Even if we can ignore the reality, we can never ignore its consequences. Economic models and scientific discoveries have promoted an ever accelerating consumption of the earth’s natural resources with little consideration to population growth and the associated damage of all forms of life on the Earth. Depletion of important resources, the increasing waste and pollution combined with an accelerating population have caused poverty, disease, malnutrion and above all the definite fact of an approaching total annihilation of life on the whole planet. Survival of humans and newcomers has continuously forced impoverised people to destroy their environment. It is the very nature of humans, no one can go hungry without commiting a “crime” to fill the stomach!

But what is Sustainability and can we really achieve it, when we are regularly presented with a range of the so-called “sustainable” products and “green or organic” cleaning supplies to carbon offsets. With micro-economic markets keep supplying us with so much labeled as sustainable, the term has grown to become essentially a “bubble of sustainability”, at best indicating a practice or product slightly less damaging than the conventional alternative.

Sustainability can not be achieved by un-sustainable policies that are left over to the market without having appropriate instruments on all levels and sectors to strictly define, measure and control how sustainable is sustainable. How else can we can we achieve a goal that is not well-defined and regulated!

Energy left after the “Big Bang” was the origin of the Earth, water and all other natural resources on the earth including fossil fuel, wind-power and the solar-fuel. These are the fundamental drivers of the evolution of all forms of life on the earth. The dichotomy between natural resources and basic life-components that has facilitated our life, which seemed to us to be “endless”, promoted our consumption to the degree that we are running out of all resources. The dilemma of water and energy seems to be like the classical question “which came first, the chicken or the egg” and if they will disappear which will disappear first. We need energy to produce water and we need water to produce energy. Both resources are running out. As we are reaching Peak Oil, we also appear to approaching Peak Water. With the vanishing drivers of life, life itself will fade away. In other words, our planet is aging with us and the question who dies first!

http://www.o2env.com/news/energy-versus-water/

The MENA region is facing major challenges to meet the growing pressures on its WE “Water and Energy” resources. This would require major transformation for shaping new policies to meet the accelerating demands not only on energy but also on water. Other drivers what regards energy are high insolation rates, young and empowered workforce. Among other drivers for achieving sustainable WE-policies are increasing awareness of cost, quality, market diversity and public services.

http://www.greentechmedia.com/research/report/mena-solar-market-outlook-2013-2017

The World Top Ten: longest rivers, largest lakes, largest countries, deepest oceans and seas, countries with most airports.
http://oneclickfun.blogspot.se/2012/02/top-ten-of.html?m=1

Economic growth is a powerful instrument for empowering people and reducing poverty in the developing world. It is essential for creating jobs and market opportunities for people to support their families and build more sustainable futures. However, many developing countries face particular challenges and threats to achieve and maintain sustainable economic growth because of weak institutions, high unemployment, poor infrastructure for key public and private services (education, health, security, transport, water and energy), also a severe lack of access to financial services and unsuitable laws and regulations.

https://www.gov.uk/government/policies/helping-developing-countries-economies-to-grow

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Cape Peninsula, South Africa, gives an excellent example on “sustainable tourism” with the well-preserved nature of its bays, parks, mountain, beach and sea animals, Ostrich farms, recreation activities, open sea views, well-managed roads, shanty towns and most important high environmental standards. It has one of the most beautiful coastal mountain formations architected by historical evolution and successive carving of sea-level variations alternated by coastal depositions. The amazing action of nature and the strict rules of natural conservation and environmental protection policies sustained its biological hot-spots and made it home for diverse and rare animal, plant and bird (including penguin) and fish species though the harsh and delicate environments. Including the so-called Fynbos “fine bush” because of its many fine leafed plants, adapted to the extreme wet/dry climate and nutrient poor sandy soils. With the city of Cape Town, Table Mountains provide striking visual images of world famous flat top and steep falls. The geological diversity is enormous with most scenic oceanscapes in the world. At the southernmost point, Cape Agulhas, the two current from the Atlatic and Indian Oceans meets, where the warm-water Agulhas current meets the cold water Benguela current and turns back on itself.

