Specific Connection in Energy-Water Nexus

In developing countries, activities associated with cooking, washing, cleaning, eating and drinking represent the primary use of household energy. Water may be pumped, filtered, transported, treated, and heated for washing, and generally boiled for tea or coffee. In villages in developing countries, water and energy infrastructure are inseparable. And in most such areas, clean water and energy are not readily available.

As noted at the World Summit on Sustainable Development, about 1.1 billion people, or 18 percent of the world’s population lack safe drinking water, and more than 2.4 billion people lack adequate sanitation. More than 2.2 million people in developing countries die each year from diseases associated with lack of safe drinking water, inadequate sanitation, and poor hygiene.

The developing world’s need for clean and healthy energy services is also required. More than 2 billion people burn traditional biomass fuels indoors for cooking and heating and have no access to electricity. More than 2 million children died from acute respiratory disease in 2000; 60 percent of these deaths were associated with indoor air pollution and other environmental factors.

As noted by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) energy access and infrastructure is key to clean water supply and many other elements of sustainable development that can reduce poverty:

“Energy is also central to sustainable development and poverty reduction efforts. It affects all aspects of development -- social, economic, and environmental -- including livelihoods, access to water, agricultural productivity, health, population levels, education, and gender-related issues. None of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) can be met without major improvement in the quality and quantity of energy services in developing countries.” (www.undp.org/energy)

Resource Quantities

Basic needs for domestic lighting and water are relatively modest. The WHO stipulates that the basic requirement for water access is 20 liters per day per person accessible within 1 kilometer of the home. Meanwhile a household of five might use less than 100 watt-hours per day.

Sector Challenges and WETT Solutions

WETT uses three strategies to meet the challenges of sustainable water/energy development.

• We seek to design and develop new, appropriate technologies that are optimized from both a water and energy perspective that can meet the needs of rural, and peri-urban communities in developing countries. Examples of these technologies include UV waterworks and the innovative arsenic removal technologies being pioneered by WETT members.
• We work to develop integrated, project designs that attain high benefit/cost ratios. We plan feasible organizational and socio-economic structures so that projects can be implemented in ways that are responsive to the environments of developing countries. Illustrating this approach is WETT’s Eritrea Wind Energy Project that is designing policies, procedures and concepts for a variety of wind/water projects at the village and sub-regional level.
• We design policies, funding mechanisms, and monitoring programs so that integrated water/energy development solutions can be scaled-up of to the regional and national levels. This strategy is illustrated by WETT’s Community Sustainable Development Funding System Design project.