Exploring the water-energy-food nexus through the lens of a kitchen: insights from informal housing dwellers in Johannesburg, South Africa

1 Introduction

The Water–Energy–Food (WEF) Nexus is a conceptual framework for advancing global development agendas centered on urban transformation, sustainability, and resilience (Mguni et al., 2020; Williams et al., 2018; Bhaduri et al., 2015). This approach integrates the supply, management, and governance of these resources, emphasizing cross-sectoral synergies and scales (Bruns et al., 2022; Ahmed, 2024). The WEF nexus framework captures the essential interrelationships and trade-offs between water, energy, and food (Botai et al., 2021). Representing a bond within these sectors (Bhaduri et al., 2015), this multi-centric approach provides a holistic perspective on resource management (Mabhaudhi et al., 2019), enabling a clearer understanding of their dynamic interconnections.

Urbanization mediates WEF nexus interactions unevenly across spatial scales, heightening socio-ecological vulnerabilities. These risks disproportionately affect marginalized populations in peripheral settlements, where access to services is constrained by formal, centralized institutional arrangements (Williams et al., 2018; Pieterse et al., 2018). The WEF nexus has been applied across various dimensions, including agriculture (Caputo et al., 2021), the environment and climate change (Lalawmpuii and Rai, 2023; Ahmed et al., 2022), and infrastructure (Bruns et al., 2022).

Research on the WEF nexus in Africa has grown significantly (Ningi et al., 2025; Ahmed, 2024; Bruns et al., 2022; Botai et al., 2021; Ningi et al., 2021; Mguni et al., 2020; Foden et al., 2018; Shannak et al., 2018; Mabhaudhi et al., 2019). Although this holistic approach addresses climate and environmental challenges, most studies and commitments focus on global, regional, national, or city scales where resource management is centrally governed (Ningi et al., 2025; Ningi et al., 2021; Foden et al., 2018; Mabhaudhi et al., 2019; Nhamo et al., 2018; Shannak et al., 2018).

Critiques of this service delivery mode, especially when the WEF nexus is treated as a technocratic coordination exercise, highlight its tendency to prioritize state and private sector alignment (Swatuk and Cash, 2017; Williams et al., 2018). This top-down approach often overlooks complex, everyday micro-level decisions regarding water, energy, and food trade-offs. Consequently, it can marginalize local voices and obscure specific needs, reinforcing existing inequalities and dominant development trajectories (Swatuk and Cash, 2017).

Furthermore, while the nexus literature acknowledges resource interactions, empirical research on their impact on household livelihood resilience remains limited, especially in marginalized urban informal contexts (Senzanje et al., 2022). Existing studies often address water, energy, and food security in isolation, failing to sufficiently examine the social and economic implications for households (Mabhaudhi et al., 2019).

This paper argues that the WEF nexus is embedded in modernist logics, where large-scale interventions such as dams and commercial agriculture serve as instruments of state legitimacy (Mabhaudhi et al., 2019). While globally celebrated as a pathway to development and investment, this approach often creates fragmented urban landscapes in local African contexts, systematically excluding marginalized and impoverished communities.

While this study builds on existing WEF research, we identify a persistent gap in systematically incorporating community-led solutions to resource insecurity, especially localized approaches that address the social dimensions of household livelihoods. Consequently, there are calls for locally grounded nexus-thinking that links everyday community dynamics to city governance and policy discourses (Swatuk and Cash, 2017; Terrapon-Pfaff et al., 2018).

This study builds upon the insights of Khofi et al. (2025), Ningi et al. (2025), Al-Zu’bi et al. (2025), and others. Collectively, these works highlight a significant knowledge gap regarding how the WEF nexus operates at the household level. They underscore how local nexus dynamics constrain the translation of these processes into observable impacts for vulnerable communities. Although this literature considers local contexts and intrahousehold dynamics, it remains largely theoretical, offering limited engagement with the lived realities of informal urban domains.

This study underscores the urgent need to transition from conventional “nexus thinking” to actionable “nexus practice.” It focuses on the specific WEF nexus realities that determine the well-being and survival of South Africa’s marginalized urban residents, especially women and youth. Disproportionately affected by these dynamics, they are central to the WEF nexus and highly vulnerable to climate impacts. This study examines household-level livelihood and gender dimensions within the nexus of an underexplored area. By clarifying these dynamics, we aim to better understand the interconnections among water, energy, and food systems in South African communities. These insights will inform more effective policy, planning, and practice to address household-level WEF challenges.

This study addresses a critical gap in WEF nexus scholarship by operationalizing the household-level nexus through the kitchen. By using an infrastructure-oriented framework to interpret localized dynamics within informal kitchens, the research illuminates the trade-offs and synergies of everyday resource use. While formalized nexus framings can reproduce inequalities and obscure the lived experiences of those in informal dwellings, these residents often lack reliable municipal services and remain excluded from formal planning processes.

