Thomson Reuters Foundation: OPINION: Coping with water scarcity requires holistic approaches
Eduardo Mansur, director of the U.N. FAO’s Land and Water Division, and Olcay Unver, senior water adviser at the FAO

“…In past times, when natural resources, like water, land, and soils were more plentiful and demands were fewer, a commodity focus made sense and fragmentation did not create too many problems. It offered a somehow sensible way of managing specialized support and marketing services to farmers, growing more food, reducing hunger, and driving economic growth. … The nexus approach, and particularly the water-energy-food (WEF) nexus, offer good options for optimizing sustainable resource use and management. Successful examples of holistic approaches can encourage others [to] overcome silos. … Such broad collaborative efforts provide opportunities to bring Sustainable Development Goals and climate change objectives together to maximize overall benefits and resource efficiencies and tap into broader funding opportunities. Collaboration, not fragmentation must be the way forward” (11/14).