (SIWI) will lead and moderate the first week under the Water Resources Management theme, which opens with a focus on water and energy.

Water for Energy – Energy for Water

Water and energy linkages have rapidly risen to the forefront of attention among urgent themes related to development challenges in the international community. The importance of water as a key pillar to sustain human well-being, secure livelihood opportunities and provide bases for diverse productive uses has long been recognized. In a similar manner, the need for energy to raise people out of poverty and fuel growing economies, whilst sustaining mature ones, is a well-established fact. The notion about how these resources are linked and dependent on each other has for a long time gone unnoticed by the broader global community, but not any more. The fact that energy needs water in its production and that water needs energy in order to be extracted, treated and moved is quickly gathering awareness as the demand for diminishing water resources increases.

Simultaneously the demand for energy is projected to grow massively over the next 20 years. The challenges and opportunities tied to this development are great and have been recognised in different ways by major development institutions. The World Economic Forum ranks water supply challenges at number three on their Global Risk Ranking for the coming years. In the UN report titled “Secretary-General’s Initial Input to the Open Working Group on Sustainable Development Goals” (2012), the entire nexus of water, energy and food security is ranked as separate topics on the top three positions for priority areas among member states.

You can read our full paper about water and energy at www.worldwewant2015.org/water/waterresources where you can contribute to the discussion and post your own comments. You can also participate through social media via Twitter using the hashtag #waterpost2015 or visit the Facebook page WaterPost2015.

SIWI encourages everyone to take the opportunity to participate in the consultation on water and energy during January 14-20, 2013, and be part of creating the world we want.

The outcome from the different discussions will be summarised into policy recommendations in a final report that will be transmitted to the High-level Panel on Post-2015 appointed by the UN Secretary General at the end of March.

SIWI’s Torgny Holmgren on Water Resources Management

Land Acquisitions: How Will They Impact Transboundary Waters?

admin — Thu, 15 Nov 2012 16:56:45 +0000

This exploratory report investigates how the current surge in land acquisitions and investments by foreign countries, sovereign wealth funds and private corporations, as well as domestic investors, will affect transboundary water management, an area where current knowledge is sparse. The majority of land deals tend to be made in places with low land lease prices, weak legislation, inexpensive labour and relative abundance of land and water and very few include regulations or agreements for water used on the acquired territories. With many of the largest land leasing countries located on the transboundary water basins, shared waters will be affected with unknown implications for regional relations. Two case illustrations in the Nile and Niger basin regions are presented to explore how land acquisitions have affected global, regional, national and local actors in those areas and point out key questions that require more research.

Report published in 2012.

China – Three Gorges and a Remedy

Nora — Thu, 15 Nov 2012 16:51:02 +0000

The Changjiang Water Resources Commission supported by the EU China River Basin Management Program will give a presentation on the Three Gorges Dam and the South-to-North Water Transfer Project at the 2011 World Water Week. In this article Deputy Team Leader Lars Skov Andersen relates his experience on six years of work on the Yangtze River.

Article in the Stockholm Water Front, issue no 2, 2011.

Stockholm Water Front No. 3 2002

admin — Thu, 15 Nov 2012 16:30:27 +0000

The overarching conclusions of the Stockholm Water Symposia 2002 are the main focus in this issue of Stockholm Water Front. This years theme was ”Balancing Competing Water Uses Present Status and New Prospects”, and discussions about food and energy production, as well as the costs of water pollution and deterioration, are present in this overall conclusion.

SIWI events at the 2012 World Water Week

Elin — Tue, 07 Aug 2012 08:40:37 +0000

The World Water Week in Stockholm is held August 26-31, 2012 (www.worldwaterweek.org). SIWI is convening and co-convening a series of events at the Week. Topics range from water economics to water and food security issues. To provide a comprehensive overview, a full list of SIWI’s events during the Week is provided below: