According to the IPCC Working Group I report (Chapter 3-9), the time taken for 50% of the CO₂ pulse to disappear from the atmosphere will be anywhere between 50 to 200 years. Air temperature to respond to CO₂ rise is anywhere between 120 to 150 years. Transport of heat and temperature to the deep ocean is anywhere between 100 to 200 years. Sea level response to temperature change is ~10000 years. Change in energy end-use technology and energy supply technologies will take anywhere between 10 to 50 years.

Let us analyze each point logically so that all the CoP ( Conference/Convention of Parties: 197 countries are parties ) meetings will make sense to any reader.

The world is focussing on anthropogenic CO₂ emissions from coal-based power plants and transportation. As of today, no one knows what is the volume/amount of CO₂ emitted by the power plants globally. All are numbers- one can play with. To get this number, we should know the number of coal-based power plants that are in use in the world, the type of coal the plants are using, and the volume/amount of CO₂ that is being emitted by each plant. According to the International Energy Agency (IEA, 2019) global CO₂ emissions declined by 200 million tonnes (Mt) from the 2018 level (1.3%). The decrease in advanced economies (the USA and European Union) is 370 Mt (3.2%) mostly from the power sector. This decrease is compensated by the growth in CO₂ emissions by developing economies (other than the above countries). For example, emissions outside advanced economies grew by close to 400 Mt in 2019 (Asian countries). The reason given for this reduction is the use of renewable energy sources by the power sector like wind, solar, and hydro. Somehow solar is always tagged as a zero-emission source while it is a misnomer. To get to the shape of a solar cell, the process emits an enormous amount of CO₂ (https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/blogs/dornadula-c/is-solar-pv-green-energy/). It is spreading like a virus. Solar PV is not a source of renewable energy.....it just converts Sun’s energy. Sun is a renewable energy source. Any dent in the solar PV industry will make the European economy to collapse!!! Cannot understand why so much of subsidy is given to this.

Coming back to the topic, we are mostly focused on power from fossil fuels...especially coal. As I said we have no data on the amount of CO₂ emitted by the coal power, plants; we have no data on the amount of CO₂ emitted by the steel industry; we have no data on the amount of CO₂ emitted by the cement industry......all on a global scale. A few GW generated here and thereby renewable sources make big news in the media. These numbers are valid for that day. There is no sound data on the emissions by various industries on a global scale. World Energy Outlook and CO₂ emissions status....both published by IEA is the only source people rely on. The data here is based on the data/information given by the individual country. When one applies science to these numbers, the fact emerges. The world is just 60 years old since the year of the industrial revolution. This is a short period for the global temperature to respond to CO₂ emissions (see above). Sea level response to temperature change is ~10000 years! 1997 was the year of the Kyoto Protocol. Twenty-three years is a short period for the Earth to respond to any changes. Earth’s years are in millions not in tens and hundreds. The ice age cycle is about 20000 to 60000 years. Ice age started during the Quaternary Period (2.5 Ma- Million years). The last glaciations ended at about 20000 years BP (before the present) and we are at present in the interglacial period. In the geological past, > 60000 years, the Earth was under the interglacial period when the Earth’s temperature was warmer....like what we are experiencing now. These are not just numbers like CO₂ emissions and GW by solar PV. These numbers are based on oxygen isotope signatures in the ice cores from Greenland and Antarctica. These signatures will not change. If one takes cores from the North Pole or the South Pole the oxygen signatures will tell the same story about the global climate. That is science........CO₂ emissions that are being published and debated by CoP is not science. Those numbers are like COVID 19 numbers!!!

The CO₂ equilibrium to reach between the sea and the atmosphere will take a long period. That is the carbon cycle that is in place over the last 4.5 billion years.

Coming to carbon neutrality, the same volume of anthropogenic CO₂ emitted into the atmosphere should also be removed through some means......carbon capture or whatever technology we are talking in the scientific community now. It is easy to emit but not that easy to capture and store. Since we are in the interglacial period, global temperature will rise, whatever you do. The Earth will not either follow 2D, 4D, and 6D formula or New policy, business as usual scenario (BAU), high economic growth scenario (HEG), or substitution and efficiency scenario (S&E).

