The interdependency among water, food, and energy (WEF) in the GCC
countries is strongly and closely interlinked, and is intensifying as demand
for resources increases with population growth and changing consumption
patterns, and are expected to be further compounded by the impacts of climate
change. Therefore, integrated management of the three sectors is crucial to
reduce trade-offs and build synergies among them. This paper presents a
comprehensive framework to assess the WEF nexus in Kuwait as a representative
case for the GCC countries. The framework consists of three main steps: 1) evaluating the influence of socio-economic
development and climate change on water, energy, and food resources; 2)
generating scenario-based projections; and 3) conducting an extensive
quantitative nexus analysis. The WEF interlinkages in Kuwait are modelled
quantitatively using the Q-Nexus model, and current critical interdependencies
are evaluated. Then, various WEF-Nexus scenarios were conducted for the year
2035 to explore the effects of management interventions in one sector on the
other two sectors. The main findings are that per capita municipal water
consumption is a major influencer on the WEF-nexus due to the heavy reliance on
thermal desalination in municipal water supply in Kuwait, which is attributed
to its energy intensity, financial cost, GHGs emissions, and environmental
impacts on the marine and air environments. To reduce WEF trade-offs, mitigate
risks, and build synergies among the three sectors, it is important to shift
the current policy focus on supply-side management approach to the demand-side
management and efficiency approaches.
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