SRP 4 ACTIVITY CLUSTER 1
Title (15 words)
Managing water resources’ variability and re-thinking storage in basins for enhanced food and
livelihoods security
Tagline
Moderating Resource Variability
Problem to be addressed: (100 words)
Variability of water and other resources in time and space is the major natural impediment for
sustainable agriculture, food production and development at large. The extremes of variability –
floods and droughts – are the primary “agents” of destruction, severe crop damages and human
life losses. In 2011 alone they killed tens of thousands of people, primarily in developing
countries, and caused over $150 billion in damage globally. Yet, they may still have beneficial
aspects: floods can benefit fisheries and floodplain agriculture, while droughts may kill pests.
The issue is therefore to mitigate the negative impacts of variability while simultaneously
exploiting its benefits. Variability of water resources is set to increase with climate change, and
is the primary determinant of water scarcity, but current practices for its management are far
from adequate. The key to water management for increased agricultural production is better
management of rainfall and associated runoff variability. New information and solutions are
required to deal with increasing variability at the basin scale through the technical and economic
appraisal and design of diverse water storage “portfolios” (combining both human-made and
natural “infrastructure”) that safeguard essential ecosystem services and maximize the
development benefits, underground “taming” of large floods for subsequent use in extended
drought periods, conjunctive surface and groundwater management, non-structural solutions,
enhanced collaboration of farmers and water resource managers, and guiding the associated
investments by sound economic, social and environmental principles.
Development objective (SLO link)
Variability management interventions can significantly improve water supply for food
production (40% SLO Food security), create jobs (10% SLO Poverty Reduction) and enhance
and explicitly account for ecosystem services provided by various water storage in basin-wide
resource planning - to maximize the development benefits (50% SLO Sustainable NRM).
Intermediate Development objective (long). (100 words)
Increased and more reliable water supply for crop production from captured flood waters in
selected Basins in Asia (in the order of 300 km3 of additional water annually if implemented at
the scale of India, for example) and associated estimated increase in irrigated area (in the order
of 1 mill ha), with over $1 bill of annual income to small farmers. Improved national food
security in countries of selected Basins through reduced crop losses by some 50% due to
alleviation of negative consequences of and direct damages caused by floods and droughts. .
Research outcomes (50 words)
Plans for development of flood harvesting underground and other managed aquifer recharge
interventions will be piloted in at least 2 countries /river basins. With adequate co-investment
and support from beneficiary partners, these interventions will be piloted at a scale that can
demonstrate the benefits to flood protection and agricultural productivity to provide the evidence
and confidence needed for upscaling. Information on how to design, evaluate and implement
storage portfolios will be used in basin development plans in another 3 countries. 15 -20 donor
programs will be informed about the development benefits and poverty alleviation impacts
provided by investments in research on resource variability management. Major investment
agencies will be informed about methodologies and environmental outcomes of
storage
“portfolio” design and conjunctive flood-drought management in the whole-basin context.
Example activities & outputs (100 words)
Activities:
●
Quantification of benefits and consequences of considering portfolios of natural and built
storage infrastructure in 3 selected river basins
●
Evaluation of flood harvesting potential (in terms of floods, hydrogeology and socioeconomics) – regionally and in selected river basins; Pilot implementation of flood harvesting in
two demonstration sites in SEA and SA.
●
Development of guidelines and protocols for basin-wide application of promising new
variability management interventions and for social and economic appraisals of these
interventions at different scales
Outputs:
●
Improved understanding of natural and built infrastructure in basins, ecosystem services
that they provide, their inter-linkages and role in supporting livelihoods, reducing poverty and
enhancing food security; Enhanced understanding of i) extent and magnitude of the
opportunities to harvest floods in major river basins ii) surface and subsurface characteristics
that most favor its implementation iii) how to exploit positive benefits of floods and droughts
while mitigating their negative consequences
●
Demonstration of the technical performance of underground flood harvesting in terms of
the mitigation of flood risks, enhanced groundwater storage, new irrigation potential created,
and ability to mitigate subsequent droughts in rainfed and irrigated areas.