All these meetings are basically to control the developing economies (Rest of the countries in the world) by advanced economies (the USA and the European Union). Simple logic.......if developing economies are allowed to grow then the advanced economies will lose ground in all spheres. Especially business. This underlying philosophy is known to everyone......the developing economies are not stupid not to realize this. This is the reason why all the CoPs end without any fruitful outcome. Some compromise the countries make here and there and once the meeting is over it is all business as usual. A direct example is China. As I said before, (https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/can-the-world-survive-without-coal/, https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/drop-in-oil-price-consequences/) coal and oil will rule the world for some more time and the renewables have to struggle hard to reach that level. As of now....simple question....can solar PV or wind support the steel or cement industry across the globe? The answer is very simple. These sources cannot generate base load electricity like geothermal energy. The aluminium industry in Iceland is supported by geothermal energy sources.

So these terms carbon neutral and zero carbon footprint are all jargon in the political circle. Does not mean anything for the scientific community. Other GHG gas is methane that is being discussed at length by these parties. One of the main sources of methane is livestock. Can you change the digestive system or life cycle of livestock to reduce methane production?? This a topic for discussion in the future.

According to the IPCC Working Group I report (Chapter 3-9), the time taken for 50% of the CO₂ pulse to disappear from the atmosphere will be anywhere between 50 to 200 years. Air temperature to respond to CO₂ rise is anywhere between 120 to 150 years. Transport of heat and temperature to the deep ocean is anywhere between 100 to 200 years. Sea level response to temperature change is ~10000 years. Change in energy end-use technology and energy supply technologies will take anywhere between 10 to 50 years.

Let us analyze each point logically so that all the CoP ( Conference/Convention of Parties: 197 countries are parties ) meetings will make sense to any reader.

The world is focussing on anthropogenic CO₂ emissions from coal-based power plants and transportation. As of today, no one knows what is the volume/amount of CO₂ emitted by the power plants globally. All are numbers- one can play with. To get this number, we should know the number of coal-based power plants that are in use in the world, the type of coal the plants are using, and the volume/amount of CO₂ that is being emitted by each plant. According to the International Energy Agency (IEA, 2019) global CO₂ emissions declined by 200 million tonnes (Mt) from the 2018 level (1.3%). The decrease in advanced economies (the USA and European Union) is 370 Mt (3.2%) mostly from the power sector. This decrease is compensated by the growth in CO₂ emissions by developing economies (other than the above countries). For example, emissions outside advanced economies grew by close to 400 Mt in 2019 (Asian countries). The reason given for this reduction is the use of renewable energy sources by the power sector like wind, solar, and hydro. Somehow solar is always tagged as a zero-emission source while it is a misnomer. To get to the shape of a solar cell, the process emits an enormous amount of CO₂ (https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/blogs/dornadula-c/is-solar-pv-green-energy/). It is spreading like a virus. Solar PV is not a source of renewable energy.....it just converts Sun’s energy. Sun is a renewable energy source. Any dent in the solar PV industry will make the European economy to collapse!!! Cannot understand why so much of subsidy is given to this.

Coming back to the topic, we are mostly focused on power from fossil fuels........especially coal. As I said we have no data on the amount of CO₂ emitted by the coal power, plants; we have no data on the amount of CO₂ emitted by the steel industry; we have no data on the amount of CO₂ emitted by the cement industry......all on a global scale. A few GW generated here and thereby renewable sources make big news in the media. These numbers are valid for that day. There is no sound data on the emissions by various industries on a global scale. World Energy Outlook and CO₂ emissions status....both published by IEA is the only source people rely on. The data here is based on the data/information given by the individual country. When one applies science to these numbers, the fact emerges. The world is just 60 years old since the year of the industrial revolution. This is a short period for the global temperature to respond to CO₂ emissions (see above). Sea level response to temperature change is ~10000 years! 1997 was the year of the Kyoto Protocol. Twenty-three years is a short period for the Earth to respond to any changes. Earth’s years are in millions not in tens and hundreds. The ice age cycle is about 20000 to 60000 years. Ice age started during the Quaternary Period (2.5 Ma- Million years). The last glaciations ended at about 20000 years BP (before the present) and we are at present in the interglacial period. In the geological past, > 60000 years, the Earth was under the interglacial period when the Earth’s temperature was warmer....like what we are experiencing now. These are not just numbers like CO₂ emissions and GW by solar PV. These numbers are based on oxygen isotope signatures in the ice cores from Greenland and Antarctica. These signatures will not change. If one takes cores from the North Pole or the South Pole the oxygen signatures will tell the same story about the global climate. That is science........CO₂ emissions that are being published and debated by CoP is not science. Those numbers are like COVID 19 numbers!!! Evolving mathematical models based on such numbers have no meaning. Leading academicians chairing some national scientific committees boast that they are discussing on COVID models........with such numbers and are proud of their work. The outcome will be a paper in the history and nothing beyond this. Such models cannot provide viable solutions to the current situation. Similar is the case with Zero carbon foot print models. Majority of such models are not validated.

