Calling systematic thinking in addressing water security issues

Abstract

It is well known, Asia has nearly 60% of the world’s population, however, the fresh water resources in Asia is less than that of any other continents except Antarctica. Therefore, Asia is facing the most serious water security issue in the world. The security in water, energy and food sectors is the fundamental requirement to human life and the development of a society. To cope with water security in Asia, attention would have to be given to energy and food security as all these three are closely linked. The water, energy and food security nexus means that actions in one area more often than not have impacts on one or both of the others. According to statistics released by the UN, global demand for water is set to rise by 30%, energy by 40% and food by 50% by 2030. This means that though the linkages amongst the three sectors of water, energy and food have always been present, as the world’s population hurtles towards eight billion with increasing demands for basic services and growing desires for higher living standards, there is increasing pressure on the need for more conscious stewardship of these vital resources. As a regional research center, Asia-Pacific Center for Water Security, namely APCWS, was set up by Tsinghua University in collaboration with Asian Development Bank (ADB). Its missions are basically to promote advanced research, knowledge sharing and smart decision marking in relation with water security issues among Asian countries. As one of its milestone activities, APCWS organized and hosted the 2 International Water-Energy-Food (WEF) nexus workshop in Nov. 2012, in Beijing. The main objectives of the workshop were to share experiences and knowledge on Water-Energy-Food security nexus issues and discuss the framework for the development of Asia Water Development Outlook III (AWDO III). Following this workshop, a total of 14 papers were collected. These include wider topics related to Water Security such as WEF, Urban water management issues and international experience for the water management. This encouraged APCWS to make a dedicated journal to better disseminate these papers. The FESE Editorial Office’s assistance is much appreciated.