Water, energy and food security are key issues for the 21st century. They are basic human needs and strategic challenges for the future of our national economies. Development pressures on natural resources have grown to such an extent over the past 50 years that they are challenging the effectiveness of conventional planning and decision-making.
Trying to meet demand through single sector approaches in response to what are inherently inter-linked and inter-dependant processes, is limiting our ability to provide basic water, food and energy services to the poorest. Concurrently, there are signs of constrained growth, raised social and geopolitical tensions and irreversible environmental damage. Failing to recognise the consequences of decisions in one sector on another can lead to serious imbalances in the system as summarised in Figure 1. For example, decisions taken on the type of energy generation can significantly influence water demand and in the case of biofuels, displace food production; the way water is sourced, treated, priced and distributed can raise or lower energy requirements; and the choices made on food and diet influence both water and energy needs.
The nexus perspective helps to increase the understanding of the interdependencies across the water, energy, food and other sectors and policies. It supports in acting beyond solutions which are restricted to single sectors, that would consequently cause trade-offs.
We need to overcome the silo thinking and have to think and act interlinked to realize direct and indirect synergy potentials.