The local weather disaster in 2025 continues to worsen, posing important and widespread threats to each public well being and the setting. The World Meteorological Group (WMO), in its “State of the World Local weather 2024” report, emphasizes that anthropogenic local weather change has reached unprecedented ranges, with 2024 being the warmest 12 months inside the 175-year observational report. World temperatures have surpassed the pre-industrial interval by greater than 1.5°C, averaging 1.55 ± 0.13°C, surpassing the earlier warmest 12 months, 2023, at 1.45°C ± 0.12°C above the 1850-1900 baseline.[1] Inside Africa, ongoing warming developments correspond with the worldwide rise in common temperatures, with the continent experiencing the warmest decade on report in 2024. The WMO report highlights that these temperature anomalies have amplified current challenges, corresponding to water shortage, meals insecurity, and vitality techniques, which require new alternatives and instruments to satisfy these challenges.[2]
The Power-Water-Meals (EWF) nexus is taken into account the conceptual framework that sheds mild on the interconnectivity and interdependence between water, vitality, and meals techniques. These core techniques kind the pillars of human well-being, financial improvement, and environmental sustainability.[3] They don’t operate in isolation; as a substitute, they influence and rely on each other in multifaceted methods. For instance, water is a requisite for each vitality manufacturing and agricultural irrigation. Conversely, vitality is required for water extraction, purification, distribution and for powering farming gear and meals processing. Equally, meals manufacturing patterns form each vitality and water demand. Demographic strain additional intensifies these challenges.
Whereas the specter of local weather change constitutes a worldwide disaster transcending nationwide borders, this perception facilities on East Africa, the place local weather change intensifies systemic vulnerabilities throughout the nexus. East Africa refers to a area comprising states corresponding to Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Ethiopia, Rwanda, South Sudan, and Burundi, amongst others, which have confronted extreme interlinked challenges associated to useful resource shortage. The area is categorized by speedy inhabitants progress, local weather variability, and concrete enlargement, all of which pressure the water, vitality, and meals techniques. Using the EWF nexus framework, this text seeks to bridge the divide between theoretical understanding and sensible coverage implementation, providing insights into each the core alternatives and the dangers related to persistent disjointed improvement.
Water Safety Underneath a Altering Local weather
In East Africa, water stress and shortage persist as important challenges influencing the EWF nexus. All through Africa, it’s estimated that roughly 250 million persons are affected by excessive water stress, with projections indicating that this example could displace as much as 700 million individuals by the 12 months 2030.[4] Excessive climate phenomena pose escalating threats to the area, as heavy rainfall results in flooding and extended droughts lead to water shortages. In keeping with the Intergovernmental Authority on Growth (IGAD), by means of its Local weather Prediction and Functions Centre (ICPAC), it was acknowledged at a press convention within the Kenyan capital of Nairobi in 2022 that the East African area skilled greater temperatures and below-normal rainfall that 12 months.[5] In keeping with IGAD, between 15.5 and 16 million individuals in East Africa require pressing meals support because of the ongoing drought. Particularly, it’s reported that roughly 6 to six.5 million individuals in Ethiopia, 3.5 million in Kenya, and 6 million in Somalia are experiencing extreme water and pasture shortages. These shortages are leading to diminished meals manufacturing, substantial losses of livestock and wildlife, and a rise in resource-related conflicts.[6]
Among the many East African nations, Kenya is assessed as one of many water-scarce nations globally, with an annual per capita water availability of lower than 1000 m³. You will need to be aware {that a} nation is taken into account water-stressed if its per capita water availability falls beneath 1,700 cubic meters (m³) yearly.[7] The water shortage scenario has deteriorated in most creating nations attributable to speedy inhabitants progress, financial improvement, and urbanization, making it difficult to deal with the problem and supply satisfactory sanitation companies. Tanzania, by comparability, is taken into account water-abundant; nonetheless, its various local weather and geological situations result in substantial seasonal, interannual, and spatial fluctuations in water availability, in addition to challenges associated to water high quality. Water stress in Tanzania is deemed average, in line with the Falkenmark Water Stress Index, as the whole annual renewable water per capita quantities to 1,680 cubic meters.[8] Throughout the area, weak infrastructure stays a vital issue, limiting the power to retailer, distribute, and handle out there assets successfully.
