By Bassam Yousif, Omar El-Joumayle and Jehan Baban, for the Economic Research Forum (ERF). Any opinions expressed are those of the author(s), and do not necessarily reflect the views of Iraq Business News.
Challenges to Iraq's Environment: Applying the Water-Energy-Food Nexus Framework
This paper utilizes research on Water-Energy-Food (WEF) nexus to study the relationships between Iraq's water (requirement and supply), energy (the oil and gas sector), and food production.
We survey environmental conditions and note that the quality and availability of water have declined over the last decades, which have posed threats to public health, environmental sustainability, and food security.
We next use a variety of data sources to study the interlinkages between these three sectors, including water-energy-food indexes, and explore the state of the agriculture and oil sectors.
We point out that water is a key input into both agricultural production and oil extraction, mediating the energy and food sectors and acting to constrain and make rival food and energy outputs.
We offer policy recommendations classified into those that seek to overcome internal barriers and others geared towards external constraints.
Comments are closed.