The CO₂ equilibrium to reach between the sea and the atmosphere will take a long period. That is the carbon cycle in place over the Earth for past 4.5 billion years.

Coming to carbon neutrality, the same volume of anthropogenic CO₂ emitted into the atmosphere should also be removed through some means......carbon capture or whatever technology we are talking in the scientific community now. It is easy to emit but not that easy to capture and store. There are several ways carbon can be stored in the earth’s crust. In geological formations, where CO₂ will be captured and transformed into calcite. Or it can be utilized for heat mining from hot granites. Making carbon nano-tubes is another option. Coming to the geological climate cycles, since we are in the interglacial period, global temperature will rise, whatever you do. The Earth will not either follow 2D, 4D, and 6D formula or New policy, business as usual scenario (BAU), high economic growth scenario (HEG), or substitution and efficiency scenario (S&E).

All these meetings are basically to control the developing economies (Rest of the countries in the world) by advanced economies (the USA and the European Union). Simple logic.......if developing economies are allowed to grow then the advanced economies will lose ground in all spheres. Especially business. This underlying philosophy is known to everyone......the developing economies are not stupid not to realize this. This is the reason why all the CoPs end without any fruitful outcome. Some compromise the countries make here and there and once the meeting is over it is all business as usual. A direct example is China. As I said before, (https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/can-the-world-survive-without-coal/, https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/drop-in-oil-price-consequences/) coal and oil will rule the world for some more time and the renewables have to struggle hard to reach that level. As of now....simple question....can solar PV or wind support the steel or cement industry across the globe? The answer is very simple. These sources cannot generate base load electricity like geothermal energy. The aluminium industry in Iceland is supported by geothermal energy sources.

So these terms carbon neutral and zero carbon footprint are all jargon in the political circle. Does not mean anything for the scientific community. Other GHG gas is methane that is being discussed at length by these parties. One of the main sources of methane is livestock. Can you change the digestive system or life cycle of livestock to reduce methane production?? This a topic for discussion in the future.

UA focuses on vegetable cultivation since they are easy to grow within the land available in urban areas, unlike cereals that need a large land area. Hydroponic vegetable cultivation (I call it Hydroponic Farming HF) is becoming popular since this system does not require soil and the space required is also not large. Another advantage with HF is the vertical extension of the system. The basic principle behind HF is explained below.

On an average, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), 360 to 400 gm of vegetable is the consumption quantity per day per person (i.e. per-capita consumption). This amount can easily be cultivated using hydroponic system. Ideally speaking hydroponic cultivation can be implemented over the water surface too---like over the oceans and seas and lakes etc.