This approach reveals how integrated household resource governance enhances micro-scale resilience and adaptive capacity. Consequently, the study informs progress toward the UN Sustainable Development Goals 2, 3, 6, 7, and 11. Addressing literature gaps through social practices and resilience frameworks, this paper examines the urban water-energy-food (WEF) nexus in Alexandra Township, Johannesburg.

• The study explores the trade-offs and synergies within the WEF nexus at the household level in Alexandra Township, Johannesburg.
• It also examines how trade-offs and synergies shape livelihood resilience among marginalized urban-poor households.

This study is organized into five sections. The first introduces the background and research context. The second reviews existing literature and the WEF nexus conceptual framework, using the kitchen as a lens to examine household practices and service interdependencies. The third delineates the research methods and data collection procedures. The fourth presents empirical findings, situating them within the WEF nexus literature to extract policy implications for household sustainability. The final section concludes the study and offers actionable recommendations.

2 WEF Nexus: kitchen lens and conceptual framework

The WEF nexus emerged in the late 2000s to manage the interdependencies between water, energy, and agriculture. Developed through multi-stakeholder collaboration, the framework was consolidated in 2008 by the World Bank’s 2030 Water Resources Group. It aims to address resource trade-offs by improving efficiency, governance, and cross-sector synergies (Mabhaudhi et al., 2019). Since then, governments and stakeholders have committed to promoting the WEF nexus across various scales. Globally, this nexus is central to the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals, particularly SDGs 2, 6, and 7. In Africa, regional blocs have also embraced the WEF nexus; for instance, the Southern African Development Community (SADC) promotes regional integration through shared water and energy infrastructure (Mabhaudhi et al., 2019).

Globally, research in regions such as Jordan (Al-Zu’bi et al., 2025), India (Shukla et al., 2021), and Brazil (Santos De Souza et al., 2022) addresses the WEF nexus disconnect by examining its social dimensions. These studies investigate community decision-making, consumption patterns, and responses to scarcity (Shukla et al., 2021). This “downscaling” reveals existing adaptive measures like water reuse and informal food sharing, offering insights to ground demand-side policies in lived realities. Ultimately, understanding these practices is essential for ensuring policy effectiveness and advancing inclusive, participatory urban governance.

In Africa, research increasingly examines the household-scale WEF nexus and its impact on food security, nutrition, and well-being (Terrapon-Pfaff et al., 2018; Mguni et al., 2020; Botai et al., 2021; Ningi et al., 2021; Ahmed, 2024; Ningi et al., 2025; Khofi et al., 2025). Despite this shift toward household analysis, current insights remain insufficient for supporting vulnerable populations in marginalized urban informal settlements. A gap remains in African WEF literature regarding how infrastructure and informality shape everyday household practices and trade-offs. This lack of bottom-up perspective constrains the operationalization of WEF nexus commitments in sustainable development planning (Juju et al., 2020).

2.1 Livelihood and social practices within the WEF nexus

This study uses a livelihood resilience approach to examine the intersection of social practices and household agency through a kitchen-centered lens. This intersection is evident in the mobilization of water, energy, and food (WEF) during routine kitchen activities. Mediated by various actors, these diverse provisioning configurations shape both household agency and the capacity to secure everyday needs.

To downscale “Nexus-thinking” and examine the interdependence of household-scale WEF provisioning and consumption, agency, resilience, and social practice approaches provide a sharp analytical lens (Khofi et al., 2025). Livelihood resilience is the capacity of individuals or households to navigate uncertainty and sustain opportunities while adapting to diverse environmental, political, and socio-economic shocks (Tanner et al., 2018). In South Africa, vulnerable and marginalized households frequently encounter such disturbances, most notably water scarcity, energy poverty, and food insecurity (Ngumbela et al., 2020).

Livelihood resilience is demonstrated by how households develop coping strategies to withstand water, energy, and food insecurities. In contrast, social practices focus on how everyday life is maintained through the recurring performance of routine activities, such as cooking and sanitation, which govern the consumption of these essential resources (Shove and Spurling, 2013).

Agency reflects the ability of household members to make autonomous decisions within the WEF framework. This is demonstrated through domestic practices such as optimizing energy use, recycling water, and managing waste, which enhance local resource sustainability (Shukla et al., 2021). Consequently, the home serves as a vital site for climate action and resource governance (Al-Zu’bi et al., 2025). These WEF nexus practices, viewed through a household kitchen lens, demonstrate livelihood resilience as households balance trade-offs and synergies to meet daily needs during shocks. Figure 1 illustrates the study’s conceptual framework.

