Sustaining Our Environment to Promote our Development.

• Author: Makhubu, Lydia
• Position: Science Watch

One is tempted to ask if the title should be rephrased as "Promoting our Development to Sustain Our Environment". In either case, the complex relationship between the human race and the Earth's diverse resources--the flora and fauna, fossil fuels and minerals, rivers and oceans--merits attention. We are the stewards of the environment. The land which supports the resources, the biosphere and the atmosphere are linked together by an extraordinary interdependence. If we change this delicate balance, we affect the quality of the environment and subsequently the quality of our life.

Development aims at effecting social, economic and cultural changes for the benefit of humankind and the individual. From a developing country perspective, such activities must be targeted at ensuring improvements in health and nutrition, the hamessing of science and technology to enhance development, and the promotion of education as a tool for empowerment at all levels of society. All these, directly or indirectly, feed on the environment.

That the United Nations Millennium Declaration of 2001 has such great similarities with the 1992 Rio Declaration affirms the need for humanity to strengthen further its collective efforts to safeguard our environment while promoting our development, placing human beings at the centre of all development plans. The Brundtland Commission on Environment and Development examined issues pertaining to energy, industry, food security, human settlements and economic relations, and concluded that environment and development were inextricable. The Commission defined sustainable development as "development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs".

Throughout the ages, humans have undertaken numerous development projects, some of which required considerable modification of the natural environment. For example, some projects have involved alterations in the physical layout of the landscape to fit construction works of various kinds: the diversion of a river from its natural course to form a big dam for irrigation, with consequent creation of artificial sites for breeding of vectors for water-borne diseases, such as malaria and schistosomiasis; and the clearing of whole forests to build industries, whose by-products in the form of acid rain, toxic fumes and metallic accumulation have had far-reaching effects on the state of the ecology and human health.

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