Estidamah Participates in the First Dutch-Saudi Conference Water-Energy-Food Nexus

^{Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, 16 November 2017}

Estidamah participated in the First Dutch-Saudi Conference on Water-Energy-Food Nexus in the GCC countries organized by the Embassy of Netherlands in Saudi Arabia on 16th of November 2017, and hosted by International Energy Forum at IEF Secretariat, Diplomatic Quarter, Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

Held under the theme: “Towards Sustainable Synergy between Water, Energy, and Food”, the event brought together approximately 40 delegates from 25 entities representing public, private and knowledge parties, whose active participation helped shape a positive outcome with clear follow-up actions.

This conference comes in line with the strategic collaboration between the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the Kingdom of the Netherlands, since they were part of 193 countries signing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in 2015, as part of a wider agenda for 2030. Several of the 17 SDGs are interlinked to the nexus-approach, including zero hunger, clean water and sanitation, affordable and clean energy, sustainable cities and communities, responsible consumption and production, and climate action. The nexus-approach contributes to the realization of the SDGs.

On behalf of “Estidamah”Dr. Jouke Campen, Wageningen University & Research offered a presentation on “Preliminary Results of Energy, Water and Food in Traditional and High-Tech Greenhouses”, where he demonstrated that in high-tech greenhouse production a minimum of fresh water use could be achieved (5% of traditional use), while tripling production.

The Conference adopted five main objectives, namely: presenting advantages of considering water, energy and food in a more holistic way, exploring how policies in the Netherlands and Gulf Cooperation Council countries, and in particular Saudi Arabia, support nexus initiatives, seeking collaboration between the Netherlands and GCC countries, and in particular Saudi Arabia, in applied research, presenting successful examples of synergies between water, energy and food sectors and collecting new ideas for public private partnerships, business-to-business opportunities, and collaboration among centers.

The Conference concluded that collaboration between knowledge institutes and universities in Saudi Arabia and the Netherlands in the area of the nexus is beneficial to both Kingdoms as this will assist in informing policy and investment decisions, and can support business opportunities and economic ties between both countries in particular and the GCC region at large.