Project proposal: Let the sun shine; exploitation of the Water-Energy-Food nexus in the Middle East

Water scarcity is a serious constraint on the economic and social development in the Middle East, and finds expression in fierce competition between agriculture and fast growing urban settlements. The tension is likely to mount in the near future under persistent demographic pressure, while rainfall conditions are expected to worsen under climate change. Moreover, the extricate link with energy in every stage of the water cycle and, vice versa, the high dependency of water in conventional energy processes creates now serious problems because of increased energy prices and high water consumption rates by the energy sector, further reducing the water availability for agriculture and food production. The intended project aims to address this issue by introducing an integrated Water-Energy-Food approach using solar cells and introduction of efficient and affordable agricultural water management strategies. The project has a special focus on food security and family farming, horticultural development and evaporation reduction of open canals. The project implements pilots that align to practical solutions that can be upscaled to other, still, unvisited sites. Moreover, pilots constitute the empirical basis for an energy component in the water-economy model for the Jordan River Basin to evaluate, locally and across the border, the economic and ecological effects of widespread WEF policy interventions.