2.2 Trade-offs and synergies within the WEF Nexus

The WEF nexus represents the interdependence of three essential resources. At the household level, activities like cooking, washing, and gardening are fundamental to livelihood security and resilience. These synergies and trade-offs are influenced by socio-economic and demographic factors, including gender, age, and income (Ningi et al., 2025). Daily practices, such as fuel selection and water management, both define and are defined by the interlinkages between water, energy, and food (Al-Zu’bi et al., 2025).

Despite growing advances, African scholarship lacks sufficient research on how households negotiate daily water, energy, and food (WEF) trade-offs and synergies. These trade-offs involve decisions to reconcile competing resource demands for subsistence. Consequently, household income serves as a primary constraint, often requiring the sacrifice of one resource to obtain another (Ningi et al., 2025). At the micro level, low household income and high resource demands often force households to prioritize needs based on urgency.

Scholars like Pieterse et al. (2018), Thieme (2018), Lawhon et al. (2017), Silver (2013), and Simone (2004) have clarified the conceptual framework of “everyday” vulnerability by analyzing how individuals in informal urban settings maintain and refine their daily lives. By examining these practices at the household level, we provide a nuanced account of how households negotiate trade-offs to meet their daily needs through a WEF lens.

Within nexus scholarship, everyday practices reflect shared vulnerabilities arising from WEF interactions. While often framed systemically, these risks are most acute for marginalized households (Swatuk and Cash, 2017). However, few studies examine how everyday vulnerability is shaped by the governance of WEF provision at the household scale. This gap is significant in Global South cities, where residents often lack essential infrastructure while disproportionately facing environmental risks (Lawhon et al., 2017).

In this paper, informality denotes the everyday practices and material engagements regarding water, energy, and food through which households secure and process essential resources. It encompasses the practical reasoning and routine decisions that actively constitute and reproduce the WEF nexus in daily life. Consequently, informality shapes lived experiences and provisioning repertoires (Bandauko and Finn, 2026; Cirolia and Scheba, 2019). These processes form social practices that materially render the WEF nexus the infrastructural foundation of everyday existence.

2.3 Gender and agency within the WEF nexus

Gender and agency within the WEF nexus highlight the human dimensions of resource governance. This perspective emphasizes how social practices influence resource availability, how agency builds resilience against shocks, and how grassroots actions drive sustainable innovation (Khofi et al., 2025). Localizing the WEF nexus requires empowering communities and local actors to manage the trade-offs inherent in resource interdependence (Walker et al., 2022). The WEF nexus is thus reframed from an abstract construct into an actionable reality where users influence resource governance. As As Walker et al. (2022) observe, this shift underscores the role of agency in negotiating nexus dynamics.

Agency is the capacity to make choices and act on them (Ball, 2023). This framing suggests that human development should be evaluated by people’s freedom to pursue valued lives rather than just material prosperity (UNDP, 2022). Household agency is demonstrated through daily practices and negotiations, such as consumption and routine chores. In these contexts, household members, especially women, frequently broker trade-offs in allocating scarce resources.

Moreover, agency is demonstrated through adaptive capacities: as vulnerable households face infrastructure and utility shortfalls, they develop local innovations to bridge service gaps (Khofi et al., 2025; Villamor, 2023; Hlahla, 2022; Ningi et al., 2021). This agency varies by gender, as women often bear the primary burden of WEF trade-offs. For example, women’s agency often involves daily decisions to optimize scarce resources for family well-being (Ningi et al., 2021). While women champion household priorities, power imbalances can curtail their autonomy in community-level resource governance (Methner et al., 2021).

Gender and agency illuminate the everyday practices through which impoverished urban residents navigate and renegotiate their daily lives. In this study, these concepts serve as an analytical lens to examine WEF consumption and provisioning through agency and social practice. This approach highlights the vulnerabilities of the urban poor across material resource streams.

3 Materials and methods

3.1 Study site and context

This study was conducted in Alexandra, a low-income neighbourhood in Johannesburg, South Africa. While Johannesburg is Africa’s economic hub, it faces structural challenges, including widespread poverty and inadequate infrastructure. These issues are exacerbated by deep socio-economic inequalities and high unemployment, particularly among youth (Masuku and Khalema, 2024). Despite these obstacles, the city remains a significant, though unequal, destination for migrants seeking opportunity.

High living costs in the formal housing market often restrict urban access, pushing residents toward the periphery. These informal settlements provide essential proximity to economic opportunities. Consequently, Alexandra Township is recognized for offering affordable housing and better access to employment and livelihoods (Masuku and Khalema, 2024; Masuku, 2025). Figure 2 maps Johannesburg and its key regions.

Alexandra, or Alex, is a low-income neighborhood in Johannesburg’s Region E. Despite its proximity to affluent hubs like Sandton, Midrand, and Kempton Park, the area remains systematically excluded from their economic opportunities (Masuku and Khalema, 2024). Most residents are unemployed and live in informal settlements, often situated along the polluted Jukskei River. Stjwetla is an overflow settlement on the eastern edge of Alexandra that serves as a refuge for marginalized migrants seeking better livelihoods. Emerging in the mid-1980s due to rapid population growth, it occupies a 14-hectare tract along the Jukskei River. The settlement has since expanded significantly, increasing exposure to environmental and infrastructural risks such as flooding, fire outbreaks, and inadequate service delivery (Masuku, 2025).