●
Tools and approaches for managing floods and droughts conjunctively in the same river
basins
●
Estimates of investments needed to make such floods’ harvesting work in study basins,
and the costs and benefits associated with the impacts that arise from those investments.
●
Example investment plans for replication of large-scale variability management
interventions in 4 to 6 selected Asia and Africa basins
●
A catalogue of promising variability management interventions in basin wide-context
Theory of change (50 words)
These initiatives will aim for several major paradigm changes:
●
Making sure that natural resources variability, and that of water especially, is seen as the
major impediment for development globally
●
From “floods are a menace and wasted opportunity” - to “floods are additional source
of water for agriculture” during drought years (conjunctive management of floods and droughts)
●
From hard-engineering “flood protection with emphasis on barriers and diversion- to
participatory “floods capture and storage underground” engaging farmers as flood harvesters to
protect the built environment
●
From “large dams’ only solution” for variability management with all known associated
culprits - to “flexible storage continuum/ storage portfolio solution” – most suitable to local
environmental and social development objectives.
●
From “built vs natural storage” to “optimal combination of built AND natural storages”
●
From separate to conjunctive management of floods and droughts in Basins/Regions
Approximate timescales for delivery: 3-5 years
Budget over next 3-5 years: 3 mill annually over the next 3 years starting 2013
SRP 4 ACTIVITY CLUSTER 2
Title
Sustainable, efficient, and equitable allocation of water, land and energy resources and their
benefits in river basins
Tagline (if available):
Water Sharing for the Benefit of All
Problem to be addressed:
Today, 36% of all people, 39% of grain production, and 22% of global GDP are at risk due to
water stress. By 2050, these figures could grow to 52%, 49% and 45% respectively. This stark
picture is informed by increasing population, urbanisation and economic growth in lessdeveloped countries, resulting in more resource-demanding consumption patterns. Currently,
there are 1 billion food-insecure people in the world. Inadequate policies and institutions result
in poor sharing of water resources and its benefits, insufficient and poorly designed water
infrastructure (across all scales) limits access to water, and lack of reliable data on availability
of natural resources constrain water planning and management. These issues are at the heart of
continued poverty, food and nutrition insecurity, and environmental degradation in many
developing-countries. Efforts need to be made to increase water supply by tapping new sources
(including groundwater where appropriate), but it is also essential that more productive and
efficient use is made of currently available resources. Better planning and management of water
resources within basins is a prerequisite for sustainable development and ensuring that benefits
go to the most disadvantaged users, generally rural women and men, while preserving natural
ecosystems and biodiversity. Water in a basin can be reallocated from less to more productive
uses with appropriate attention to environmental needs (i.e. ecosystem services), water rights
and compensation. These processes are still only emerging in developing countries. The
productivity of water in different uses is affected by land management practices - the link which
is often missing in planning. Also, upstream land and water management practices affect the
quantity, quality and reliability of natural resources available to downstream users, such as
urban communities, fisheries, hydropower and irrigation. The above interactions in a basin-scale
context, despite recent attention to them, have not yet been properly understood and analyzed,
let alone implemented widely.
Development objective (SLO link):
Increased resource-use efficiency of food production in Asian river basins; increased access by
the poor to irrigation and other forms of AWM in African basins to increase food and nutrition
security and reduce poverty; enhanced cooperation across riparian countries in Central Asian
and Middle Eastern river basins to reduce poverty and environmental stresses. This sub-program
is approximately equally contributes to SLOs of “Food security”, “Poverty reduction” and
“Sustainable NRM”, but proportions may vary in regions
Intermediate Development objective (long). (100 words)
Sustainable, efficient, and equitable allocation of water and other NRs and their benefits across
CRP5 basins.. Established benefit sharing mechanisms in 2 selected river basins or parts
thereof. Shift to more water efficient crops in 2 selected river basins or parts thereof.
Environmental water allocations are implemented in at least one river basin and included in
national legislation in 2 countries. Improved national food security in countries of selected
Basins through secure land and water access through newly established allocation policies
informed by this SRP.
Research outcomes: (50 words).
