Deep below the wind-blown sands of North Africa lie dark lakes of old water. While ancestral irrigation systems have tapped this resource over centuries in the region’s oases, its water is now being brought to the surface in ever-growing quantities to nourish commercial palm and arboriculture plantations in Algeria, Libya, and Tunisia. This agricultural transformation of the desert, however, may not last, because there is little replenishment of the aquifer, and hotter and drier weather brought by climate change is increasing demand for the resource. Soil degradation and increased energy demand for water pumping add to these problems.
Recognising the North Western Sahara Aquifer System (NWSAS) as a shared resource, in 2008 the three countries agreed to establish a consultation mechanism to plan for its sustainable use: the Consultation Mechanism of the North Western Sahara Aquifer System. Their decision had been influenced by the findings of a series of studies carried out with the support of multiple partners. The studies encouraged joint data collection and the use of hydrogeological models to monitor the aquifer’s behaviour in response to water withdrawals. Under the guidance of the Consultation Mechanism and in the framework of WACDEP, in 2013 GWP Mediterranean built on this work and evaluated climate change impacts in the basin.
While government decision-makers in the three countries had recognised the signs of climate change on surface lands, they still needed to make the connection with climate impacts on the deep waters of the aquifer. This work brought the message home: climate change leads to increased water demand, which in turn, leads to increased use of the aquifer and aggravation of salinity. As a result, significant reductions in agricultural production are predicted due to the deterioration of water and soil quality but also to the disturbance of crop life-cycles. These conditions would ultimately cause the loss of revenue, increase vulnerability of the region’s populations, and accelerate migration.
Water–Energy–Food–Ecosystems Nexus
This work built the capacity of the Consultation Mechanism to help the countries to understand both the changing environment and to analyse options together. The need to access funding to address climate change issues was clear, but the institutional structure of the transboundary body would not allow access to many international financing mechanisms. GWP Mediterranean, at the request of the countries, responded by analysing how to enhance the body’s legal status and structure to match its growing needs and ambitions.
The most important insight from GWP Mediterranean’s support since 2013, and the engaged analysis and discussions, was recognition of the complex interdependencies among water security, energy sustainable production and use, food supply and affordability, and the environment. This recognition led to the adoption of the Water–Energy–Food–Ecosystems Nexus approach, which seeks to achieve the security of all three productive sectors, water, food, and energy, while ensuring preservation of essential ecosystems.
Key to this interdependence is all three sectors’ reliance on common groundwater resources. There are indirect and often unintended impacts of specific government policies such as energy subsidies, renewable energy deployment, and introduction of thirsty high-value crops. Choosing options for shared water management calls for an integrated and coordinated approach that takes the economies of the three countries as a starting point.
Sustainable solutions demands patience
Working with the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe and the Sahara and Sahel Observatory (OSS), GWP Mediterranean used a series of participatory workshops to develop a clearer understanding of this nexus in the NWSAS countries. Findings of the monitoring and climate change studies helped to identify sector interdependencies, the factors linking ecosystem degradation, and solutions to achieve resilient and sustainable socio-economic development while reducing inter-sectoral trade-offs and maximising synergies. A novel GIS integrated resource model for the agriculture– water–energy nexus in the NWSAS was developed to map scenarios and options, and help decision-making. The nexus work also led to another vital shift in thinking among the countries’ decision-makers.
“When the countries saw how all these economic activities were linked, and how climate change was affecting them, they were more willing to include other stakeholders in the problem solving process”, said Sarra Touzi, GWP Mediterranean specialist.
While moving from a focus on water use to adoption of joint management across borders and sectors is a transformative process that takes patience and time, it builds broad understanding of common problems and long-term sustainability. GWP’s experience with the North-Western Sahara Aquifer System brings home the lesson that partners should not be discouraged by today’s small or ‘difficult to measure’ changes, and should not interrupt support for this dynamic process that is key to preparing the way for larger impacts.