Environmental sustainability is greatly affected by the scale and pace of human development. In order to ensure environmental sustainability, mankind must adopt sustainable living practices. This calls for human development that does not compromise on the quality of the environment on which it thrives. The Brundtland Commission explains sustainable development as 'development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of the future generations to meet their own needs'.

Therefore in a sustainable society, environmental protection and economic activities must operate within a common framework. The seventh MDG on Environmental Sustainability lists three specific targets which any initiative in this regard must adhere to. They are to:

1. Integrate the principles of sustainable development into country policies and programme and reverse the loss of environmental resources
2. Halve, by 2015, the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation
3. Have achieved, by 2020, a significant improvement in the lives of at least 100 million slum dwellers

Environmental Sustainability Can Ensure Attainment of Other Goals
The above targets concern themselves with the betterment in quality of human life without compromising on the quality of environment. Improved water and sanitation facilities reduce child mortality and better drainage reduces malaria. Better management of natural resources and forests reduce the risk of disaster from floods. Managing and protecting the environment thus contributes to reaching the other Millennium Development Goals. We can safely assume that good policies and economic growth, which work to improve human lives can also work to improve the environment.

There is a complex correlation between poverty and environment. High levels of poverty are generally accompanied by high levels of environmental degradation. People living in poverty often have no alternative but to exploit their natural environment in a destructive way, e.g. to obtain fuel wood and cropland. In many regions, safe water is a scarce commodity. Rubbish and sewage are deposited in the surrounding area or the nearest river. This creates a vicious cycle in which environmental degradation undermines the habitability and fertility of living spaces and thus the natural bases of life, especially of the poor and future generations. At the same time, an expanding global population is forced to share increasingly limited natural resources.

The world's population currently stands at around six billion. In 50 years' time, the figure may well have risen to ten billion. As a result, the strains on the natural environment will increase enormously as well. This is already having clear and dramatic impacts on the fertility and habitability of living spaces in many developing countries, causing refugee flows and further poverty. Scarcity of natural resources can also trigger transboundary conflicts.

Education for Sustainability
Many educators are helping societies achieve sustainability by teaching the three 'E's' environment, economics and equity along with the traditional three 'r's' reading, writing and arithmetic. They try to foster awareness of sustainability among individuals, communities, institutions and governments. Education for Sustainability is a lifelong learning process that leads to an informed and involved citizenry that has the creative problem-solving skills, scientific and social literacy, and commitment to engage in responsible individual and cooperative actions. These actions help ensure an environmental sound and economically prosperous future. Education for sustainability thus has the potential to serve as a tool for building stronger bridges between the classroom and business, and between schools and communities.

Let us look at a simple example from Kenya.

More Water, Safe Water
Kenya experiences prolonged dry seasons when it does not rain at all - but when it does rain, a lot of the water goes to waste. As a result, there is acute shortage of drinking water. The condition of Kenyan farmers who cultivate small holdings of land is worsened by this scenario. The Project - More Water Safe Water supported by DFID in partnership with the Kenya Agricultural Research Institute (KARI) addresses the plight of these farmers by a simple educational tool in the form of a brochure.

These brochures show how to save and preserve rainwater, and make it safe for humans to drink. Using clear language and illustrations, the brochures show farmers how to construct a pond for collecting rainwater for livestock, make tanks to collect rainwater from the roof and how to treat their household water to kill germs. The benefits are clear: more water becomes available, and action is taken to prevent diseases such as cholera, typhoid and diarrhoea.

The brochures have helped to get the message across that there are simple steps farmers can take to store their water for future use - and make it safe to drink. DFID has enabled KARI to produce a whole series of brochures in English and in Kiswahili offering practical advice to farmers - from water preservation to improving crop yields. KARI has used them with a wide range of groups, distributing them to farmers, agricultural libraries, co-operative groups and scientists.

Facts:

• About 1.1 billion people worldwide still lack safe water and 2.6 billion have no sanitation, according to a UNICEF and World Health Organization 2005 report Water for Life.
• Less than 1 percent of the world's fresh water is readily accessible for direct human uses such as drinking or irrigation.
• In rural Africa, 19 per cent of women spend more than one hour on each trip to fetch water.
• Currently, around 2.5 billion people don't have adequate sanitation, leading to 3.3 million deaths a year from diarrhoea including many children.
• Worldwide, just under a billion people currently live in a slum, but this is forecast to rise to almost 2 billion by 2020. More...