Water, energy and food (WEF) security are key indicators of sustainable development. Realization of sustainable development goals (SDGs) by countries is achieved through a water-energy-food-ecosystem nexus framework. Climate change is a threat to food, energy and water security in the Horn of Africa. The main aim of this review is to assess the status and prospects of WEF nexus as it relates to SDGs in the horn of Africa.  The countries considered were Ethiopia, Eritrea, Somalia and Djibouti. The review indicated that the four countries have a challenge in achieving SDGs 2, 6 and 7.  Djibouti had the highest (50.9) WEF index in the region followed by Ethiopia and Somalia at 47.5 and 36.8, respectively while Eritrea had the lowest WEF index of 35.8. The energy sub-index was the best performer in the region with an average index of 56 while water and food sub-indices were the worst at 36. Political instability, insecurity, inadequate infrastructure, weak institutional and legal framework are some of the challenges facing WEF and sustainable development in the region. Climate change adaptation measures should be incorporated into the water, energy, food and ecosystem (WEFE) nexus using an integrated approach. Modelling WEFE requires integration of models and should also focus on interactions among the sub-systems.

The oil industry is a source of revenue and foreign exchange for an economy. Nevertheless, oil exploration is an inherent risk to the environment due to the pollution of water resources, especially surface water resources. The main waste is produced water which is increasing around the world .As a consequence,water pollution resulting from normal oil drilling, refining, distribution, and accidents is the principal concern of oil exploration in the environment. Oil pollution is associated with ecological contaminants such as heavy metals and organic compounds which are the primary contaminant of surface water resources. Often this results in toxicity accretion in the food chain, and their non-biodegradable nature is of great concern to both human and aquatic life. Therefore, this review evaluates existing knowledge on the effect of oil exploration on surface water quality, hydraulic fracturing technique/chemicals, and composition of produced water. This review also recommends further research on the physicochemical characteristics, analysis of heavy metals in water/sediments, and characterization of hydro-chemical facies of surface water resources around oil exploration sites to enable effective policy development.

Water-energy-food (WEF) nexus is a concept that aims at integrating these three key economic drivers which are very crucial for the improving the livelihood of the people, general economic sustainable development and social well-being of the world population. The effective utilization and management of these key resources require in-depth planning assessment of symbiosis, competitions and concession with an essential contribution in the nexus. This paper aims at reviewing the WEF in the Great Lakes region of Africa with a focus in Kenya, Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda and Uganda. The status and prospects in each country has been assessed and the interconnection between the three fundamental resources together with the effects of climate change towards the security of these resources in the selected countries have been discussed. The review has found out that the selected countries are indeed WEF insecure since the impacts of climate change and poor infrastructure play a vital role in the insecurities highlighted. In the focused countries, it was realized that the existence of weak institutional and legal frameworks, political instability and poor infrastructure indeed hinders the regional attainment of the WEF nexus for sustainable economic development. This therefore calls for a dire need for the adoption of climate change adaptation and mitigation measures in the WEF nexus through an integrated and holistic approach in the Great Lakes Region of Africa.