nexus

• Agricultural operations can be modernised through application of (already existing) improved
practices, leading to water saving. This will have a beneficial effect on the already scarce water
resources of the country. This action will require the establishment of some form of ‘centres of
excellence’ on how to modernise agricultural water management, using national and international
knowledge. The private sector in Egypt is also known for its sometimes innovative approaches to
agriculture.
Another important issue is food loss and food waste. FAO (2011) estimated that globally about onethird
of food produced for human consumption is lost or wasted throughout the supply chain, from
initial agricultural production all the way to the household. Egypt is no exception to this and food
losses represent a waste of resources used in production such as land, water, energy as well as other
inputs.
Figure 4.2
Overview of an Egyptian nexus process
4.4.5 Impact of nexus approach
Integration of water-related climate adaptation and mitigation with the Sustainable Development
Goals (SDGs) can promote synergies, trigger co-benefits and reduce (potentially water-intensive)
trade-offs and negative externalities. The nexus approach applied to Egypt’s water, energy and
agriculture sectors demonstrates significant opportunities for increasing overall resource-use
efficiencies and achieving more with less water.
In Egypt, there is a huge impact on the nexus through the subsidies in the country on water, food and
energy. All nexus work in Egypt should take into account the socio-economic impacts of changes in
the subsidy system.
4.4.6 Conclusion
There is an urgent need for application of the nexus approach. Too often the sectoral policies (and
even national goals) are created separately from other sectors. The main issues in the nexus in Egypt
are not so much ‘technical’; they are largely institutional. For the water sector, the need for
‘integration of policies’ has been advocated for about ten years now and there is governmental
recognition that it should be done and some steps towards improvement have been taken. However,
reality sometimes seems unruly.
18 | Wageningen Economic Research Memorandum 2017-096