Nowadays, everything needs to be reduced or dwindled carbon emissions need to be slashed, we need to reduce electricity consumption, noise levels, stress, risk, size…

This drastic reduction aims at an altruistic goal: preserving the planet and making it a better place to live for future generations. Succinctly, we need to embrace sustainable development. By launching the Maurice Ile Durable project (MID), Mauritius too has embarked on the journey towards sustainability…

As each of the finalists of the Omnicane Award 2010 underlined, MID is far from being a solely environmental initiative but, on the contrary, touches every sector of the Mauritian economy. Surely, it aims at promoting alternative sources of energy which are feasible in the context of Mauritius and which could eventually be tapped but it also tackles a wide spectrum of problems ranging from health to congestion and transport.

This project is about redesigning our towns by implementing New Urbanism, an old concept which has always had at heart the social, economic and environmental well-being of humans. New Urbanism is nothing but pure logic, logic we have lost once the automobile became so cheap that it lured us into thinking we could possibly build sprawling towns and not pay the price sooner or later. The principles of New Urbanism are simple(walkability, street connectivity, mixed land use and diversity, green transportation, compact design and increased density) but will enable us to live an urban lifestyle in sustainable, convenient and enjoyable places while providing the solutions to peak oil and climate change.

Reforming our obsolete education system also forms part of the MID project Mauritius puts too much emphasis on rote learning and examinations and thus does not prepare students to the world of work where creativity and the application of theory are of paramount importance. Most schools in Mauritius have also forgotten about the true meaning of the word ‘education’ which has, as Latin roots ‘educo and educare’ meaning literally ‘to bring forth from within’, thus suggesting that education involves developing every aspect and potential talent that resides in an individual and not just his academic qualities.

Personally, I believe MID is a beautiful and magnanimous vision which I am afraid is far from being implemented if Government does not understand that the public should be aware of it. I myself, with a team from Collège du Saint-Esprit, have conducted street interviews and we were dumbfounded to find that out of 56 Mauritians interviewed, only 1 had grasped the holistic meaning of MID. We need to sensitize Mauritians about this project and most importantly make them understand that it is a means of raising standards of living and ensuring better lives for their grand-children. This vision might have germinated in the mind of a highly intellectual individual but should, by no means, remain there or remain accessible to solely intellectual individuals If this is the case then, it will become a vision without implementation and like my uncle Prem Benimadhu so rightly and often said: “a vision without implementation is mere hallucination…”