The Integrated Management of Egypt’s Resources Within the Water-Energy-Food Nexus

The Water-Energy-Food, WEF, Nexus approach is a holistic vision of sustainability that recognizes and tries to strike a balance between the different goals, interests and needs of people and the environment. The Nexus is not new concept, as interdependency does exist in nature. However, management of water and energy for food production with the aim to produce more food from less water and energy using a more integrated and holistic approach was not commonly practiced. Egypt is considered to be one of the most vulnerable countries to the impact of climate change. Water, food, and energy securities are becoming more important in the light of climate change and population growth. Energy scarcity and rising energy prices would increase poverty, strain the national budget and jeopardize Egypt’s competitiveness for the future. The global warming would result in reduced freshwater resources availability, increased irrigation water requirement as well as water and energy consumption. The Egypt’s Nile Delta is particularly susceptible to seawater rise due to climate change with its low-altitude. Guaranteeing food security given the limited water and agricultural land coupled with population growth is creating a mounting pressure on Egypt’s ability to provide food for its people in the future. The Egypt’s WEF nexus index value was 53.1, and ranks 125th among nations in the year 2021. On the other hand, the index values in years 2019 and 2020 were 52.9 and 55.3, with ranking of 121st and 111st, respectively. Egypt needs more efforts to reach sustainable agriculture production and improve WEF nexus index value.