Theses and Dissertations

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https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14155/2231

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Browsing Theses and Dissertations by Author "Mahloane. K"

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    THE PERCEPTIONS OF THE COMMUNITY IN WATER, ENERGY, FOOD, AND ECOSYSTEM NEXUS (WEFE NEXUS) A CASE STUDY AT HA SEEISO METOLONG, MASERU
    (2025-07-01) Mahloane. K
    Water, energy, food, and ecosystems, as the essential resources underpinning human existence, are critical to the sustainable development of humanity. The local community exerts a significant influence in fostering the sustainable development of these resources. There exists a limited information regarding the effectiveness of nexus resource management in facilitating livelihoods and ensuring resource security. These challenges are associated with the insufficient knowledge within local communities concerning the utilization and exploitation of water, energy, and food resources; this lack of awareness lead to trade-offs, particularly in local and marginalized regions. Through the analysis of data collected from a local community through a questionnaire approach, this research endeavors to investigate the perceptions of the local community regarding WEFE nexus. The findings suggest that community perceptions of nexus resources are comprehensible through the lenses of social, natural, economic, human, physical, and environmental indicators. The results indicate that people's perceptions of nexus resources are based more on the advantages of individual resources than on how they are related to one another. This might be the outcome of how the community views a certain nexus resource; that is food and water, from the four nexus sectors. The community's primary nexus resources in the study region are food and water. This indicates, that there is a missing link between cross-sectorial resource utilization and management, and full-scale adoption of the WEFE nexus to enhance living conditions. Our results indicate that the livelihood advantage of individual nexus resources is the main focus in the community under study, and that there is a lack of knowledge regarding the usage and management of WEFE nexus resources. Based on these findings, we recommend the government and other interested stakeholders to take further steps to enhance the local community's awareness of nexus resources so that they may better comprehend the connections between WEFE sectors.