FutureWater has successfully completed the development and pilot testing of WatNEX: A Water Accounting Engine to support Water, Energy, Food, ecosystem (WEFe) decision making – in close collaboration with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). The project was implemented under FAO’s inter-Regional Technical Platform on Water Scarcity (iRTP-WS) for the 2024–2025 biennium.
WatNEX addresses the growing need for integrated, data-driven approaches to manage water scarcity, climate change impacts and competing sectoral demands. Decision-makers often rely on fragmented data and sector-specific tools, limiting their ability to assess trade-offs across water, energy, food and ecosystems. WatNEX responds to this challenge by providing a unified, transparent framework to support coherent WEFE nexus analysis and evidence-based decision-making.
The project began with an extensive consultation process involving WEFe experts and practitioners from Asia-Pacific, the Near East and North Africa, and Latin America and the Caribbean. Insights from literature review, interviews and surveys directly informed the design of the tool, ensuring that WatNEX is both scientifically robust and practically relevant.
Key features of WatNEX include:
- A modular and scalable structure, with water accounting as the core component
- Optional integration of energy, food and ecosystem dimensions
- A user-friendly Excel-based interface linked to the WEAP modelling framework
- Scenario analysis to assess future projections and policy interventions
WatNEX was piloted in three contrasting river basins: i) Tuul River Basin in Mongolia, ii) Lower Majerda Basin in Tunisia, and iii) Chancay–Lambayeque Basin in Peru, demonstrating its applicability across diverse hydrological and socio-economic contexts. The case studies showed how the tool can quantify water balances, identify sectoral supply–demand gaps, and highlight trade-offs across the WEFE nexus, such as increased energy use linked to measures that reduce water shortages.
The technical development was complemented by an online launch and three cross-regional workshops held in November 2025. Nearly 60 participants from more than 12 countries, representing ministries, research institutes, universities and development organizations, were trained on water accounting concepts and the practical use of WatNEX. Feedback was highly positive, highlighting the clarity of visual outputs, the intuitive interface and the relevance of the tool for strengthening evidence-based decision-making.
With WatNEX successfully delivered, FutureWater and FAO are exploring next steps to further strengthen the tool, including expanded datasets, additional policy-relevant indicators and broader capacity-building activities.
