RENEWABLE ENERGY TECHNOLOGIES AND PUBLIC EDUCATION AS KEY ELEMENTS IN SUSTAINABLE COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT: THE CASE OF BASAISA, EGYPT

Sustainable community development/solutions can't be pursued as a sectarian initiative. In fact, the special importance of the effort outlined in this paper as a program of action lies in its integrated approach, its attempt to combine renewable energy technology promotion and youth employment, settlement, poverty eradication, social integration and equality into coordinated and participatory plan of action.

This paper reports on the progress of two unique grassroots initiatives: one that started 1974 in a small village at the heart of the Nile-Delta called Basaisa ( www.google.com/BasaisaVillage ) and one that started 1992 in a new-desert community called New Basaisa ( www.google.com/NewBasaisa ) in South Sinai, Egypt.

The reliance on fossil fuels as the major source of energy production, places a heavy burden on our society and has lead to high environmental costs, which are increasingly being recognized as public health issues and economic costs or externalities. Our concerns relating to the heavy reliance on fossil fuels are also increasing due to the expected negative impacts of global warming. The promotion of renewable energy in our small villages and scattered desert communities can form part of the solution to our concerns in many ways.

The recent national census showed that the average per capita share of cultivated land and inhibited land in Egypt continued to fall from 1.0 feddans, and 1.4 feddan in 1800 to 0.13 feddan, and 0.2 feddan in 2006 respectively. As Egypt's document for the 21st Century states "to get out of the old valley to the desert is not merely an option to select from available alternatives, but rather a matter of life not only for the present generation, but also for the future generation". Crowdedness leads to an overall gradual deterioration in urban utilities and loss of civilized image. It renders futile any efforts exerted in cleaning and beautifying cities and controlling pollution. Besides, it had the effect of turning behavior from a tolerant to an aggressive attitude.

The paper describes the renewable energy technologies and public education methodologies used and the approaches that work as well as the problems facing its implementation and the achievements to date. Small photovoltaic power units were used as multifunction units. Producing electricity for training and education, some time for TV, some time for the Friday pray in the Mosque, and other times for production activities in small workshops for income-generating activities. Knowing that one source of energy can't satisfy all needs in a community, other technologies were used like biogas, wind and Solar heating.

The paper also presents a vision of integrated approach to planned internal migration for human settlements as new productive eco-desert communities outside the overcrowded narrow Nile-Valley and Nile-Delta.

The proposed solutions, based on such two unique field experiences, will help solve some of the current energy, education, waste, sanitation and health issues faced in small villages and desert communities in Egypt and elsewhere.