For decades, Stjwetla’s status has remained contested. The city government considers the settlement unsuitable for habitation due to its location on a former industrial dump along the Jukskei River. Occupying 20 hectares in Alex, it is one of South Africa’s most densely populated informal settlements (see Figure 3), housing over 5,100 households at a density of roughly 255 per hectare (Masuku, 2025). Despite its official provisional status, ongoing upgrading and electrification initiatives suggest an increasing shift toward permanence.

In this densely populated area, stark socio-spatial disparities manifest in unequal infrastructure and environmental risks. Against this backdrop, Alex and Stjwetla serve as a case study to examine the WEF nexus through the everyday practices of marginalized residents living off-grid, and how these practices are reconfigured to sustain urban life.

3.2 Study methods

3.2.1 Research design

This study adopted a qualitative approach with deductive reasoning. Primary data were collected through in-depth interviews with low-income households in Stjwetla, Alex, supplemented by a secondary desktop review of reports and policy documents. A preliminary round of interviews validated the research instruments and identified relevant households impacted by WEF nexus practices. These insights refined the instrument used to interview food gardeners. Ultimately, 40 members from informal housing dwellings were sampled for the study.

3.2.2 Data collection procedures

In-depth interviews with 40 residents of informal dwellings were conducted between January and August 2023. Each session lasted approximately 45 min. Due to resource constraints, a purposive sample was used. Sampling followed theoretical saturation (Corbin and Strauss, 2008; Burnard et al., 2008), ending when no new data emerged and the research questions were answered. Due to participants’ precarious situations, researchers strictly maintained privacy and confidentiality throughout the study. Ethical safeguards were rigorously observed, including informed consent, confidentiality, and voluntary participation. The study ensured transparency regarding its objectives and data use while maintaining the validity of the findings. Ethical approval was obtained from the relevant institution, and fieldwork was conducted in English with support from local researchers.

3.2.3 Data analysis

Audio recordings were transcribed, and responses in local languages were translated into English for inclusion in field notes. Data were analyzed using reflexive thematic and content analyses, incorporating direct quotations to ensure a systematic yet flexible interpretation of qualitative patterns. The analytic process comprised five phases. Phase 1 involved data familiarisation through transcription and repeated reading. Phase 2 focused on generating initial codes by labelling key features. Phase 3 consolidated these codes into themes. Phase 4 reviewed these themes for coherence and dataset alignment. Finally, Phase 5 refined and labelled the themes to define their core narratives.

To support efficient thematic sorting, transcripts were organized in Excel. Credibility was strengthened through a pilot study with six participants to refine the instrument. Transferability was ensured by transparently reporting the study context and methodology. Finally, confirmability was reinforced by including direct quotations in the thematic analysis to preserve participants’ intended meanings (Byrne, 2021).

4 Results

4.1 Socio-economic demographics of the participants

Table 1 summarizes the participants’ socio-economic demographics. Most respondents were women heading households of 5–10 people, many being single mothers living with extended family. The majority were unemployed, relying on informal trade and occasional side jobs for their livelihoods.

Table 1. Demographics of household participants interviewed in this study (n-40).

Due to their vulnerability and limited living conditions, most households (16) reported a monthly income below R3000 (US$180). Of the 40 participants, 27 were South African citizens, primarily from rural KwaZulu-Natal and Limpopo, representing the Zulu, Sepedi, and Tsonga groups. These marginalized communities qualify for government social assistance, including cash grants and free basic municipal services.

Social relief grants included support for children, the elderly, and the disabled, as well as unemployment aid. However, beneficiaries found the amounts insufficient to offset the rising cost of living, particularly for food and energy. Consequently, households struggled to cover essential expenses such as rent, utilities, healthcare, and education.

Most households spent nearly two-thirds of their income on municipal services such as energy and transport. Consequently, they sought supplementary income to sustain their grants. Of the 40 participants interviewed, 13 were African migrants from Zimbabwe, Malawi, Mozambique, and Lesotho.

All 40 respondents experienced moderate food insecurity, characterized by constrained diets, skipped meals, and reliance on unhealthy foods. As this qualitative study relied on interviews rather than formal surveys, food insecurity levels were determined by participants’ self-reports. While no severe hunger was reported, nearly all households faced marginal-to-low food security, often consuming only one meal per day. Most participants frequently relied on nutritionally unbalanced meals, consistent with the findings of Masuku and Khalema (2024).