In keeping with the World Financial institution, irrigation accounts for 70% of worldwide freshwater withdrawals, regardless of protecting solely 20% of agricultural land.[9] Nonetheless, it’s chargeable for 40% of worldwide meals and fodder manufacturing and 55% of the whole worth of agricultural output. Irrigation pumping additionally accounts for six% of worldwide electrical energy consumption and considerably contributes to methane emissions, particularly from irrigated rice.[10] These figures underscore the severity of sustainable useful resource administration and the appreciable strain exerted on water and vitality techniques by agricultural calls for.
Power Programs Underneath Local weather Stress
Transitioning over to vitality, the Worldwide Power Company (IEA) stories that in Sub-Saharan Africa, 35 million individuals gained entry to electrical energy in 2023. Nonetheless, inhabitants progress throughout the identical interval added practically 30 million individuals, leading to a web achieve of solely about 5 million individuals with entry. Regardless of such progress, the area now accounts for 85% of the worldwide inhabitants with out electrical energy, up from 50% in 2010.[11] In keeping with 2023 information, 18 of the 20 nations with the biggest electrical energy entry deficits are positioned in Sub-Saharan Africa. Nigeria (86.6 million), the Democratic Republic of the Congo (79.6 million), and Ethiopia (56.4 million) collectively characterize greater than one-third of the world’s inhabitants with out entry to electrical energy.[12] In rural areas, electrical energy entry charges are 35% in Ethiopia, 19% in Tanzania, 13% in Uganda, and 69% in Kenya, indicating a major hole between city and rural areas concerning electrical energy entry.[13]
Nonetheless, this has not halted efforts towards renewable vitality tasks in East Africa. For instance, the hydropower potential of Ethiopia is estimated to achieve upwards of 4500 MW, thought of the best in Africa.[14] By way of geothermal vitality, Kenya holds the title of chief within the area, because it produces over 863 MW of geothermal vitality.[15] Nonetheless, the total potential of hydropower and geothermal vitality shouldn’t be utilized to the fullest by the 2 nations, respectively. Whereas hydropower is turning into a dependable supply of electrical energy in Ethiopia, local weather variability poses a major danger to its sustainability. The area has confronted extreme droughts in previous many years, which diminished water circulation within the reservoir and introduced a heavy influence on energy era. Because of low reservoir ranges, Kenya was compelled to chop hydroelectric era and depended largely on expensive diesel mills and imports. It highlights water-energy interdependence within the area.
Agriculture, Meals Safety, and Local weather Challenges
Inside East Africa, meals techniques stay extremely weak to local weather variability, land degradation, socio-economic pressures, and insufficient infrastructure. In keeping with the United Nations, 685 million people, with over 80% residing in Sub-Saharan Africa, proceed to lack entry to electrical energy.[16] Concurrently, over 400 million Africans lack entry to fundamental ingesting water, and greater than 250 million endure from meals insecurity.[17] These statistics underscore the crucial to formulate nexus-informed methods that concurrently handle a number of useful resource techniques. Meals insecurity stays a persistent problem throughout the area, with tens of millions of individuals dealing with recurring shortages of nutritious meals and disruptions to agricultural manufacturing. In keeping with the “World Report on Meals Crises for East Africa 2024” by ICPAC, 64.2 million individuals, or 24% of the analyzed inhabitants, confronted excessive ranges of acute meals insecurity in 2023 throughout eight East African nations.[18] Equally, in line with the 2025 State of Meals Safety and Diet within the World (SOFI) report, between 638 and 720 million individuals skilled starvation in 2024, reflecting a discount of 15 million individuals in comparison with 2023 and a lower of twenty-two million in comparison with 2022.[19] Nonetheless, this pattern contrasts with the truth in Africa, the place starvation has steadily risen throughout the area; the proportion of the inhabitants dealing with starvation in Africa surpassed 20% in 2024, affecting 307 million individuals. It’s projected that 512 million individuals might be chronically undernourished by 2030.[20] Almost 60% of those people will reside in Africa.
Determine 1: Analyzed inhabitants in line with the part of acute meals insecurity in East Africa in 2023
Determine 2: Variety of individuals affected by acute meals insecurity in East Africa as much as 2023
Determine 3: The very best meals inflation in East Africa in 2023
Supply: https://www.icpac.net/documents/867/GRFC2024-regional-east-af.pdf.