As per the reports published by WHO and FAO the urban population in India is over 390 million while the percentage of urban poverty rate of 21 %. Compared to China India is not in a comfortable situation. For example, the urban population of China is 682 million and urban poverty is only 2.3 %. India is comparable to Colombia, Ethiopia, Bangladesh, in terms of the urban poverty rate. The urban-poor ratio in India is 1.73 (1000 people/km²) comparable to Ethiopia (2.64), Kenya (4.69), Nigeria (3.96). This is due to a lack of infrastructure support like land availability and water in India. Other countries have a large percentage of land for UA but the population is also very high. Compared to India, in developed countries like the USA, the UK, Japan the % land available in an urban area is far less and the urban-poor density is also very low. So UA is suitable in developing economies. In the case of Japan, in urban cities like Tokyo, the land between buildings is being used for cultivating crops.....not only vegetables but cereals as wells. So UA has several intricate issues that are country-specific. In India peri-urban agricultural activity is very popular and supports several urban poor families due to their proximity to urban centers. The urban-poor, in Mumbai, live along the train track from Thane to Kalyan and beyond. These urban-poor live in slums along the railway track and the land between the train track and slums is being used for growing vegetables of all kinds. I don’t have to describe the source of water for irrigating these crops!! A study was undertaken on the land-use pattern and peri-urban agricultural activity and the support system. The land belongs to the government and the settlers along the track cultivate vegetables. Zero investment and 100% profit!! The water contains a large concentration of heavy metals, a part of it, is good for the growth of the vegetables. These vegetables with heavy metal content from the peri-urban sites are supplied to the urban market (Mumbai). , the urban poor make a living (without investment) at the cost of the urban population’s health. The results have been published in these two papers! (1.Prem Jose Vazhacharickal., Trupti Gurav, and D. Chandrasekharam. 2018. Heavy metal signatures in urban and peri-urban agricultural soils across the Mumbai Metropolitan Region, India. Nutrients Cycling in Agro-ecosystem. 74, doi.org/10.1007/s10705-018-9966-y; 2. Vazhacharickal, P.J., Predotova, M., Chandrasekharam, D., Bhowmik, S., and Buerkert, A. 2014. Urban and peri-urban agricultural production along railway tracks: ca case study from the Mumbai Metropolitan Region. J. Agri. Rural Develop. Tropics and Subtropics. 114, 145-157). This is common in regions where urban and peri-urban systems are juxtaposed, like Mumbai. Similar is the case with the peri-urban agricultural system in Cameroon (West Africa) where groundwater and springs, that are used for vegetable cultivation, are contaminated with domestic waste (Gloria, E T., Chandrasekharam, D., Ayonghe, S.N. and Thambidurai, P. 2009. Pollution characteristics of alluvial groundwater from springs and bore wells in semi-urban informal settlements of Douala, Cameroon, Western Africa. Environ Earth Sci., DOI 10.1007/s12665-009-0342-8). These are issues that can be resolved and make UA a process for food security by good governance and robust infrastructure development. While UA may not be possible in urban cities, there is a large scope to expand the peri-urban agriculture system in developing economies. This is a win-win situation for the urban and peri-urban dwellers (urban-poor). With the shrinking of agricultural lands due to the migration of population to urban and peri-urban settlements food security issues will haunt the countries....whether developed or developing economies.

In several communities, many vegetable suppliers are supplying vegetables at our door-steps. In the future commercial vegetable, farming may support international markets (Virtual water trade) while UA may become popular in supporting the internal food security of developing countries. Indian is blessed in one way......we don’t import food from outside, unlike Gulf countries where the population depends entirely on food imports. For those countries, food security is in the hands of food-exporting countries......like India!! Gradually, UA may be replaced by hydroponic farming to solve land availability issue.

While UA is confined to smaller localities and support smaller communities, HF can be established in large scale thus making HF a small scale and sustainable industry. HF dates back to Babylonian civilization (600 BC?) The famous “hanging gardens of Babylonia” is a typical HF. Water from the river Euphrates was fed to the gardens hanging over the walls of the fort by tubes. So basically the plants were fed with water rich in nutrients, no soil. This system of agriculture was implemented by the space scientists in the space station in the recent times. Thus HF has become very popular and being practiced by several countries and urban population and communities on a commercial basis. Perhaps HF may provide food security for water stressed countries. Now that “climate change” jargon come into existence, supposed to have caused due to excess emission of greenhouse gases, several countries, communities are into HF due to its ability to support food supply with less water in a controlled environment. In fact HF is being recommended by FAO for countries suffering from water shortage. The HF was fine-tuned by Julius Sachs, a German botanist who found that the plants need nutrients to grow an soil. Thus in 1860 Sachs’s publication “nutrient solution” became famous that prescribed the nutrients needed for the plant to grow in water without water. Thus HA has emerged as an established system of agriculture. There is a variety of methods, designed and materials that can be used for HF. Subsequent research established HA methods to produce food on commercial way. Now water with nutrients needed for HA can be bought off-the self. The type of nutrients for plants, pH and temperature needed for the plant growth are all well established. One can see a variety of HF methods published in the literature and commercial HF advisory stores and consultancy services are available in almost all the countries. Space is not a criterion for HF. For example Dubai has built a vertical HF farm covering 12000 sq. m of land area growing 2800 kg of food per day using a fraction of water. This is a great boon for the country that relies on 85% of food import. Countries have realized, during the recent pandemic, that food security and food independence together with energy and water is essential for survival and maintain country’s GDP. Countries like Israel uses desalinated water for HF and are food independent. Now China is having floating HF platforms over the sea. These platforms contain several connected tubes where water rich in nutrients are circulated. These platforms are very large and support rice and cereals cultivation. Since the tubes are sealed, seawater will not enter the tubes circulating nutrients.

