Published
February 15, 2017, 10:01 PM By Myrna M. Velasco
The Department of
Energy (DOE) is targeting to assess and study deeper the full impact of
food-water-energy nexus; or what global experts would refer to as the “linkage
of a thirsty triangle.”
Energy Secretary
Alfonso G. Cusi said this was among the topics highlighted during the recently
concluded discussions at the Asian Cooperation Dialogue (ACD) that he attended
in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates last month.
“We are already having
gradual steps on examining the linkage and impact of food-water-power nexus,
but we still need to do a more comprehensive study on this,” he stressed.
Even the United Nations
(UN) had acknowledged though that in many countries, policies focusing on the
nexus are not even at starting point of discussions yet. Policies may have been
tackled on bits-and-bobs at each sector, but the lacking piece in the puzzle,
is collaborative discussions and harmonizing intersecting edicts for the nexus.
In a cycle, water both
creates and consumes energy; while energy is also a significant water-consuming
sector and could be a direct threat to drinking water supplies and the
irrigation of farmlands. And to the experts, there is a third wheel that is
equally important to this linkage: the food sector because agriculture has
always been dominant in overall water use globally.
Hydropower alone,
according to data, contributes about16-percent of electricity generation
globally; plus water is used as coolant in thermal power plants. It could also
strip carbon dioxide (CO2) from the flue gases of power facilities under the
much-vaunted carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology application.
In extreme natural
disasters like the 2011 Dai-ichi Fukusima nuclear tragedy in Japan, experts
further grasped the ‘interdependency of water and energy’ – of which long-term
impacts may have yet to be established through the lens of science.
Data from the UN-Water
Assessment Program had shown that energy accounts for 15-percent of all water
withdrawals globally. Overexploited aquifers or drying rivers and even decrease
in water flows could affect the volume of power that can be generated from
hydro plants; and they also impact adversely on oil and biofuels’ production
because water is an essential component in the refining process. In areas where
abundant shale gas plays had been found, threats of drought could turn into a
nightmare because these unconventional gas-rich domains are really in need of a
lot of water for extraction. The same goes for the proposed production of oil
sands. The flip side is the deeper scrutiny being undertaken as to the impact
of the “hydraulic fracturing or fracking” for shale gas which many experts
suspect to have been posing risks of contaminating water tables.
Development of other
renewable energy facilities, such as geothermal in water-scarce areas may also
pose some problems, although engineers and scientists are espousing that
technology advancements and adoption of best practices could address such
dilemmas.
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