Your engagement can make a difference. It is about raising awareness and transfer-of-knowledge. Join us now, tomorrow can be too late!

http://environment.nationalgeographic.com/environment/sustainable-earth/water/

http://www.sustainabilitylabs.org/page/sustainability-five-core-principles

Hydro-electric power is classified among Renewable Energy Sources where no contributions to man-made global warming. But what how friendly is hydro-electric power? and what are the environmental threats associated with this source of energy?. So far, our accumulated knowledge demonstrates that the environmental threats were under-estimated. The hydropower seems to be viewed more favorably, despite historical concerns over biodiversity loss, long-term environmental impact and the social repercussions of massive community resettlement. Natural erossion at upstream lands that deliver fertile soils to low laying-land downstream has long-term impacts on soil quality with consequences for continuous use of fertilization, e.g. the case of the Nile delta. Inceasing of evaporation at the water-bodies behind dam constructions which is dominant in arid and regions, e.g. Lake Naser on the Nile. Dam building is expected to give rise to changes in local and regional hydrology of groundwater with risks for increasing salination, if this takes place in combination with increased use of groundwater. Also, power plants at upstream countries are usually associated with increasing waste and pollution from the industries, urbanization activities and household. Such emissions in many cases do not follow strict environmental protection recoomendations.

See more at:
http://chinawaterrisk.org/resources/analysis-reviews/hydropower-environmental-disaster-or-climate-saver/

Achieving sustainable socio-economic developments world-over depends on our understanding of the “Water-Energy nexus”, I call it WE-nexus. This is by no means the most important nexus for promoting golbal sustainability with considerable saving of WE-resources in terms of quality and quatity. How to use this nexus to get the magic-mix for best “quality and quantity” savings has no universal solution, it is dependent on how such resources can be managed through different levels of cooperation and shared responsibilty, e.g. on local, national, regional and global levels. Also, through adapting appropriate practices with consideration the geo-climatic conditions.

http://www.fmlink.com/article.cgi?type=Magazine&pub=AFE&id=30077&mode=source

SHAI OSTER in his article “China: New Dam Builder for the World” says: “African and Asian delegations visiting China are taken each year to see the Three Gorges Dam as a model project even though it has been dogged by problems ranging from spiraling costs and unrest caused by forced relocation of more than a million citizens to rapid land erosion and increased pollution. Criticism of the dam — which is the largest in the world by many measures — has become so persistent that the Chinese government has recently begun to acknowledge the issues. But environmentalists and human-rights activists fret that China will repeat many of the same mistakes it has made with dams at home as it leads a dam revival abroad.”

Follow the story and join the discussion on how to improve achieving sustainable socio-economic developments around the world, in particular in the developing countries with very limited knowledge on environmental and climatic impacts and the how the ongoing manipulations in major transboundary water-bodies may mean for future generations.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB119880902773554655.html

Without access to water resources no country on the earth can survive and provide its population with the basic needs for life and development. Sovereignty of nations or populations over geographically existing natural resources in their territories did not exist duing the era of colonialism, phrases such as “equitable rights” were not recognized by colonialism who held control over the global natural resources through military power. Our understanding of equitable rights for sharing transboundary water resources, by being common natural resources, has emerged through centures and intensified in the past decades with the complete transformation of the world form colonialism to sovereign nations.

Emerging Voices: International Water Law – Preventing Conflict on the Nile

The rich biodiversity of East Africa has its roots in the geological evolution of the region. An excellent interplay between geology, geography, biology, ecology and climate!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dzah_5y65AU#t=13. Further information on this topic will provided later on.

Wildlife documentary. A tale of life on the Zambezi River, set against the epic backdrop of Victoria Falls. The story is told from the point of view of a local fisherman, Mr White, who has fished these waters for 69 years, and whose riverside companions are elephants, baboons, hippos and kingfishers. Follow the fortunes of these animals through his eyes, and learn how their lives are ruled by the moods of the river and the rains.
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The Middle East and North Africa “MENA” are important parts of the global food market. Food security and higher food prices are thought to be major factors in the region’s recent unrest. The MENA region is the largest wheat importer in the world, and wheat prices have doubled since 2005. With substantial and sustained increases in international prices of foods, coupled with a fast-growing domestic food demand, some MENA countries are facing growing fiscal and inflationary pressures. Most interesting, in all MENA countries, a decline in global food prices barely translates into a reduction in domestic food prices. What data shows us is that countries could reduce food price pressures considerably by tackling domestic issues, improving the targeting of subsidies and other food consumption and production policies.

http://menablog.worldbank.org/how-exposed-are-mena-households-global-food-price-increases

Would the Great Millennium Dam of Ethiopia yield mutual benefits with the reperian countries?

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