So if you have a home in an urban area, you can also develop HF on your terrace and grow any vegetables needed for your family. This is going to be the future. If you don’t have a terrace then uses your balcony for vertical HF.

The basic ingredients needed for the plants to grow in water medium are……carbon dioxide, light, oxygen and hydrogen (from the atmosphere) and N-P-K (nitrogen-phosphorous-potassium), calcium, magnesium, sulphur, iron, manganese, copper, zinc, boron, chlorine and molybdenum (from the water). The advantage of HF is that women can become entrepreneurs. The U.S. Department of Agriculture on 27^th May 2021 has announced up to US$ 4 million for grants to support the development of UA and innovative production projects. HF has a great future for food security and income generation for urban poor! Way2grow, a Chennai based company is successful established HF business and cultivating a variety of vegetables and providing consultancy service. For example, tomatoes and cluster beans can be grown growbags, dutch buckets. The maturity time for tomato plat is 5 months. Each plant, on an average, produces about 15 kg of tomatoes. HF of this crop can be established in a single sq ft also. On a commercial basis, a 5000 sq ft space (vertical also can be adopted) with an investment of about INR 60,000/- can yield 1000 kg of this vegetable. The return on investment is around 3 years. This is quite reasonable. Since the growth of the plants is under controlled environment, this is not a big investment for urban women entrepreneurs.

Libya is investing in Liberia, Mali, Sudan (White Nile) to grow rice (241000 ha) ; Saudi Arabia is investing in Ethiopia, Niger and Mali to grow rice (110000 ha) ; India investing in Ethiopia (White Nile; 100000 ha). VWT is taking a different dimension making countries to compete for its own food security and to promote food exports to water stressed countries. Liberia, Sudan, Niger are economically very poor countries. But these countries have rich water resources compared to investing countries. These countries economy will grow through VWT but there should be a limit on the land that being leased out for growing food (to control exploitation; look at the area of agricultural land leased out!!). India is water and food surplus country. Investing in Ethiopia is purely a commercial venture. But there are other countries that have neither water nor oil resources. Take for example Eritrea and Djibouti. Since Djibouti is strategically located, this country is being (at least the town Djibouti) economically supported by the West. This new kind of “barter system” will not sustain for a long. All depends on the political policies and scenario of the country leasing out the land. Food importing countries will be at the receiving end in case there is a political policy change. For sustainable development countries should be “food independent” and not “food secured”. This happens only when countries are energy independent. Countries need not be loci of oil and gas rich sedimentary formations/ basins. Geothermal energy is there for everyone to exploit and use it for development. This is the natural heat scavenged from the earth’s interior and utilized to generate electricity. MENA and sub-Sahara countries have huge unexploited geothermal resources. These countries should focus on developing this energy resource that is free. The countries policy should be to request financial aid institutions to fund developing geothermal energy development. Once this energy source is developed then there is no looking back for these countries with regard to food and water independence. Over a period of time they will be the most powerful economy in the world since they are food independent. The cost of desalinated water using different energy sources is given below. It is obvious that desalination plants operating on geothermal power is very economical and with low emissions.

The above data is published in “Energy, Sustainability and Society journal” by the author

Providing short term financial aid and food aid to water starved countries by financial instructions and UN aid institutions are not permanent solutions and such solutions are l not sustainable.

Recently, UNICEF recommended nearly 1.6 million US$ to provide health, sanitation and food for the rural population in Djibouti. This is considerable amount. Such aids should focus on developing energy source available in the country for making food and water independent. Countries should focus on food independence rather than depending on VWT.

In the case Gulf countries, Saq Ram aquifer is shared between Saudi Arabia and Jordan; the Ummer Raduma Eocene aquifer is shared between Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait and Oman. These are trans-boundary aquifers that were formed millions of years ago and have poor or nil recharge due to poor rainfall in the Gulf countries. In the case of Nile, both Egypt and Ethiopia can see the quantity of water being shared from Blue Nile between these countries. Similarly the quantity of water shared by the 11 countries from White Nile is also known. In the case of the gulf countries, it is difficult to estimate the quantity of water withdrawn by sharing countries from the same aquifer. During our lifetime, we will see that the aquifers will deplete drastically exerting tremendous pressure on countries sharing the trans-boundary aquifer. Due to severe shortage of fresh water these countries have to depends on food imports. As on today nearly 70 million tones worth of food grains are imported by these countries and the number is growing with exponential growth of population. According to the world Commission on Water, the global demand for fresh water will increase by 50% over the next 30 years from the present consumption.

