Cooking in Crisis: Navigating WEF Nexus Dynamics in Everyday Practices

Abstract

While the Water-Food-Energy (WEF) Nexus, by conception, was intended to direct attention to the interconnectedness between the three resources, in practice, it has been largely used as a big framing of top-down sustainability approaches. As such, the link between the WEF nexus and everyday lives has become overlooked and invisible. Based on Social Practice Theories, this thesis offers a view into the everyday realities of the synergies and trade-offs of water, energy and food in Cape Town’s townships. Taking cooking practice as the unit of analysis, this research analyses the daily challenges that the urban poor encounter at the intersection of WEF and the resilience strategies they implement to sustain the basic needs. The findings build upon existing literature and qualitative research methods, including participant observations and semi-structured interviews with households and community kitchens. The findings in addition to disclosing the direct impacts of the apparent energy insecurity on cooking practice also highlighted how this insecurity influenced the two other WEF resources, which then collectively altered the cooking practice. Energy disruptions constrained households' ability to obtain food, maintain its freshness, and essentially transform it into a (nutritional) meal. Water, on the other hand, did not have as many trade-offs with energy as food. In the face of these challenges, households were compelled to modify their cooking practices to ensure daily food provision, albeit at lower standards than previously achievable. Through resorting to alternative energy sources, food products, social networks, as well as adapting their meals and routines, households in Cape Town’s township have demonstrated a considerable level of resilience. By uncovering the WEF Nexus dynamics at the home level and the households’ resilience, the research provides valuable insights to assist the decision-making of urban service practitioners regarding resource efficiency and resilience initiatives in disadvantaged urban areas.