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The Water-Energy-Food Nexus and its outlook for Mexico are being assessed. To achieve this goal, a literature review of recent advancements is conducted, and the fundamental interrelationships in the country are quantified and illustrated. The results demonstrate that the Nexus serves as a valuable framework for implementing strategies and actions related to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals. There are some local studies focused on generating optimization models and performance indices to evaluate the current state and project future scenarios. However, to implement the nexus successfully, this country requires a redesign of public policies, as well as coordinated planning across the involved sectors, including the active participation of stakeholders from society, business, and academia, Se evalúa el nexo agua-energía-alimentos y su perspectiva para México. Para este propósito, se emplea una revisión bibliográfica de los últimos avances y se cuantifican e ilustran las interrelaciones fundamentales en el país. Los resultados muestran que el nexo es un marco útil para aplicar estrategias y acciones referentes al cumplimiento de los Objetivos de Desarrollo Sustentable. Existen algunos estudios locales orientados a la generación de modelos de optimización e índices de desempeño para evaluar el estado actual y proyectar escenarios futuros. Sin embargo, para poder implementar el nexo, este país requiere un rediseño de las políticas públicas, así como una planificación coordenada de los sectores involucrados, incluida la participación de las partes interesadas de la sociedad, las empresas y la academia.

The COVID-19 (coronavirus disease 2019) pandemic's steady condition coupled with predominance of emerging contaminants in the environment and its synergistic implications in recent times has stoked interest in combating medical emergencies in this dynamic environment. In this context, high concentrations of pharmaceutical and personal care products (PPCPs), microplastics (MPs), antimicrobial resistance (AMR), and soaring coinfecting microbes, tied with potential endocrine disruptive (ED) are critical environmental concerns that requires a detailed documentation and analysis. During the pandemic, the identification, enumeration, and assessment of potential hazards of PPCPs and MPs and (used as anti-COVID-19 agents/applications) in aquatic habitats have been attempted globally. Albeit receding threats in the magnitude of COVID-19 infections, both these pollutants have still posed serious consequences to aquatic ecosystems and the very health and hygiene of the population in the vicinity. The surge in the contaminants post-COVID also renders them to be potent vectors to harbor and amplify AMR. Pertinently, the present work attempts to critically review such instances to understand the underlying mechanism, interactions swaying the current health of our environment during this post-COVID-19 era. During this juncture, although prevention of diseases, patient care, and self-hygiene have taken precedence, nevertheless antimicrobial stewardship (AMS) efforts have been overlooked. Unnecessary usage of PPCPs and plastics during the pandemic has resulted in increased emerging contaminants (i.e., active pharmaceutical ingredients and MPs) in various environmental matrices. It was also noticed that among COVID-19 patients, while the bacterial co-infection prevalence was 0.2-51%, the fungi, viral, protozoan and helminth were 0.3-49, 1-22, 2-15, 0.4-15% respectively, rendering them resistant to residual PPCPs. There are inevitable chances of ED effects from PPCPs and MPs applied p

In this work, we present an eight-month longitudinal study of wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE) in Ahmedabad, India, where wastewater surveillance was introduced in September 2020 after the successful containment of the first wave of COVID-19 to predict the resurge of the infection during the second wave of the pandemic. The study aims to elucidate the weekly resolution of the SARS-CoV-2 RNA data for eight months in wastewater samples to predict the COVID-19 situation and identify hotspots in Ahmedabad. A total of 287 samples were analyzed for SARS-CoV-2 RNA using RT-PCR, and Spearman's rank correlation was applied to depict the early warning potential of WBE. During September 2020 to April 2021, the increasing number of positive wastewater influent samples correlated with the growing number of confirmed clinical cases. It also showed clear evidence of early detection of the second wave of COVID-19 in Ahmedabad (March 2021). 258 out of a total 287 samples were detected positive with at least two out of three SARS-CoV-2 genes (N, ORF- 1 ab, and S). Monthly variation represented a significant decline in all three gene copies in October compared to September 2020, followed by an abrupt increase in November 2020. A similar increment in the gene copies was observed in March and April 2021, which would be an indicator of the second wave of COVID-19. A lead time of 1-2 weeks was observed in the change of gene concentrations compared with clinically confirmed cases. Measured wastewater ORF- 1 ab gene copies ranged from 6.1 x 102 (October 2020) to 1.4 x 104 (November 2020) copies/mL, and wastewater gene levels typically lead to confirmed cases by one to two weeks. The study highlights the value of WBE as a monitoring tool to predict waves within a pandemic, identify local disease hotspots within a city, and guide rapid management interventions.

Nearly half of the world's urban population depends on aquifers for drinking water. These are increasingly vulnerable to pollution and overexploitation. Besides anthropogenic sources, pollutants such as arsenic (As) are also geogenic and their concentrations have, in some cases, been increased by groundwater pumping. Almost 40 % of Mexico's population relies on groundwater for drinking water purposes; much the aquifers in semi-arid and arid central and northern Mexico is contaminated by As. These are agricultural regions where irrigation water is primarily provided from intenstive pumping of the aquifers leading to long-standing declines in the water table. The focus of this study is the main aquifer within the Comarca Lagunera region in Northern Mexico. Although the scientific evidence demonstrates that health effects are associated with long-term exposure to elevated As concentrations, this knowledge has not yielded effective groundwater development and public health policy. A multidisciplinary approach – including the evaluation of geochemistry, human health risk and development and public health policy - was used to provide a current account of these links. The dissolved As concentrations measured exceeded the corresponding World Health Organization guideline for drinking water in 90 % of the sampled wells; for the population drinking this water, the estimated probability of presenting non-carcinogenic health effects was >90 %, and the lifetime risk of developing cancer ranged from 0.5 to 61 cases in 10,000 children and 0.2 to 33 cases in 10,000 adults. The results suggest that insufficient policy responses are due to a complex and dysfunctional groundwater governance framework that compromises the economic, social and environmental sustainability of this region. These findings may valuable to other regions with similar settings that need to design and enact better informed, science-based policies that recognize the value of a more sustainable use of groundwater

Wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE) monitoring can play a key role in managing future pandemics because it covers both pre-symptomatic and asymptomatic cases, especially in densely populated areas with limited community health care. In the present work, wastewater monitoring was employed in Ahmedabad, India, after the successful containment of the first wave of COVID-19 to predict resurgence of the disease in the expected second wave of the pandemic. Here we show wastewater levels of COVID-19 virus particles (i.e., SARS-CoV-2) positively correlated with the number of confirmed clinical cases during the first wave, and provided early detection of COVID-19 presence before the second wave in Ahmedabad and an WBE-based city zonation plan was developed for health protection. A eight-month data of Surveillance of Wastewater for Early Epidemic Prediction (SWEEP) was gathered, including weekly SARS-CoV-2 RNA wastewater analysis (n=287) from nine locations between September 2020 and April 2021. Across this period, 258 out of 287 samples were positive for least two out of three SARS-CoV-2 genes (N, ORF 1ab, and S). Monitoring showed a substantial decline in all three gene markers between October and September 2020, followed by an abrupt increase in November 2020. Similar changes were seen in March 2021, which preceded the second COVID-19 wave. Measured wastewater ORF-1ab gene copies ranged from 6.1 × 102 (October, 2020) to 1.4 × 104 (November, 2020) copies/mL, and wastewater gene levels typically lead confirmed cases by one to two weeks. The study highlights the value of WBE as a monitoring tool to predict waves within a pandemic, identifying local disease hotspots within a city and guiding rapid management interventions.