Access to sufficient and clean freshwater is essential for all life. Water is also essential for the functioning of food systems: as a key input into food production, but also in processing and preparation, and as a food itself. Water scarcity and pollution are growing, affecting poorer populations most, and particularly food producers. Malnutrition levels are also on the rise, and this is closely linked to water scarcity. The achievement of Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) 2 and 6 are co-dependent. Solutions for jointly improving food systems and water security outcomes include: (1) strengthening efforts to retain water-based ecosystems and their functions; (2) improving agricultural water management for better diets for all; (3) reducing water and food losses beyond the farmgate; (4) coordinating water with nutrition and health interventions; (5) increasing the environmental sustainability of food systems; (6) explicitly addressing social inequities in water-nutrition linkages; and (7) improving data quality and monitoring for water-food system linkages, drawing on innovations in information and communications technology (ICT). Climate change and other environmental and societal changes make the implementation and scaling of solutions more urgent than ever.

Access to sufficient and clean freshwater is essential for all life. Water is also essential for the functioning of food systems: as a key input into food production, but also in processing and preparation, and as a food itself. Water scarcity and pollution are growing, affecting poorer populations most, and particularly food producers. Malnutrition levels are also on the rise, and this is closely linked to water scarcity. The achievement of Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) 2 and 6 are co-dependent. Solutions for jointly improving food systems and water security outcomes include: (1) strengthening efforts to retain water-based ecosystems and their functions; (2) improving agricultural water management for better diets for all; (3) reducing water and food losses beyond the farmgate; (4) coordinating water with nutrition and health interventions; (5) increasing the environmental sustainability of food systems; (6) explicitly addressing social inequities in water-nutrition linkages; and (7) improving data quality and monitoring for water-food system linkages, drawing on innovations in information and communications technology (ICT). Climate change and other environmental and societal changes make the implementation and scaling of solutions more urgent than ever. | Non-PR | 1 Fostering Climate-Resilient and Sustainable Food Supply; IFPRI4; DCA | Natural Resources and Resilience (NRR); Transformation Strategies

The role of water quality, particularly its impact on health, environment and wider well-being, are rarely acknowledged in the water–energy–food (WEF) nexus. Here we demonstrate the necessity to include water quality within the water dimension of the WEF nexus to address complex and multi-disciplinary challenges facing humanity. Firstly, we demonstrate the impact of water quality on the energy and food dimensions of the WEF nexus and vice versa at multiple scales, from households to cities, regions and transboundary basins. Secondly, we use examples to demonstrate how including water quality would have augmented and improved the WEF analysis and its application. Finally, we encourage hydrological scientists to promote relevant water quality research as addressing WEF nexus challenges. To make tangible progress, we propose that analysis of water quality interactions focuses initially on WEF nexus “hotspots,” such as cities, semi-arid areas, and areas dependent on groundwater or climate change-threatened meltwater.

The United Nations Food Systems Summit aimed to chart a path toward transforming food systems toward achieving the Sustainable Development Goals. Despite the essentiality of water for food systems, however, the Summit has not sufficiently considered the role of water for food systems transformation. This focus is even more important due to rapidly worsening climate change and its pervasive impacts on food systems that are mediated through water. To avoid that water “breaks” food systems, key food systems actors should 1) Strengthen efforts to retain water-dependent ecosystems, their functions and services; 2) Improve agricultural water management; 3) Reduce water and food losses beyond the farmgate; 4) Coordinate water with nutrition and health interventions; 5) Increase the environmental sustainability of food systems; 6) Explicitly address social inequities; and 7) Improve data quality and monitoring for water-food system linkages.

Poorer countries often face a severe trade-off: the need to improve socio-economic conditions is hard to balance with the maintenance of key ecological processes. As a case study, we select Colombia, a Latin American country with almost 10% of its inhabitants living in extreme poverty. We elaborate a water–food–labour (WFL) nexus grounded on a sub-national Environmentally Extended Input–Output (EEIO) analysis to assess the virtual water trade (VWT) and virtual informal labour (VIL) flows across administrative departments and economic sectors related to domestic trade. The main results are the following: high cross-departmental resource interdependence both in terms of VWT and VIL, rich departments highly depend on the resources of their neighbouring trading partners, extreme poverty conditions shown by economically isolated departments, and considerable income inequality in the food production sectors. Moreover, departments that are net exporters of virtual water suffer from water stress that might be exacerbated by future high rainfall variability due to climate change. These results suggest that strategies to attain sustainable development goals (SDGs) must deal with the biophysical constraints and the economic and political feasibility of the proposed solutions. In this vein, we argue that a holistic framework, grounded on quantitative analyses, is necessary to support informed policy decisions for the simultaneous achievement of multiple (possibly contrasting) goals. Moreover, severe spatial imbalances call for local policy responses coordinated at the national level.