South Africa’s water crisis is not about a lack of resources; it’s about corruption. Photo: Mlungisi Louw/Volksblad/Gallo Images/Getty Images
Water, energy and food are central to sustainable development, socio-ecological and economic sustainability, healthy ecosystems and improved livelihoods. The three resources are key to climate change adaptation, mitigation and resilience and human and environmental well-being. The centrality of water, energy, and food (WEF) to the sustainable development goals is also evidenced by their interconnectedness of the WEF SDGs with the remaining 14 goals.
The interconnectedness and interdependencies between the WEF sectors call for transformative and cross-sectoral interventions in their management to enhance synergies and mitigate trade-offs. For example, about 30% of the global population still doesn’t have safe water. By 2030, 40% of the global population will suffer severe water stress. This imbalance is projected to result in almost 700 million people displaced by intense water scarcity. Water demand is expected to increase by nearly 55% by 2050, further exacerbating water insecurity.
Similarly, food-insecure people grew from 785 million in 2015 to 822 in 2018 when food production became more water- and energy-intensive. Agricultural mechanisation, intensification, and the increased use of agrochemicals on expanded irrigated land have increased water and energy use in agriculture. As a result, more than 30% of the global energy and 70% of the available freshwater withdrawals are used in the agriculture value chain. While nearly a billion people do not have access to electricity, global energy demand is projected to increase by 25% by 2040, compounding energy insecurity.
As the agriculture sector is under pressure to meet the growing demand for food from an increasing population, there is also pressure to improve the efficiency of water and energy use in the sector. Research has shown that energy insecurity is a major impediment to unlocking water and food security in Africa, highlighting the need to consider all WEF sectors in developmental planning.
As the second half of the 2030 Global Agenda on the sustainable development goals is already under way, developments in the first half indicate an apparent disconnection between global aspirations and reality because of limited progress on almost all goals. By the halfway mark, only 15% of the SDG targets were on track, and the rest showed stagnation or even regression, indicating major gaps in implementation, integration and financing.
The main causes hindering SDGs’ progress include the failure to transition from a business-as-usual mode; silos that hinder integration, coordination and collaboration; an emerging shift away from multilateralism in favour of nationalism; climate change-induced extreme weather events and health disasters; the Covid-19 pandemic and inadequate funding to support the transition. As of 2023, we had breached six of the nine planetary boundaries that regulate the stability and resilience of Earth’s systems. Crossing the boundaries increases the risk of large-scale and irreversible environmental damage. As most SDGs are already off the mark, there is an urgent need to adopt alternative pathways to accelerate our efforts within the set time frame while also starting to consider the post-2030 agenda.
The deteriorating insecurity of WEF resources and the challenges facing global multilateralism continue to challenge the ambitions espoused by the 2030 Global Agenda. The failure to transition away from business-as-usual, sector-based, and linear initiatives further undermines the interconnectedness of the SDGs. Focusing on selected SDGs without considering the interlinkages with the other goals generally results in undesired outcomes, including creating suboptimal efficiencies in those specific sectors and undermining progress on the other goals.
An important factor to consider regarding accelerating progress towards achieving the SDGs is recognising water, energy, and food as the basis of SDGs. Given the catalytic role of WEF resources in achieving sustainability and resilience, there is a need to provide pathways that accelerate sustainable development through integrated management of the interlinked WEF sectors amid climate change, increasing demand, depletion and degradation. The WEF nexus is key in catalysing the SDGS as it highlights the interrelations and interconnectedness of SDGs and provides pathways for an inclusive and harmonised governance framework that drives towards the realisation of the SDGs.
The interconnectedness of the WEF resources and their multi-sectoral reference provides the key to sustainable development. There is a need for policy integration and alignment to drive the 2030 Agenda through a cross-sectoral and harmonised governance framework. Such a framework could provide an inclusive roadmap towards a more integrated and cross-sectoral strategy for achieving the 2030 Global Agenda. However, failure to recognise the SDGs’ interconnectedness and the lack of an integrated governance framework pose the greatest risk to achieving the SDGs.
The key to the realisation of the sustainable development goals is the recognition of their interconnectedness and their targets and indicators and the need for an inclusive, cross-sectoral, and integrated policy framework to guide SDGs implementation and WEF nexus operationalisation, among other factors that include funding, advocacy and capacity building.
Failure to acknowledge the interconnectedness of the SDGs and the lack of an integrated governance framework have posed the greatest risk to the realisation of the SDGs, besides the emergence of novel infectious diseases. When WEF resources are efficiently managed and equitably distributed, they play a key role in strengthening the resilience of socio-economic and environmental systems.
Luxon Nhamo, Sylvester Mpandeli and Stanley Liphadzi are research managers at the Water Research Commission and Tafadzwanashe Mabhaudhi is a professor at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.