Table 2 shows that 85% of respondents experienced short-term, seasonal food insecurity, primarily due to income fluctuations and month-end budget constraints. Conversely, 15% reported prolonged food insecurity caused by unemployment, a growing household size, and climate-driven price increases.

Table 2. Prevalence of food insecurity in Alex.

Table 3 presents the demographic profile regarding access to basic municipal infrastructure. Findings show that many Alex residents live in unproclaimed areas lacking water, electricity, sewer, and refuse services. Consequently, low-income households in these informal settlements face persistent service shortfalls. The table further indicates that access to essential services is primarily determined by housing typology.

Table 3. Housing typology in Alex (n-40).

Of 40 surveyed households in Alex, 32 resided in informal dwellings, primarily in the Setjwetla settlement, constructed from salvaged materials. The remaining eight households occupied self-built brick units constructed without authorization or formal plans in flood-prone areas.

Most informal dwellings lacked municipal power and water. Only 11 structures were connected via the City of Johannesburg’s in-situ upgrading and interim electrification programmes. This initiative provides basic services to communities without requiring relocation or eviction.

Where municipal grid and water extensions were not feasible, local authorities adopted a hybrid infrastructure approach. This model utilizes decentralized renewable sources, such as solar microgrids and battery storage, alongside community water systems like public standpipes. It also includes alternative delivery methods such as water tankers, kiosks, and vending machines, while utilizing portable toilets for sanitation services.

Without secure formal housing, providing and maintaining basic municipal services is challenging. This hinders households’ ability to manage food and dispose of waste effectively. In this study, service access includes not only formal electricity and water connections but also informal and hybrid systems, such as wood, charcoal, solar, and LPG. These technologies, along with various household appliances, are integrated into daily practices to meet water, energy, and food (WEF) needs.

For instance, a 45-year-old South African participant from Setjwetla lives in a makeshift shack with her five children. Originally from rural Limpopo and speaking Tsonga, she describes her living conditions in the following translated account:

“Living in a shack offers no dignity. We lack reliable water and electricity. It pains me that my appliances sit unused and are damaged by roof leaks. While we sometimes connect informally to the grid, the supply is erratic, and City Power frequently disconnects us,” she said.

Findings reveal trade-offs and synergies within the household WEF nexus, highlighting gender disparities alongside the livelihood practices and the agency members exercise to meet daily needs. These themes are detailed in the following subsections.

4.2 Synergies and trade-offs within the household WEF nexus in Alex

Water and energy consumption in Alex is inconsistent. Even households connected to municipal grids rely on diverse off-grid alternatives for water and power. Consequently, residents maintain hybrid arrangements, using both formal infrastructure and informal sources to meet their daily needs.

Informal off-grid energy sources, such as wood fuel, charcoal, and LPG, were widely used due to their perceived affordability, reliability, and efficiency. Households practiced energy “stacking” to manage costs, save time, and satisfy taste or personal preferences. For instance, a resident of Stjwetla, originally from the Eastern Cape, shared her perspective:

“I use various energy sources for my household. I use LPG, charcoal, and wood for cooking to save on electricity costs. Due to frequent load shedding, electricity is unreliable and expensive, though I still use it for my refrigerator and TV,” she says.

Due to rising electricity costs and load shedding, energy use was primarily limited to lighting and essential appliances. While households utilize multiple energy sources, reliance remains uneven. The study identified LPG as the primary fuel due to its reliability and efficiency, followed by wood and charcoal, while kerosene and solar energy were the least utilized sources.

Wood fuel and charcoal were primarily used for cooking traditional, energy-intensive meals. In contrast, kerosene and solar power were typically utilized for heating, lighting, and powering electronic devices.

Table 4 shows frequencies exceeding the sample size because households use multiple energy sources, often concurrently. Our study demonstrates that water and energy infrastructures are not neutral technological systems; instead, they are dynamic configurations shaped by social contexts and essential for daily life.

Table 4. Informal and municipal grid systems connectivity.

Marginalized households in Alex utilize multiple interconnected systems to meet daily needs across the urban landscape. In this study, “heterogeneous” refers to the diverse modalities through which residents access resources both within and beyond conventional municipal grids. This concept highlights infrastructure practices and development trajectories characterized by nonlinearity, incompletion, and ongoing contestation rather than linear progress (Guma, 2020).

Most urban households live near municipal grids, yet affordability and informal housing often limit their access to basic services like piped water, electricity, and sanitation. Consequently, residents employ diverse informal strategies to meet their daily needs. For water and sanitation, they typically rely on manual storage containers and source water for domestic use from various natural and informal systems, including local rivers and rainwater.

A female resident in informal housing confirmed the issue, stating that water scarcity is persistent and piped water is inaccessible. She noted that their informally sourced water is often unsafe, requiring boiling before use, yet it still poses health risks.