Besides domestic and agricultural sectors, energy sector too needs fresh water. For example the world energy sector in 2010 consumed 583 billion cubic metres of water. According to the report published by the International Energy Agency, this consumption is expected to rise by 85% in 2030. Apparently there will be water crowding in the world and political conflicts since many aquifers and surface water bodies in the Gulf and MENA countries are trans-boundary in nature.

These countries cannot wage war against each other. Each country found way to come out of this water conflict.

Several Gulf and MENA countries have put in place desalination plants to meet fresh water demand for domestic and irrigation purposes. But utilizing fossil fuel based energy for desalination is not a viable and economic solution. Fresh water cost generated by desalination using fossil fuels is very expensive and common man cannot afford to purchase it. Further, this process emits large CO₂ that is detrimental to the world. In fact countries are fighting for stabilizing CO₂ in the atmosphere. A viable technology has to be developed to generate fresh water from the seawater through desalination using energy that is cost effective and renewable and green. Solar pv based energy source is being advocated by certain gulf countries but solar pv is also not green. Solar pv cell in its life time emits large quantities of CO₂ (Chandrasekharam, D. and Ranjith Pathegama, G. 2020. CO₂ emissions from renewables: Solar pv, hydrothermal and EGS sources. J. Geomecha. Geophys. Geoenergy Georesour. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40948-019-00135-y(0123456789().,-volV()0123458697().,-volV). Using solar pv sourced desalination plants is not economical to support domestic and agricultural sectors.

At present >33 desalination plants are in operation in Saudi Arabia and more than this umber is operating in the Gulf countries around the Persian Gulf. With the government subsidy the cost of desalinated water is 3 US cents/ cubic metre which is far less than the average cost levied by the countries in the world which is 6 US$/cubic meter. If the government subsidy is removed, then the cost will be double the world average.

Fresh water is required for fossil fuel based power plants and nuclear powered plants as well. Further water is required to irrigate crops to support bio-fuels based power plants. Solar photo voltaic (solar pv) panels too need water for cleaning and to maintain efficiency, especially in countries like Saudi Arabia. Desalination plants in many countries are working on solar based power, at 20% efficiency (maximum) and generating about 5000 cubic meter / day of fresh water.

In Gulf countries, the most important support system that water resources can give to the country is in agricultural sector. The country needs water for agricultural activities, especially for growing staple food wheat and barley and be food secured and reduce food imports. Average per-capita consumption of wheat bread in Saudi Arabia is 241 g per day. This will be the case with other gulf countries also. Saudi Arabia’s wheat consumption in MY 2017-2018 was > 5.25 million metric tones. Due to shortage of fresh water for irrigation, the Govt. has banned wheat cultivation now and the imports have gone up to over 3 million metric tones from 1.9 million metric tones. This is disastrous to any country that puts its food security outside its boundary. The gulf countries have sufficiently large geothermal resources. They can be developed and utilized for generating fresh water from the sea. For example, the bottom hole temperatures recorded in certain oil wells along the Red Sea coast and Suez Gulf varies from 120 to 260 °C. The Red Sea is currently is an active spreading ridge. Hence sufficient heat is available to support power generation.

Besides the hydrothermal systems, the Arabian shield region hosts large volumes of high heat generating granites and the estimated power that can be generated from these granites using EGS technology is about 120 x 10⁶ terawatt hour. This geothermal heat can be utilized for membrane distillation process (MD) while other desalination methods like multi effect distillation (MED), multi stage flash. Electro dialysis reversal (EDR) and vapour compression can utilize power generated from the geothermal resources along the Red Sea.The process involves circulation of hot water (temperature of about 60 °C) through a heat exchanger to heat seawater and decrease pressure to vaporise the water in a multi stage chamber. To generate large volume of desalinated water, the heated hot water is circulated to heat several chambers containing seawater through a method known as MED-MSF. In the case of geothermal systems where the temperatures are > 150 °C, power can be generated through binary technology that can be utilized by the desalination companies. About 80m³/h of fresh water can be generated through this process and 470 kwh of electricity can also be cogenerated. The advantage is here is to use multiple desalination methods to using geothermal power and the electricity cogenerated from this process. The estimated cost of desalinated water is about 1.5 euro/m³.