The persistence of this meals consumption hole is linked to excessive climate patterns affecting nations corresponding to Kenya, Uganda, Somalia, Ethiopia, Burundi, and others. Beneath-average rainfall from 2020 to 2023 led to probably the most extreme drought within the Horn of Africa in practically 4 many years, considerably impacting livestock manufacturing and crop yields. Moreover, this era noticed sudden will increase in meals costs, thereby straining family buying energy. Soil turns into incapable of absorbing heavy rainfall, resulting in livestock losses. In Ethiopia, over 40% of agricultural land suffers from nutrient depletion and soil erosion, which reduces productiveness and creates important shocks and vulnerabilities inside the meals system.[21] Underdeveloped infrastructure impedes meals entry in East Africa, thereby impacting meals import and export actions. The African continent closely depends upon cereal imports, a reliance considerably influenced by infrastructural deficiencies. For example, Kenya depends on importing 80% of its wheat necessities, all of that are affected by insufficient highway infrastructure within the area.[22] This necessitates inclusive, climate-resilient, and built-in insurance policies to develop sustainable agriculture. Regardless of ongoing nationwide initiatives, policymaking in East Africa typically stays trapped in remoted sectoral silos. For instance, water ministries usually function independently of vitality or agriculture departments, resulting in fragmented investments and inefficiencies. On this context, built-in planning emerges not solely as a technical requirement but additionally as a vital socio-political crucial for addressing the nexus of water, vitality, and meals.
Urbanization and Inhabitants Stress
On the Power-Water-Meals nexus, speedy inhabitants progress and urbanization are posing important strain. In keeping with the UN Division of Financial and Social Affairs, as of 2024, inhabitants progress in East Africa stays the best, with Kenya’s inhabitants surpassing 55 million, Ethiopia’s exceeding 130 million, and Uganda’s inhabitants exceeding 48 million.[23] On the similar time, many nations in Sub-Saharan Africa, together with some in East Africa, report among the many lowest life expectancy charges globally, although they’re predicted to see important enhancements over the course of the century.[24] Extreme urbanization is exerting substantial strain on infrastructure, residential lodging, and public companies. The demand for important assets corresponding to clear water, electrical energy, meals, and sanitation is projected to rise considerably, thereby impeding their provide. Overloading {of electrical} grids could result in frequent energy outages. Vulnerabilities within the provide chain, together with demand-supply fluctuations, place appreciable pressure on the city meals system. The strain caused by urbanization threatens the lack of peri-urban agricultural land and exacerbates considerations associated to meals and water safety. In keeping with the UN, by 2050, Africa’s inhabitants is anticipated to achieve 2.5 billion.[25] Usually, inhabitants progress has been recognized as the first issue hindering the achievement of sustainable targets in vitality, water, and meals techniques that may assist a complete nation with out compromise. Including to the ever-growing inhabitants of the African continent, the growing trendlines of local weather change, with hotter climate anticipated yearly, will certainly exacerbate challenges for this area, one characterised by water shortage, dry seasons, and infrastructural challenges in predicting sudden local weather hazards (e.g., downpours that trigger floods).
Nexus Interdependencies and Systemic Pressures
The EWF nexus in East Africa includes profound intersectoral dependencies, resulting in vital trade-offs, notably between agriculture and hydropower, in addition to between home water necessities and irrigation. Each alternatives and challenges stem from these interconnections, which have enduring implications for the area’s sustainable improvement. For the EWF nexus, local weather change poses a major menace and shakes the soundness of the nexus. It creates cascading shocks for all three sectors concurrently. Excessive climate occasions are posing a steady menace to East Africa. Erratic rainfall, droughts, floods, and spikes within the temperature are posing important threats to the nexus. It has concurrently disrupted water availability, meals manufacturing, and vitality era. The general subject is amplifying social and financial vulnerabilities.