Household respondent 7 stated: “A man must provide for his family. High unemployment in this township forces us into risky work to survive. Although I am a trained technician, I perform unauthorized electricity and water bypasses for a fee. Despite municipal raids, we promptly restore services. We know this is illegal, but we are driven by empathy for our community’s hardship.”

In parts of Stjwetla, Johannesburg, extreme congestion and a lack of planning prevent municipal vehicles from providing essential waste and water services. This infrastructure gap has allowed small-scale water syndicates to intervene. These groups bypass official networks by tapping into primary mains and distributing water through complex “spaghetti connections” of plastic piping. Residents pay these syndicates to access water from makeshift taps. Although illegal, these informal actors provide a critical lifeline, performing essential services that the local government is currently unable to deliver.

4.3 Everyday practices within the household WEF nexus

This section examines household hardships and contestation regarding municipal water and energy services. It explores how residents navigate these challenges through strategic adaptation, coping mechanisms, and local interventions. To secure essential needs, households employ various material tactics: reducing utility usage, adjusting consumption patterns, and engaging in moonlighting or family labor to manage costs. Furthermore, they use credit arrangements, informal transportation, and community financial networks to maintain affordability and alleviate socio-economic pressures.

Water and energy access shape household food systems. When services are unreliable, households struggle to acquire, prepare, and store food. Those without formal utility connections often rely on informal street food markets for ingredients and ready-to-eat meals. These markets help low-income households reduce energy expenditures, infrastructure costs, and appliance requirements while mitigating the time burdens of home cooking.

Findings show that some households lack essential appliances such as refrigerators, water heaters, and stoves. Of the 40 households surveyed, 12 respondents predominantly males frequently consume street meals because their lack of appliances limits home meal preparation.

To corroborate this, a 43-year-old male participant explained that he lives simply with his cousin in a shack without major appliances. Since they are often away and lack cooking facilities, they primarily eat street food to save on groceries and energy costs, cooking only when absolutely necessary.”

This statement highlights the linkage between households and informal food markets. Street food provides convenient, low-cost, ready-to-eat meals, serving as a vital source of nourishment for those facing energy infrastructure constraints. By offering an accessible alternative, street food allows households to conserve energy and avoid the costs associated with home cooking.

Everyday practices manifested as resistance, as households used informal, often illegal mechanisms to obtain municipal water and electricity. These strategies included sabotaging infrastructure to secure free services. In Alex, some residents intentionally disengaged from formal systems by tampering with meters and falsifying readings to avoid billing. Meanwhile, unconnected households relied on unauthorized connections and meter bypassing. Comments from participants 9 and 10 reinforce these findings:

“Violence is the only language this government recognizes. To compel them to provide essential services like water and electricity, we resort to sabotaging infrastructure and bypassing meters. Though illegal, these actions are driven by necessity as we cannot afford utility costs. These basic necessities should be a guaranteed human right, yet authorities prioritize revenue over citizen well-being.”

Common illegal connections in Alexandra included split electrical supply systems and joint prepaid home meters (HPMs). Unconnected households accessed electricity informally from neighbors or street power lines. Residents also tampered with HPM readings to reduce or evade municipal payments. Often, intermediaries such as plumbers and electricians were hired to facilitate these illicit connections by running cables alongside water pipes for a fee.

Residents used improvised “spaghetti connections” of insulated tubing to snake wiring and plumbing across refuse dumps and drainage channels for electricity and water. These interventions were typically facilitated by self-employed technicians and plumbers through networked collaboration. Such efforts undermined the city’s infrastructure delivery and prevented the municipality from collecting revenue.

4.4 Gender and agency within the household WEF nexus

Gender emerged as a salient dimension in this study. Female-headed households, particularly those with young children, made strategic decisions regarding meal preparation, energy selection, and food storage. To reduce expenditures, many participants deactivated energy-intensive appliances during the day, using them only at night when all members had returned home. Additionally, households with greater financial capacity mitigated costs by adopting off-grid energy solutions, such as solar panels and battery systems.

Furthermore, household diets shifted toward cheaper, less nutritious options like street food and pre-packaged items, and less energy-intensive meals. These changes were more common in households without young children, whereas female-headed households with children remained more deliberate about meal quality. This is illustrated by a respondent caring for three young children.

She remarked: “I cannot afford canned food or street snacks. I must prepare healthy daily meals to ensure my children’s nutrition. Most of my income is spent on fuel and food.”

Dietary adjustments across households included reducing portion sizes. Findings reveal significant seasonal variation: some respondents skipped meals or ate once daily, while others simplified diets to stretch supplies until the next grant. Additionally, high energy and infrastructure costs shifted consumption from nutritious foods toward processed alternatives that require less preparation, occasionally posing health risks.