Research outcomes will vary by region/ basin, but in most of the cases we will aim for equitable,
efficient and sustainable water and associated resources’ allocation across competing
uses/riparian countries to reduce poverty and resource degradation. In Mekong we will aim to
ensure that countries of the Basin and regional organizations explicitly include environmental
and livelihoods parameters in the future reservoir planning and operations, and that decline in
number of fish species/diversity (a source of protein for the poor in the Region) is halted. In
Indus, we will aim to stabilize per capita wheat and rice production and eradication of water use
inequity across Basins provinces. Increased trans-boundary water cooperation and free data
exchange is targeted in Ganges, Nile, Mekong, Middle-East and Aral sea basins. Increased
coordination between donor investments and decreased aid fragmentation is the aim for all
Basins; and so is the improved capacity of Basin stakeholders to define resource and benefit
sharing problems, target solutions, understand their consequences, and negotiate evidence‐
based benefit‐ sharing agreements.
Expected activities & outputs (100 words)
Set of activities and outputs will vary in basins/regions, but we will generally target the
production of new information and tools, range of tailor-made solutions and improved capacity
to deal with local issues related to resources and benefits allocation and sharing.
For example, in Central Asia, the focus will be on identification of new models for governing a
complex trans-boundary system, work with governments to implement viable approaches for
sharing the benefits of water and land resources, and illustration of potential of completely
underused groundwater for immediate water security relief. In the Ganges, the main group of
activities can center around the idea of making Ganga “Water Machine” work (in close
collaboration with Irrigation SRP) for improved water supply and access benefiting the poor,
targeting to moderate, and ultimately – eradicate the devastating impacts of recurring flooding in
the entire Region. In Andean basins, the focus may be on developing and implementing practical
benefit-sharing mechanisms that alleviate poverty by conserving fragile upland areas, reducing
sediment flow and improving water availability. In Southern Africa basins (Limpopo, Zambezi)
the research will include assessment of groundwater availability in large transboundary aquifers
(untapped sources which can give a push to local small-holder agriculture), establishing
ecological thresholds for groundwater use (still possible prior to major harvesting of
groundwater), and relevant governance models. In Mekong, outputs will include tools to assist
with managing future reservoirs and their cascades with inclusion of ecological and livelihood
considerations, quantified impacts of possible hydropower development scenarios on
livelihoods, and quantified scenarios for large‐ scale irrigation development.
Theory of change (50 words):
We will aim to ensure a mindset change that implies that almost every land management
decision has water implications, and often – vice versa, and make sure that such links are
properly quantified in the socio-political settings of river basins. We will examine the idea that
poverty alleviation and food security enhancement in certain conditions in selected large
agricultural basins may be better accomplished by reorienting certain proportion of the
population to non-agricultural livelihoods. We will aim to provide indicators for suitable levels
of compensation for those who cede water rights. The major change and related practical
innovations shall also be associated with the new mindset, whereby the issue of water and other
resources allocation and management is examined through the prism of negative and positive
implications for ecosystem services and flow of benefits. This sub-program will focus on
managing trade-offs in ecosystem services at the basin scale. Another avenue for change shall be
associated with learning from natural and social environments in which bright spots of
successful allocation/ sharing /cooperation (e.g. transboundary, internal, upstream-downstream)
occur. At the same time, considering the developing/transitional nature of many of the
economies where this sub-program will operate, identifying ‘second best’ solutions for
immediate implementation is imperative. This two‐ tier approach may provide the breakthrough
that some Regions have been missing for the last 20-30 years.
Approximate timescales for delivery: 5 years
Budget over next 3 years. 2012 3m; 2013 4m; 2014; 5m.
