As Water Levels Drop in Ethiopian Rivers, Electricity Generation is Put at Risk

Via Future Directions International, a report on the watergy nexus in East Africa: A drop in water levels in Ethiopian dams has led to electricity rationing in its domestic and industrial sectors, according to the Minister for Water and Electricity, Seleshi Bekele. The water shortage has led to a power deficit of 476 megawatts at the […]

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Diving Deep Into Water and Energy Trade-Offs

Via EurekAlert, an article on the watergy nexus: Two papers by Michigan State University (MSU) scientists begin challenging a more simplistic, input/output view of natural resources in favor of a way that better reflected how the world really works. That these natural resources don’t just flow or gush down pipelines. That sometimes energy whisks across […]

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Permian Oil Boom Uncorks Multibillion-Dollar Water Play

Courtesy of Circle of Blue, a report on how producing oil produces even more water and getting rid of it is a large and expanding business: Producing oil produces even more water: two to five barrels of water for every barrel of fracked oil Produced water, as the industry calls it, is a noxious mix, a […]

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America’s Oil Boom Cannot Happen Without Groundwater

Courtesy of the Circle of Blue, a detailed look at water required to develop New Mexico’s Permian basin: Deep beneath the desert that surrounds this oil boomtown is a fossil fuel bounty of staggering riches reachable only by penetrating vulnerable beds of porous limestone and soluble salt at considerable environmental and public risk. Carlsbad is […]

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Australia Turns To Desalination For Water Security, But At What Cost?

Via The Conversation, an article on the increasing reliance of Australian cities on desalination to supply drinking water: Removing salts and other impurities from water is really difficult. For thousands of years people, including Aristotle, tried to make fresh water from sea water. In the 21st century, advances in desalination technology mean water authorities in Australia […]

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A ‘Shrinking Window’ of Usable Groundwater — and the Oil and Gas Industry Isn’t Helping

Via Desmog, a look at new analysis revealing that we have much less water in our aquifers than previously thought — and the oil and gas industry could put that at even greater risk: We’re living beyond our means when it comes to groundwater. That’s probably not news to everyone, but new research suggests that, deep […]

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About This Blog And Its Author
As the scarcity of water and energy continues to grow, the linkage between these two critical resources will become more defined and even more acute in the months ahead.  This blog is committed to analyzing and referencing articles, reports, and interviews that can help unlock the nascent, complex and expanding linkages between water and energy -- The Watergy Nexus -- and will endeavor to provide a central clearinghouse for insightful articles and comments for all to consider.

Educated at Yale University (Bachelor of Arts - History) and Harvard (Master in Public Policy - International Development), Monty Simus has held a lifelong interest in environmental and conservation issues, primarily as they relate to freshwater scarcity, renewable energy, and national park policy.  Working from a water-scarce base in Las Vegas with his wife and son, he is the founder of Water Politics, an organization dedicated to the identification and analysis of geopolitical water issues arising from the world’s growing and vast water deficits, and is also a co-founder of SmartMarkets, an eco-preneurial venture that applies web 2.0 technology and online social networking innovations to motivate energy & water conservation.  He previously worked for an independent power producer in Central Asia; co-authored an article appearing in the Summer 2010 issue of the Tulane Environmental Law Journal, titled: “The Water Ethic: The Inexorable Birth Of A Certain Alienable Right”; and authored an article appearing in the inaugural issue of Johns Hopkins University's Global Water Magazine in July 2010 titled: “H2Own: The Water Ethic and an Equitable Market for the Exchange of Individual Water Efficiency Credits.”