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Water-energy provision a challenge before world leaders
[bolds are mine]

India Water Review : January 20, 2014, 8:00 pm

New Delhi : World water demand could exceed 44 per cent of the available annual resources by 2050 as global population grows from 7 billion today to 9 billion by then, experts warned at a recent conference organised by the United Nations (UN), adding that one of the two most pressing and enormous challenges in the next four decades would be ensuring sustainable supply of water to everyone.

The conference discussed the inextricable link between water and energy, with the expert stating that besides ensuring a sustainable supply of water to 768 million people with no access to water, the other enormous challenge was provision of energy access to approximately 1.4 billion people, or one in five globally, that even lack electricity to light their homes or conduct business.

The conference in preparation for World Water Day 2014 in Zaragoza, Spain had representatives from United Nations agencies, governments, businesses, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and global industry experts discuss the importance of water and energy.

Water is needed for primary energy extraction and processing and water requirements for energy is growing with economic growth, demographic shifts and changing lifestyles. Clean drinking-water supply requires energy - desalination in particular. Water demand could exceed 44 per cent of the available annual resources by 2050 while energy demand could experience a 50 per cent increase by the same date.

The general consensus among global water experts was that the world cannot afford energy policies that do not take into account the fact that water is needed to produce hydroelectricity as well as cooling in the manufacturing of power generation.

Similarly, they called for rethinking of water policies that do not consider how much they need energy to pump, purify, transport, pressurize and clean water.

Representatives of water companies emphasized that without energy you cannot do anything when it comes to water management; water is heavy, so a lot of energy for transportation is needed, but this energy is still too expensive.

For a water utility, 30 per cent of its operational cost is represented by the cost of energy needed to manage water. It's clear that water poverty and energy poverty go hand in hand, so there must be social policies that consider both water and energy if these policies are intended to be inclusive.

IIASA research scholar Paul T Yillia, who represented the Vienna-based Sustainable Energy for All (SE4ALL), an initiative of the UN Secretary-General, noted that the water-energy nexus is much more than just the links.

"It is more about exploring shared uncertainties, searching for synergy and gaining insight into plans within others' sphere of control and influence," he was quoted as saying in a statement.

The goal is to find solutions to the constraints of both - to optimize resource use and eliminate inefficiencies in the system, he added.

UN Secretary-General's Special Representative on Sustainable Energy for All and Chief Executive Officer of the initiative Kandeh K Yumkella termed energy and water as two sides of the same coin.

"We recognized that energy technologies are very thirsty and the investments we need to make water and energy available to all, the scale and speed of change we want to see happen, will only come from genuine partnerships," Yumkella added.

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