Download Egypt, Water, Food and Energy Nexus

Water, Food and Energy Nexus, Egypt
Project director
Assignment
Nieuwenhuis, Rob (RNs)
Study on the Water-Energy-Food security Nexus in Egypt – A
challenge for sustainable development
Project location
Study covered Egypt completely. Project meetings took place in
Cairo.
Client
Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ,
Germany)
Financing Agency
Partners
Participation
Composition of
Team
Ministry
North South Consultants Exchange (Egypt)
As lead firm
Euroconsult MottMacDonald BV: Team leader / Generalist; AgroEconomist ; Energy Economist / Sociologist
Partner(s): Environmental Engineer & Knowledge Broker; SocioEconomist & Food Security Economist
Period of
Assignment
Continuous or
intermittent
From 01-Mar-2014 to 21-Jul-2015
Intermittent
Staff months
Euroconsult MottMacDonald BV: 5.2
Partner(s): 2.8
Total: 8
Background
This study is an offspring of growing global, regional and national
concern on the unsustainability of water, energy and food security
inter-linkages. The water, energy and food security nexus means that
the three sectors — water security, energy security and food security
— are inextricably linked and that actions in one area more often than
not have impacts in one or both of the others. These linkages have
always been present, but as the world population hurtles towards 8
billion with increasing demands for basic services and growing
desires for higher living standards, the need for more conscious
stewardship of the vital resources required to achieve those services
and desires has become both more obvious and urgent. Moreover,
the impact of climate change poses a potential threat to water, energy
and food security.
Egypt is a typical example of a country with a strong population
growth, industrial development and rise of living standards. Given
Egypt’s high population growth rate it is questionable whether there
will be sufficient water for food and domestic consumption as the
exploitable water resources are expected to increase only minimally
at best. Additionally, the energy consumption has been rapidly
increasing as a result of on-going economic growth. Urbanization will
Euroconsult MottMacDonald BV
Water, Food and Energy Nexus, Egypt
further intensify the pressure on Egypt’s natural resources. It is
expected that climate change will adversely affect the country’s
natural resource base too.
The study aims to map the key linkages of the Egyptian water, energy
and agro-food sectors, taking into account developments in
demography, economy, agriculture (water and cropping patterns),
regional trade & cooperation and climate change. The ultimate aim is
to
to feed into designing the future strategic axis of German-Egyptian
development cooperation and to recommend specific concepts
[scenarios] and organisational set-ups that help secure a sustainable
nexus.
Description of
project
The Nexus study aims to map the key linkages of the Egyptian water,
energy and agro-food sectors, taking into account developments in
demography, economy, agriculture (water and cropping patterns),
regional trade & cooperation and climate change. It tries to interlink
existing concepts around sustainable development, integrated water
resource management (IWRM), sustainable environmental
management planning, low carbon growth, climate smart and resilient
agriculture and agri-business and integrated value chains.
The ultimate aim is to feed into designing the future strategic axis of
German-Egyptian development cooperation and to recommend
specific concepts, scenarios and organisational set-ups that help
secure a sustainable nexus.
The study on the water-energy-food security Nexus distinguishes the
following objectives:
Objectives 1 and 2 focus on assessing and describing key linkages of
the Egyptian water, energy and agro-food sectors, and thus the
water-energy-food nexus, and expected impacts hereon of decisive
factors such as demographic development, the economic framework,
socio-economic development, as well as country-specific
uncertainties (e.g. the on-going Nile Basin Initiative and upstream
water demand) and external variables (e.g. oil and gas prices).
Objective 3 aims at an economic valuation of water and cropping
patterns in the various regions of Egypt and more sustainable
development and improved water use efficiency.As the Study duration
is relatively short the valuation will be generic and primarily be based
on existing information.
Objective 4 aims at fostering regional trade and cooperation (e.g.
virtual water, interconnection of national electricity grids) and impact
on national GDP and regional stability, whereas Objective 5 brings in
the evaluation of impacts of climate change on the agricultural
production.
Finally, Objectives 6 and 7 target, respectively, relevant current sector
Euroconsult MottMacDonald BV
Water, Food and Energy Nexus, Egypt
policies in the light of the fast population and demand growth and
possible solutions, including those that may be taken up in or
supported by the German-Egyptian development cooperation
portfolio.
Services provided
Our services can be divided in three components (6 months in total):
i)
Inception, in which we will map and visualize the key linkages of
the Egyptian water, energy and agro-food sectors, and decide how to
proceed with an analysis and assessment;
ii) An in-depth analysis and assessment of the water-energy-food
security Nexus in Egypt, taking into account developments in
demography, economy, agriculture (water and cropping patterns),
regional trade & cooperation and climate change. Resulting in a draft
final report; Study was subsequently terminated prematurely due to
political sensitivities.
Results
A comprehensive analysis of the water, energy and food security
Nexus in Egypt which provides specific concepts, scenarios and
organisational set-ups that help secure a sustainable nexus.
Senior staff and
functions
March-July 2015
Ele Jan Saaf - Team leader / Generalist – 18 w.d. - 0.8 months ;
Rob Nieuwenhuis – Team Leader / Project Director – 6 w.d. - 0.3
months;
Alexander Mueller - Agro-Economist – 4 w.d. - 0.2 months ;
Sebastian Veit - Energy Economist / Sociologist – 36 w.d. - 1.6
month.
Euroconsult MottMacDonald BV