In addition to the conventional energy market issues, mainly oil, related to price and production, the industry seems to be gearing for a new worry — how to handle the oil-water nexus.

A recent UN Water Day has a very simple message to deliver: Water needs energy and energy needs water. The interdependencies between the two is strengthened and consolidated by the day. After all some 90 percent of power generation is water-intensive.

Using various parameters to look into the crystal ball, the world seems to be heading toward increasing its energy consumption by more than a third in only two decades. Such increase requires an additional increase of 85 percent of water consumption according the consumers’ watch dog, the Paris-based International Energy Agency (IEA).

With such increase comes completion for supplies as the world population will top 9 billion people, who need an additional 50 percent in agricultural production. The pressure for more supplies is not only restricted to rural areas and agriculture, but the spreading urbanization — where five billion people expected to be living in cities, towns and urban centers by 2030 — will add to pressure to provide water to cater for their needs in food and energy supplies.

These future figures could easily be justified by the fact that currently some 8 percent of global energy supply is consumed to meet pumping, treatment and transportation of water from one place to another. The unconventional energy source like sand oil in Canada and fracking in the United States are both water intensive operations.

Moreover, removing water from its source, or ground water abstraction, is believed to be increasing by 1-2 percent per annum. In addition, an estimated 20 percent of the world’s aquifers are designated as over exploited. And that is why by 2035 the IEA thinks the world will increase its water consumption by 85 percent.

According to the World Bank, last year saw some troubling signs related to water shortage where thermal plants were closed down in India and power production declined in the United States, while in China, Sri Lanka and Brazil hydropower plants were threatened.

“The world’s energy and water are inextricably linked,” said World Bank Group Vice President and Special Envoy for Climate Change Rachel Kyte. “With demand rising for both resources and increasing challenges from climate change, water scarcity can threaten the long-term viability of energy projects and hinder development.”

To meet such challenge ideas are floating around to identify synergies and exchange energy and water development plans, ensure cross-sectoral planning to ensure sustainability for both water and energy in terms of investments, in addition to coordination at decision-making level so as to come up with the desired outcome.

When the world managed to overcome the first energy shock back in the 1970s many predicted that the scene was being prepared for water wars given the fact of growing population and that many rivers and water sources are crossing national borders with many disputes either taking place or are in the offing.

Though that scenario did not happen the way it was predicted, but the new emphasis on linkage between water and energy will revive the old interest and try to sort out some solutions that ought to be based on more rationale than sensationalism.

The first energy shock brought with it too pessimistic scenarios, including the Peak Oil theory that the world oil production has reached its peak and it has only one way to go — decline at the time population growth and urbanization will require more energy.

However, over time that prediction proved to be simplistic and that there are more energy resources that needs investments and technology to tap. The same could apply to water issues, where more innovative policies and administrative techniques are to be applied, in addition to rationalization of water use as in the case with energy. Such efforts can be productive if water-energy nexus is put under the spotlight so as to allow for more serious debate and exchange of ideas.

Energy and particularly oil got the description as a strategic commodity given its inseparable link to politics and security. Water can get more attention from leaders and rank and files alike. After all, it is the source of life. People can adjust their lives to reduced or no oil supplies, but can’t do that with water.

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