The EWF nexus not solely faces environmental and technical challenges but additionally deeply embedded points associated to social constructions. Rural populations, pastoralists, ladies, and different marginalized populations are excluded from decision-making processes that have an effect on their very important entry to vital assets. It additional perpetuates social exclusion and embeds inequalities within the social construction. Continuation of such discrimination can undermine long-term fairness and the effectiveness of the EWF nexus. Within the nexus, a serious social dimension is gender disparities. In meals preparation, water assortment, small-scale agriculture, and vitality era, the ladies’s labor pressure performs a major function. Nonetheless, they face systemic limitations in accessing credit score, land, and vitality applied sciences, amongst others. Ladies laborers spend a major variety of hours gathering water and firewood, however their alternatives for earnings and training are missing. In biomass use, they’re disproportionately affected and uncovered to indoor air air pollution. It highlights the bodily influence of gas assortment. Participatory governance frameworks are required to deal with these social dimensions.
Incorporate Nexus Considering into Nationwide Growth Plans
Satisfactory identification and addressing of the multifaceted challenges of the Power-Water-Meals Nexus in East Africa requires coordinated, inclusive, and forward-thinking coverage actions. The interdependence character of such industries mandates that decision-makers transfer past siloed planning and undertake a well-rounded, nexus-oriented governance mannequin. This examine offers some actionable suggestions, centered on strategic instructions to nationwide and regional actors, to enhance sustainability, socio-economic improvement, and resilience all through East Africa.
The governments in East Africa ought to place nexus considering on the middle of nationwide improvement methods. Typical planning strategies are likely to segregate useful resource sectors, which results in inefficiency, redundancy of efforts, and misplaced synergies. By an method primarily based on nexus, the governments will be capable of give desire to tasks that create advantages inside the water, vitality, and meals techniques. The combination of nexus frameworks may also assist nations in reaching a number of Sustainable Growth Objectives (SDGs) concurrently, together with SDG 2 (Zero Starvation), SDG 6 (Clear Water and Sanitation), and SDG 7 (Reasonably priced and Clear Power).
Whereas nationwide improvement plans are essential, the mixing of the EWF nexus ought to embody all the continent, with the African Union (AU) serving because the central entity on this implementation framework. As beforehand famous, inhabitants progress, local weather change, and financial shifts are occurring inside the area, with infrastructural improvement remaining a major goal of governments, regional improvement organizations, and continental establishments. On the continental degree, the African Union’s Agenda 2063 technique framework outlines the continent’s socioeconomic improvement targets for the subsequent 50 years. Agenda 2063 goals to create a “continent with free motion of individuals, items, capital, and companies and infrastructure connections.”[26] Underneath Agenda 2063, improved water, vitality, and meals safety are on the core of Africa’s improvement agenda and function conditions to unlocking financial improvement on the continent, guaranteeing a brighter future for member states.[27]
Conclusion
As local weather stress intensifies and regional populations enhance, the interdependence of those essential sectors turns into more and more obvious. On this broader context, it’s noteworthy to state that remoted progress in a single subject, whether or not it’s water entry, agriculture, or vitality provide, could be destabilized if not related to the others.
The event of the East African Power-Water-Meals (EWF) nexus can be a frightening however distinctive prospect. For the financial transformation, speedy inhabitants progress and urbanization, local weather change, and the interlinkages of water, vitality, and meals in East Africa, it’s turning into more and more inescapable that these techniques are tightly linked to 1 one other. A traditional methodology for treating these sectors in isolation is now not tenable in an period of climate-induced water shortage that stops agricultural productiveness, blocks the circulation of vitality to drive irrigation and meals processing, and hinders hydropower potential attributable to agricultural air pollution of water.
East African nations that combine their governance to acknowledge the round nature of water, vitality, and meals techniques is not going to solely allow the environment friendly utilization of assets but additionally enhance resilience and promote equitable improvement. Such a method includes transitioning from sectoral silos to inter-sectoral coordination by means of built-in insurance policies and investments in agriculture, vitality, and water administration that hyperlink towards a standard goal of sustainability.
[1] World Meteorological Group (WMO), “State of the World Local weather 2024,” WMO-No. 1368, World Meteorological Group, 2025a, https://library.wmo.int/records/item/69455-state-of-the-global-climate-2024.
[2] World Meteorological Group (WMO), “State of the Local weather in Africa 2024,” WMO-No. 1370, World Meteorological Group, 2025b, https://library.wmo.int/records/item/69495-state-of-the-climate-in-africa-2024.
[3] Maryam Haji, Sarah Namany, and Tareq Al-Ansari, “Strengthening Resilience: Decentralized Determination-making and Multi-criteria Evaluation within the Power-water-food Nexus Programs,” Frontiers in Sustainability 5 (Could 2024), https://doi.org/10.3389/frsus.2024.1367931.