SRP 4 ACTIVITY CLUSTER 3
Title (15 words)
The water-energy-agriculture nexus: unpacking the tradeoffs and reducing pressures on the poor
Tagline
Water and Energy for Food (WE4F)
Problem to be addressed: (100 words)
Increasing natural resource scarcity and degradation links food security of the poor and most
vulnerable rural men and women inextricably to developments in the water and energy sectors, all
influenced, in turn, by climate and environmental changes. Water can create energy (e.g.
hydropower). Energy can “create” water (lifting, pumping, desalination). Agriculture itself creates
energy, often at the expense of food (e.g. biofuels), while energy creates food through processing,
transit, manufacturing of fertilizers and other farming inputs. At the basin level, hydropower
competes with irrigation and other energy-intensive users, influences aquatic ecosystem services
upstream and downstream of power generation nodes, promotes evaporation from reservoirs and
can create deep irrigation water shortages during reservoir filling stage. Biofuel plantations, driven
by energy security and climate policy, compete with food crops for land and water. Agricultural,
water and energy policies influence each other and jointly determine outcomes for the poor and the
environment. For example, rural electrification changes the pattern of groundwater use in irrigation.
And, clean renewable energy development trends can radically change water supply to agriculture
and cities globally. In summary, almost every water decision and development at present affects
energy decisions and development, and vice versa. The trans-boundary nature of many large river
basins further complicates water-energy nexus. As countries develop, and energy consumption
increases, tensions between water for energy - for food and the environment - will increase.
This cross-SRP research cluster will identify and quantify linkages, tensions and tradeoffs across
these sectors using water as an entry point. It will examine alternative water management,
technology and governance options to reduce tradeoffs and adverse consequences across the
nexus.
Development objective (SLO link)
Reducing/minimizing the tradeoffs among water, energy, agriculture, and environmental outcomes
for the benefits of the poor. 20% SLO Food security, 20% -SLO poverty alleviation, 10% - nutrition
security, and 50% sustainable NRM
Intermediate Development objective (long). (100 words)
Water, energy and food security improved by 10-20% for the key indicators of water,
energy and food security in at least 3-5 countries of the main CRP5 river basins.
Research outcomes: (50 words)
In 5 years, inter-linkages across the water-energy-agriculture nexus are identified for 3-5 river
basins; technologies, policies, institutions and investment alternatives have been developed and
assessed toward reducing the tradeoff and improving overall outcomes across the nexus sectors;
identification and assessment has been done together with policymakers, private sector and civil
society, and communicated in means accessible by each of these groups.
Example activities & outputs (100 words)
Example Activities:
·
Review of literature on the linkages between water, energy, food and the environment in various
geographical and political settings and at different scales. Review of the past and current policy
environment in case study areas affecting energy use in agriculture
·
Collection of primary and secondary data on inputs to agricultural production and the role of
energy in it. Assessment of energy use and cost in agriculture across case study areas, gender- and
crop-disaggregated as feasible
·
Simulation modeling of various water-energy interactions at local, basin and global scales and
assessment of associated environmental impacts. Optimization modeling of water-energy nexus in
various basin settings to achieve “water and energy smart” agricultural intensification (e.g. how to
reduce energy consumption at basin scale by optimizing irrigation – adapting water saving
technologies, shifting to conjunctive use of groundwater and canal water or conservation agriculture
in lift irrigation zones).
·
Stakeholder dialogues and desktop analyses of i) most promising technologies, policies,
institutions and investment alternatives that can address potentially adverse outcomes for the poor
and hungry ii) water, energy and environmental implications of producing energy through biofuels,
hydropower and other means iii) substitution possibilities across the nexus at different spatial scales
iv) nexus implications of sustainable agricultural intensification on irrigated vs rainfed lands, etc
Example outputs:
Tools and policy processes for a holistic assessment of technologies, policies, institutions and
investments that cover all key sectors in the nexus to reduce tradeoffs and increase overall benefits
for enhanced water, food and environmental outcomes
Theory of change (50 words)
This research cluster will contribute to the “Future Earth” agenda that is set to replace the Global
Change agenda in the coming years.
It will influence the shaping of the new Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), based on new nexus
insights.
New insights on the nexus will be essential to ensure that advancements in agricultural water use
and food production do not adversely affect other important human and environmental security
dimensions, including important non-monetary ecosystem services, on which the poor tend to
depend disproportionately.
This research will influence government/private sector/civil society silo thinking that continues to
focus on single-sector impacts
Approximate timescales for delivery: 5 years
Budget over next 3-5 years: USD 3 mill/yr over 5 yrs.