E-Bulletin

Issue | October - November 2013

Water is critical for producing power, and vice versa. Almost all energy generation processes require significant amounts of water, and the treatment and transport of water requires energy, mainly in the form of electricity. Even though the interdependency between water and energy is gaining wider recognition worldwide, water and energy planning often remain distinct. The tradeoffs involved in balancing one need against the other in this “energy-water nexus,” as it is called, are often not clearly identified or taken into account, complicating possible solutions. To mitigate the challenges of the nexus, the World Bank Group recently started Thirsty Energy, a global initiative in partnership with the World Bank's water and energy departments and supported by ESMAP. The Thirsty Energy initiative will be officially launched at the World Future Energy Summit in Abu Dhabi in January 2014.