Advisory firm KPMG infrastructure and major projects associate director Antonio Manus tells Engineering News that the sectors of water security, energy security and food security are inextricably linked and that actions impacting on one or both of the other areas, are of great significance in terms of water conservation.

“The linkages have always been present, but as the world population hurtles towards 8-billion people coupled with increasing demand for basic services and a growing desire for higher living standards, the need for more conscious stewardship of the vital resources required to achieve these services and desires has become more obvious and urgent,” she explains.

The water-energy-food nexus incorporates integrated catchment management, integrated water resource management, sustainable societal, economic and environment development and climate change management.

Manus cites Science and Technology Minister Derek Hanekom’s September 2013 speech at the opening of a Water Research Commission Symposium, in Pretoria, to outline government’s recognition of the importance of the link between the three resources.

“We would need to look closely at our own interrelations between water, energy and food, because we have a particularly thorny problem. On the one hand, our energy landscape is still heavily dependent on coal.

“The environmental toll of coal-fired electricity is two-fold. An enormous amount of water is used to produce coal-fired electricity. As a water scarce country, we must be extremely mindful of this. Also, the gas emissions from coal-fired electricity cause climatic changes that affect temperature and rainfall. This has implications for food and energy security, not just in South Africa, but globally,” said Hanekom.

Manus says Hanekom’s utterances and policies such as the National Development Plan and the National Water Resource Strategy highlight that many of the fundamentals are in place, as the country understands the problem; has the bare bones of a plan in place; has policies and legislation to enable sustainable shifts to renewable energy and protection of water and has committed resources to these plans.

She notes that, the questions of energy efficient water treatment technologies; how water shed management can help hydropower; ways of operating dams to sustain wetland fisheries; how water reuse can reduce food energy trade-offs; technologies that make water irrigation more efficient and water storage options for farmers, therefore, should be addressed through integrated planning at a national, provincial and local government level.