Nexus Simulation Facilitation

How it works

The simulation places participants in different roles that reflect the major water users such as energy, industry, agriculture, local governments and other stakeholders with potential influences on how water is governed or used such as journalists, international agencies and local NGOs & CSOs.

*Participants can play a variety of roles in the game.*

The players experience and learn about how water flows and how the distribution systems provide water for different purposes such as energy generation, energy production, food production, goods production, community usage, and ecosystem services. They also interact with the market, use money in exchange for services, as well as purchase new technologies and fix the consequences of pollution.

*Participants are exchanging currencies.*

As the simulation proceeds, many of the players experience and contemplate actions on the following:

Negotiating with other stakeholders for investment in new technologies or lower cost of goods or services.
Pitching for grants or loans to international development agencies.
The costs and benefits of reserving enough water for the important ecosystem sites (wetlands, mangroves…) and the health of biodiversity.
Prioritizing needs when a crisis happens such as water shortage during dry seasons the collapse of an ecosystem or other consequences of pollution.
Controlling the sources of pollution or holding others responsible for it.
Finding collaborators for better outcomes at a lower cost

As they play different roles and take different responsibilities to their actual role in real life, the players could put themselves in others’ shoes to understand the others’ needs for water resources and become more mindful of the bigger landscape. There’s also the realization of potential collaboration among water users to share the financial burden to improve the environmental condition as well as the role of CSOs and NGOs in supporting businesses to reduce their impacts.