IHE Delft's Project Connexion awarded funding to explore interlinkages between water, agriculture and human health
A new project that aims to explore the interlinkages between water, energy, food, the wider socio-ecological environment, and human health in South Africa recently was awarded funding from the South African National Research Foundation (NRF) and the Dutch Research Council (NWO). The project, CONNEXION, is led by Deltares, with IHE Delft being a key partner. The project includes a consortium of Dutch and South African institutes.
The project, titled CONNEXION, will explore the interlinkages between water, energy, food, the wider socio-ecological environment, and human health. South African stakeholders and civil society partners, as well as researchers and experts from IHE Delft and several universities, will work together to enable integrated policy design, co-create sustainable solutions, and support transformations aimed at sustainable development. Project work will start later this year.
"IHE Delft’s role is to collaborate with project partners and stakeholders to develop a modeling approach that captures the links between irrigated agriculture and human health impacts in South Africa,” said Janez Susnik, IHE Delft Associate Professor of Water Resources Management. “We will engage closely with local stakeholders, health practitioners, and catchment management authorities to ensure the production of relatable and usable outputs that improve human health conditions."
The project is one of four selected for funding by NRF and NWO in a South Africa-Netherlands collaboration research program that focuses on integrating health approaches with the Water-Energy-Food (WEF) nexus.
For more information on the four research projects that have been awarded funding through the South Africa-Netherlands collaboration research program, visit this page.