Gender significantly influenced water collection, a task primarily managed by women that exposed them to polluted supplies. Domestic water was stored in various containers and sourced from diverse origins, including boreholes, streams, and the Jukskei River. Regarding sanitation, most Stjwetla residents use shared mobile toilets located 200 to 500 meters from their homes. This distance poses severe safety risks to women and children, such as physical assault, particularly at night, due to high local crime rates. Participants from households 10 and 11 remarked,

We are afraid to use communal latrines at night due to the safety risks to ourselves and our children. Instead, we use buckets or bags and dispose of them in the morning.

Facing sanitation challenges, residents of informal settlements, particularly women and children, often resort to open defecation or bucket systems due to a lack of nearby public latrines. Many use plastic bags, known as “flying toilets,” to avoid the dangers of visiting outdoor facilities at night. However, these bags frequently rupture, contaminating water supplies and spreading fatal diseases like typhoid and cholera. Some residents rely on illegal, temporary pits. These makeshift latrines often collapse or flood during wet seasons, risking environmental and community safety. Additionally, inhabitants frequently dispose of trash, wastewater, and sewage directly into the Jukskei River.

Most participants interviewed were unemployed or lacked stable income, relying heavily on social welfare. Due to a lack of collateral, those in the informal economy were excluded from formal banking and turned to unconventional financial schemes. Findings showed that 37 of the 40 surveyed households belonged to informal savings associations (stokvels), with 17 of those specifically participating in savings-focused groups.

In contrast, nine belonged to an investment (stokvel, making fixed monthly payments to fund major business equipment. Only 11 respondents, mostly women, were part of a grocery stokvel, which uses collective bulk purchasing to share goods for the year-end festive season.

This is illustrated by a female participant’s account: “Beyond my retail business, I take on at least four side jobs weekly. The Alex market is highly competitive with low margins, as many residents sell similar goods. We constantly seek extra gig work; on non-selling days, I earn money by washing clothes, cleaning, or providing childcare, while also participating in a communal stokvel.”

Women face the greatest impacts of food insecurity and energy poverty. Research shows that women-headed households spend more on energy and food during the winter. Additionally, food expenditure decreases during school terms due to feeding programs, but increases when children are home for holidays.

These WEF trade-offs and practices demonstrate household agency and livelihood resilience.

5 Discussion

The study’s findings highlight the trade-offs and synergies within the household WEF nexus, identifying cooking as a critical practice for understanding vulnerabilities. Cooking is significant because it reflects everyday lived realities in which social relationships are negotiated to meet physiological needs. Furthermore, it acts as an assemblage of socio-economic and cultural practices that define human and environmental well-being, particularly regarding nutrition and hygiene. Ultimately, analyzing cooking reveals the interconnections among water, energy, and food within the urban nexus.

Domestic cooking is a social practice deeply connected to household emotions and broader socio-economic contexts. Consequently, many home food activities reflect the complex synergies and trade-offs within the WEF nexus.

This study demonstrates that many households must navigate trade-offs and devise coping strategies to meet daily needs. This aligns with prior research (Jaka et al., 2023; Methner et al., 2021; Mpandeli et al., 2018; Foden et al., 2018; Lawhon et al. (2017), Cirolia and Scheba, 2019, Nhamo et al., 2018) showing that WEF insecurities disrupt everyday practices in South Africa. Consequently, households often adopt self-directed interventions, such as selecting cheaper, reliable fuels to sustain themselves.

Gender disparity is another salient theme in this study. Women occupy a pivotal role in water, energy, and food (WEF) security due to the gendered division of labour. At the household level, women and girls disproportionately bear the burden of managing these resources. This is particularly evident in the kitchen, where women handle food preparation and decision-making, reflecting broader socio-economic stratification. Consequently, most household interviews were conducted with women.

Many were single parents or primary caregivers within extended families. These gendered roles intensified their experiences of WEF insecurity, with reports indicating they spent over half of their monthly income on WEF-related needs. Similar findings are supported by Khofi et al. (2025), Villamor (2023), and Hlahla (2022).

Agency emerged as a dominant theme, with evidence suggesting that human agency, particularly among female participants, is the primary driver within the household WEF nexus. This agency is manifested through labor, negotiations, and the mobilization of social networks. It further encompasses the capacity to maintain and sustain infrastructure to meet daily needs. Ultimately, agency clarifies how the WEF nexus unfolds and is actively negotiated.

Our study reveals that water, energy, and food are delivered through diverse formal and informal arrangements, which shape distinct consumption patterns. In Alex, the state provides water via communal standpipes and electricity through prepaid systems. Additionally, widespread informal practices exist, functioning through both individual and collective arrangements.

Another provisioning pathway in Alex is market-based, where households purchase food and fuel such as wood, kerosene, charcoal, and LPG. Additionally, households supplement their livelihoods through subsistence gardening, primarily producing vegetables. Some also resort to sabotaging municipal infrastructure as a self-provisioning strategy.

