BONEX one of the projects presented during the UN 2023 Water Conference
The UN 2023 Water Conference held in New York in March, 22-24, was a meeting point for water experts and stakeholders to accomplish the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) related to water and also an opportunity to discuss about challenges and opportunities facing water management.
On of the topics that was covered in different side events of the conference was the WEFE Nexus and the need of adopting integrated approaches that consider the interconnections between water, energy, food, and the environment. Two projects of the PRIMA programme related to sustainable water management had the opportunity to be showcase: BONEX and MAGO.
BONEX was introduced in various side events by our general coordinator Antonia Lorenzo (CEO of BIOAZUL). She highlighted the advantages of BONEX to address the challenges of sustainable water management in the Mediterranean region such as the development of a WEFE Bridging Framework (WEFeF) and context-specific Nexus Bridging Plans (NBPs) tailored to innovative technologies and socioeconomic contexts. They will be developed through multi-actor processes with close collaboration of relevant actors, and provide policymakers with an interactive decision-making tool to evaluate nexus solutions in a transdisciplinary manner and create new business opportunities for SMEs in the Mediterranean Region.
Some of these events related to WEFE Nexus where we participated were the one organized by Water Europe on Climate Resilience and the need of a Water-Smart Society or the event of the Denmark House to address the water-energy-food-ecosystem nexus and highlighting the need for water-smart industry. We also attended the side event organized by IAAS (International Association of Students in Agricultural and Related Sciences) to address the complexity of the water-food-energy-ecosystem nexus in the MENA region.
At one of these events, we had the pleasure of meeting the MAGO project focused on sustainable water management in the Mediterranean. There we can hear Chrysi Laspidou, from University of Thessaly – UTH, who explained more about MAGO project which works on developing enhanced monitoring and modelling solutions for better water use efficiency and soil conservation for irrigation and food production.
Therefore, the UN 2023 Water Conference made clear the importance of adopting integrated approaches that consider the interconnections between water, energy, food and the environment. Conferences like this serve to remind us of the urgent need to commit to sustainable water management practices that can save the well-being of both people and the planet.
