The interactions among water, energy and food are numerous and substantial. Interactions among the water, energy and food security sectors The emphasis on access in these definitions also implies that security is not so much about average (e.g., annual) availability of resources it has to encompass variability and extreme situations such as droughts or price shocks, and the psychological resilience of the poor. Adequate food has also been defined as a human right. Food security is defined by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) as 'availability and access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food to meet the dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life'.Energy security has been defined as 'access to clean, reliable and affordable energy services for cooking and heating, lighting, communications and productive uses' ( United Nations), and as 'uninterrupted physical availability at a price which is affordable, while respecting environment concerns'.While not part of most water security definitions yet, availability of and access to water for other human and ecosystem uses is also very important from a nexus perspective. Water security is defined in the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) as 'access to safe drinking water and sanitation', both of which have recently become a human right.The nexus approach aims to highlight potential synergies and identify critical conflicts to be dealt with. This approach identifies the future systems as inherently interconnected. Concepts such as integrated management consider at least one of the systems as an existing system and are therefore different from the nexus approach. The nexus approach is deemed necessary to design future, inherently interlinked systems from the starting point of planning in a holistic manner.2 Interactions among the water, energy and food security sectors.The unbroken links between these sectors continues to demand well-integrated plans to protect food and water and food security. Countries, food, water and energy industries, as well as other users can agree that the increasing use of more water, energy and land resources (food) have a great potential to face issues with environmental deterioration and even resource scarcity, as we can already see taking place in some parts of the developing world.

The greater the capacity to pay for improved water, the more it will enable alternative water sources, such as desalination to bring water into urban areas from greater distances, such as desalinated seawater often requiring energy-intensive production and transport methods. In addition, food production and supply chain simultaneously utilize approximately 30% of the total energy that is used globally. In fact, agriculture is the largest user of freshwater, making it responsible for 70% of total global withdrawal, while more than one fourth of energy used worldwide is an input for food production, distribution, and use. Water is primarily used in forestry and fishery, agricultural production (in its entire agri-food supply chain) and is used to create and/or transfer energy in varying forms. Water being a finite resource, but also the most abundant resource of the three sectors is the most exploited. The demand for all three resources continues to grow for various reasons: a growing population, ongoing population movements from farms to cities, rising incomes, increased desire to spend those incomes on energy and water intensive goods/varying diets, international trade, urbanization and climate change. Water-food-energy connections lie at the heart of sustainable, economic and environmental development and protection. As the world population is nearing 8 billion, increasing demands for basic services also rise, such as the growing desires for higher living standards and the need for more conscious stewardship of the vital resources required to achieve those services and these desires have become both more obvious and urgent. These three sectors (water, energy and food security nexus) are necessary for the benefit of human well-being, poverty reduction and sustainable development. The water, energy and food security nexus according to the Food And Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO), means that water security, energy security and food security are very much linked to one another, meaning that the actions in any one particular area often can have effects in one or both of the other areas.

Define nexus