The state mediates water and energy delivery through a centralized grid, treating these services as commodities enforced by restrictive mechanisms and prepaid meters. These devices automatically cut off supply when credit is exhausted and are widely used by municipalities to ensure cost recovery from indebted households. However, such interventions often ignore the practical complexities of domestic life and irregular consumption needs. Consequently, many households resort to vandalizing meters or illegally tapping into municipal infrastructure.

These diverse WEF practices, delivered by various actors including state agencies, highlight the heterogeneity of the nexus. Such provisioning arrangements define specific forms of agency and influence households’ ability to meet everyday needs. This aligns with research by Khofi et al. (2025), Kadibadiba et al. (2018), and Shove and Spurling (2013), who emphasize agency by examining how water, energy, and food flows are provisioned and consumed through routine activities such as cooking and sanitation.

6 Conclusion

This study pursued two objectives: to elucidate trade-offs and synergies within the household WEF nexus and to determine their influence on livelihood resilience. Results show that households in Alex, particularly Stjwetla, experience more trade-offs than synergies. These interdependencies primarily unfold within the kitchen, which serves as a locus where people, infrastructure, and spatial arrangements intersect to constitute the practical WEF nexus.

Consequently, kitchens are recognized as sites where food consumption patterns take shape and social practices are enacted. The kitchen serves as a setting for social reproduction, gendered labor, and care, as well as the deliberations through which households manage budgets and income allocation.

This study documented household kitchen practices, including cooking, food storage, and waste management. Findings show that vulnerabilities are primarily linked to food insecurity and water or energy poverty. Consequently, households employ diverse, shifting formal and informal strategies to meet daily needs. While income constraints and limited municipal services drive these challenges, access to grid electricity, piped water, and social welfare remains infrequent among the population.

Our findings indicate that most households sustain water and energy provision through various alternative modalities. Within the WEF nexus, female participants exercise primary agency as they manage cooking activities; however, financial, social, and infrastructural barriers constrain their resilience to shocks. Consequently, households in Alex face significant trade-offs rather than synergies, resulting in relatively low livelihood resilience.

Drawing on recent research, this paper argues that households do not consume WEF resources directly, but rather the service outcomes they provide, specifically through the everyday practices of food preparation, storage, and cooking.

Improving the WEF nexus in informal settlements requires shifting from centralized trade-offs to local synergies by strengthening agency and community empowerment. Agency is advanced through co-designing solutions, where residents participate in mapping resource bottlenecks to develop people-centered governance.

Additionally, decentralized micro-utilities, such as community-managed solar hubs or greywater-recycling facilities, relocate service control to the community, enabling more autonomous resource generation and distribution. To further integrate WEF linkages, affordable mobile biogas digesters should be deployed. By converting organic waste into clean cooking energy and nutrient-rich fertilizer, these systems reduce fuel costs and emissions while supporting urban agriculture.

In parallel, energy efficiency in food preparation can be improved through insulated thermal cookers. These solutions reduce energy input for staple foods, lowering household electricity demand and costs. Water-efficiency strategies should focus on sequential reuse. For example, redirecting treated laundry greywater to gardening or toilet flushing maximizes resource value and reduces environmental impacts. This approach has been effectively implemented in Kenya’s Kibera Informal Settlement. We conclude that securing household access to water, energy, and food especially for women, who face higher risks is essential for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals. This approach directly supports SDGs 2, 5, 6, and 7. Realizing this vision requires establishing robust institutional and structural support.

6.1 Integrated policy framework

Regulatory bodies must stop treating water, energy, and food as separate entities. Local governments should establish cooperative structures aligned with the SDGs to ensure equitable progress. Governance should adopt integrated “nexus-doing” approaches. By collaborating with communities and innovators to document resource management practices, officials can transform local insights into actionable strategies.

6.2 Cooperative governance

Shift from top-down delivery to participatory structures where residents co-design and manage local utility networks. Move beyond crisis-driven provision toward holistic, place-based planning that recognizes informal settlements as dynamic urban constituents. Updated spatial frameworks should facilitate micro-farming, rainwater harvesting, and decentralized energy systems. Evidence-based decision-making is equally critical. By combining context-specific indices with participatory research, local governments and NGOs can refine resource allocation to strengthen the link between WEF security and livelihood resilience. Practical frameworks for these approaches are currently being developed in regional analyses.

6.3 Microfinance

Expand access to microloans and community financing to help low-income households acquire and maintain modular WEF technologies, such as solar systems and rainwater tanks.

6.4 Tenure security

Secure and formalize land rights in informal settlements. Without these assurances, households and financial institutions are less likely to make long-term investments in WEF infrastructure.

Correction note

A correction has been made to this article. Details can be found at: 10.3389/frsc.2026.1999823.

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Footnotes

Edited by: Ziad Mouhanna, Arab International University, Syria

Reviewed by: Mohit Kumar, Harvard Medical School, United States

Purity Hamunakwadi, Nelson Mandela University, South Africa