[4] World Meteorological Group (WMO), “State of Local weather in Africa Highlights Water Stress and Hazards,” September 8, 2022, https://wmo.int/news/media-centre/state-of-climate-africa-highlights-water-stress-and-hazards.
[5] Anadolu Company, “Japanese Africa Suffers Worst Drought in 40 Years: IGAD,” Every day Sabah, April 12, 2022, https://www.dailysabah.com/life/environment/eastern-africa-suffers-worst-drought-in-40-years-igad.
[6] Ibid.
[7] Religion Mulwa, Zhuo Li, and Fangnon Firmin Fangninou, “Water Shortage in Kenya: Present Standing, Challenges and Future Options,” OALib 8, no. 1 (2021): 1–15, https://doi.org/10.4236/oalib.1107096.
[8] “SWP Water Assets Profile Sequence Launch,” Winrock Worldwide, July 21, 2021, https://winrock.org/swp-water-resources-profile-series-launch/.
[9] “Water in Agriculture : In direction of Sustainable Agriculture (English),” World Financial institution Group, October 20, 2021, http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/875921614166983369.
[10] Ibid.
[11] IEA, IRENA, UNSD, World Financial institution, and WHO, “Monitoring SDG 7: The Power Progress Report 2025,” World Financial institution, 2025, https://trackingsdg7.esmap.org/.
[12] Ibid.
[13] Munsu Kang, “Power Accessibility and Inexperienced Power Cooperation in East Africa,” SSRN Digital Journal, March 2024, https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4749679.
[14] “Hydropower Growth in Ethiopia to Attain Sustainable Progress,” Hydropower, Could 24, 2018, https://www.hydropower.org/blog/blog-hydropower-development-in-ethiopia-to-attain-sustainable-growth.
[15] Mohammed Takase, Rogers Kipkoech, and Paul Kwame Essandoh, “A Complete Assessment of Power Situation and Sustainable Power in Kenya,” Gas Communications 7 (June 2021): 100015, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jfueco.2021.100015.
[16] United Nations, “Worldwide Day of Clear Power (26 January),” 2025, https://www.un.org/en/observances/clean-energy-day.
[17] Hüseyin Çiloğlu, “Empowering Africa By the Water-energy-food Nexus: A Path to Sustainability,” Power Connects. July 10, 2024, https://www.energyconnects.com/opinion/thought-leadership/2024/july/empowering-africa-through-the-water-energy-food-nexus-a-path-to-sustainability/.
[18] “World Report on Meals Crises for East Africa 2024 Snapshot,” ICPAC, April 24, 2024, https://www.icpac.net/publications/global-report-on-food-crises-for-east-africa-2024-snapshot/.
[19] FAO, IFAD, UNICEF, WFP, and WHO, “The State of Meals Safety and Diet within the World 2025,” https://www.who.int/publications/m/item/the-state-of-food-security-and-nutrition-in-the-world-2025.
[20] Ibid.
[21] Ibid.
[22] Katherine Snyder, Pauline Muindi, Colleta Khaemba, Pieter Rutsaert, Judy Mutegi, Francis Omondi, and Jason Donovan, “Wheat in Kenya: Towards Self-sufficiency or Towards Broader Growth Objectives,” Frontiers in Sustainable Meals Programs 9 (February 2025), https://doi.org/10.3389/fsufs.2025.1532337.
[23] United Nations, World Inhabitants Prospects 2024: Abstract of Outcomes. Statistical Papers – United Nations. Sequence A, Inhabitants and Important Statistics Report, https://doi.org/10.18356/9789211065138.
[24] Ibid.
[25] Andrew Stanley, “African Century: A Demographic Transformation in Africa Has the Potential to Alter the World Order,” Worldwide Financial Fund, September 2023, https://www.imf.org/en/Publications/fandd/issues/2023/09/PT-african-century.
[26] Gareth B. Simpson, Graham P. W. Jewitt, Tafadzwanashe Mabhaudhi, Cuthbert Taguta, and Jessica Badenhorst, “An African Perspective on the Water-Power-Meals Nexus,” Scientific Stories 13, no. 1 (2023), https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-43606-9.
[27] Ibid.