The gulf countries have a solution to avoid water wars amongst themselves. Egypt and Ethiopia too have enormous geothermal resources. Ethiopia’s geothermal energy generation capacity is much greater relative to Egypt. But then Egypt has oil!! Instead of creating civil disturbances within the countries, both the countries should explore the options. Geothermal technology is matured and EGS will be within the reach of all countries very soon.

A recent report published by the World Wide Fund says the socio-economic development of South Africa (SA) is severely affected by the recent drought and water scarcity. Agricultural sector is badly affected due to food exports (maize). Since a large section of people are agrarians, this drought pushed thousands of people below the poverty line with thousands of agrarians losing jobs. SA receives 500 mm of rain annually. No option but to store the waters and recharge the aquifers. Desalination is the inevitable option to tide over the crisis. Yes, it is energy intensive but if free energy is available then this will be the prime option. The recent COVID 19 has opened up a variety of issues that needs to be addressed. We will see what lessons we learnt from this virus.

The above table gives some idea about the water situation of SA. Botswana and Namibia can rescue SA in the event of a deep crisis, but SA cannot depend on other countries and should be water and food independent. But all this depends on the rainfall and population growth.

Agriculture, municipal and industry are the main sectors driving the country’s economy and GDP. Agricultural sector takes major share of water with 63% followed by municipal and industry with 26 and 11 % respectively.

The current water demand is about 15 billion cubic meters that is expected to grow beyond 18 billion cubic meters by the year 2030.

The 2017 water crisis of Cape Town shook the country and the world. The six water supplying dams with a storage capacity of 898,221 mega L registered 190,300 mega L in May 2017. This has put Cape Town in a distress state and SA declared a severe drought. This has plunged the country into an economic disaster. Agriculture sector being the main economy, has plunged into crisis without water. What is lacking in SA is investments in infrastructure. A country without an assured water supply will never be able to attract investors. For example, Liberia with ample water is able to attract FDI from Libya and Saudi Arabia. Water crisis is going to haunt SA in the future. The country has to focus on developing alternate strategies to be food and water independent. SA has already an option to get fresh water through desalination but according to the report mentioned above the government feels that it is cost and energy intensive process. This is true if the process is supported by conventional energy sources like oil, gas and coal. In the context of current global climate change issues fossil fuels supported desalination process is not a viable option: - nether solar pv can produce low cost fresh water through desalination.

Future clean energy source is the fertile granites that can generate high heat due to the presence of radiogenic elements like uranium, thorium and potassium. These granites are distributed widely in SA characterizing this region with high heat flow values. The volcanic eruption in Lesotho in 1983, high heat flow values over the entire SA, high temperature geothermal gradient over Karoo basin and occurrence of thermal springs with temperatures > 47 °C and extension of the East African Rift system below the Karoo basin are strong driving forces for SA to focus on the development of EGS system in this region for power generation that can eventually be utilized for desalination (see the picture below) . Since EGS has matured and needs financial support from governments and private investors for such infrastructure projects. SA should work on this and invest its entire energy in developing EGS to get safe path to water and food independence. This is something like

COVID 19. Science should have foreseen the onset of viruses like the one holding the world now and developed vaccine to combat this and rescued the world.

Water situation in SA is not going to be improved. On the other hand, it is going to get worse soon. Like Australia and European countries, SA need to earmark sufficiently large amounts for science and engineering. This is good opportunity for SA to lay the road map for future water and food independence. The geothermal energy is free and there are no serious environmental issues in developing this source.

Technology to create heat exchangers in granites is maturing and this is the right time for SA to focus on this technology and exploit these fertile granites for future food and water independence. Water is going to be a very precious commodity for all the countries in future and VWT (virtual water trade) may take a back step due to severe food insecurity in the world. When oil was discovered decades ago world never thought that exploration for oil is so easy. With the development of advanced drilling technology and seismic exploration methods deep seabed hydrocarbon exploration and sea bed mining are taking shape. Any new technology will have initial hiccups but once established this technology will provide free energy to countries and provide food independence.