Posted on

In Water-rich DR Congo, 50 Million People Lack Clean Water to Drink – UN

22 March 2011 –An estimated 51 million people in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) – or three quarters of the population – have no access to safe drinking water, even though the country holds over half of Africa’s water reserves, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) said in a new study released today.

The country’s troubled legacy of conflict, environmental degradation, rapid urbanization and under-investment in water infrastructure has seriously affected the availability of drinking water, UNEP said in the study, unveiled to coincide with World Water Day.

UNEP was among several participants at an event in the capital, Kinshasa, staged by the National Water and Sanitation Committee, which brought together government representatives, development partners, financial institutions, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and researchers to discuss steps to address the DRC’s water challenges.

Speaking at the forum, UNEP’s DRC Programme Manager, Hassan Partow, said the study confirmed that despite recent progress, including water sector reforms, the scale of the challenge means that the country will not be able to meet its water targets under the UN-set Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), which calls for reducing by half the proportion of people without access to safe drinking water by 2015.

The DRC would have to supply an additional 20.3 million people with safe drinking water by 2015 even to meets its national development goals, which are significantly below the MDGs water target, according to UNEP.

“Since peace was brokered in 2003, the Government has gradually managed to reverse the negative trend in water coverage that has plagued the DRC since its period of conflict and turmoil”, said Mr. Partow. “This represents an important achievement which should be applauded.”

“However, the stark reality is that the DRC has one of the fastest urbanization growth rates in the world and this is not being matched with adequate water and sanitation service delivery,” he added.

Based on extensive fieldwork and stakeholder consultations across the country, the UNEP study found that inadequate water and sanitation delivery in the DRC’s rapidly expanding urban centres is due to insufficient, aging and overloaded networks, combined with the degradation of critical water sources and watersheds, such as the Lukunga and N’Djili catchments, which provide millions of people with drinking water in Kinshasa.

According to the study, entitled “Water Issues in the Democratic Republic of Congo – Challenges and Opportunities,” in addition to major infrastructure improvements, an investment of approximately $70 million over a five-year period is required to help strengthen the water sector.

UNEP recommends innovative strategies such as community-managed water supply systems in urban fringe areas and low-cost technical solutions, including communal tap areas and rainwater harvesting.

The UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), meanwhile, drew attention to an estimated 37 million rural residents in DRC who risk contracting disease because they have no alternative but to draw untreated water directly from rivers or lakes that are likely to be contaminated.

“A child living in a Congolese village is four times more likely to drink contaminated water than someone in town. Yet, all children have equal right to survival and development of which drinking water is a vital component,” said Pierrette Vu Thi, the UNICEF representative in DRC in a statement to mark the World Water Day.

More than 2 million Congolese children under the age of five, or one in five in that age group, are regularly sick with diarrhoea, according to figures from the country’s department of health cited by UNICEF.

“The fact that we are unable to provide each family clean drinking water is an affront,” said Ms. Vu Thi. “Too many children die because we do not respect our responsibility, and their deaths are ignored,” she added.

UN News Center

Posted on

UN to Send Aid to Eastern Libya Amid Reports of Hardship and Attacks on Civilians

22 March 2011 –United Nations agencies prepared today to rush aid into eastern Libya as rebels told a senior UN envoy on the ground there that cities and towns were under siege and civilians being targeted by the tanks and heavy weaponry of Colonel Muammar Al-Qadhafi’s forces.

“Providing humanitarian assistance under current circumstances is very challenging,” UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) spokesman Adrian Edwards told a news briefing in Geneva, announcing that the agency will send truckloads of aid tomorrow, including 5,000 blankets and 5,000 sleeping mats, to Benghazi, the eastern city that is the rebels’ main base, where people are camped out in schools, universities and with families.

“There are reported shortages of medical supplies and basic commodities in the eastern part of the country, with prices having increased dramatically,” he said.

The aid will go in on a convoy organized by the UN World Food Programme (WFP), which plans to move 19 tons of lentils and 11 tons of vegetable oil in the next two days from Egypt into eastern Libya.

The agency, which has already moved more than 1,500 tons of food into eastern Libya and pre-positioned more than 6,000 tons more in emergency supplies, has airlifted to Egypt six prefabricated warehouses, six mobile offices and other supplies that will be pre-positioned on the Libyan border as part of contingency planning for establishing logistics hubs inside Libya.

Yesterday, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s Special Envoy for Libya, Abdel Elah Al Khatib, held his first meeting with rebel leaders in the eastern city of Tobruk as part of a mission that took him to Tripoli for talks with Government officials last week.

“They described the various aspects of the situation and pointed out sufferings and hardships endured by some Libyan cities and towns,” he said. “They reiterated their demand for lifting sieges imposed by Libyan Government forces on those cities and for a quick ceasefire there.”

They wanted to see an end to the use of tanks and heavy weaponry and to the targeting of civilians by Government forces, he added.

Mr. Khatib met with the chairman of the Libyan Transitional National Council Mustafa Abdel Jalil and other members, discussing with them last week’s Security Council resolution, which set up a no-fly zone over the North African country, authorized Member States to take “all necessary measures” for the protection for civilians, and called for an immediate ceasefire.

He reiterated Mr. Ban’s and the Council’s call for a solution to the crisis that responds to the legitimate demands of the Libyan people. Mr. Ban has said Mr. Qadhafi lost his legitimacy when he declared war on his people.

Some 325,000 people have fled the violence in Libya, most of them non-Libyan migrants crossing over to Tunisia and Egypt since what started as peaceful civilian protests demanding Mr. Qadhafi’s ouster erupted last month. Only about 40,000 are Libyan nationals.

Libyans at the Egyptian border have told UNHCR they fear reprisal attacks by pro-Government supporters in eastern parts of the country. People are afraid to go out after 4 p.m., some have seen their homes completely destroyed, and mobile phone networks have not been working since Thursday, fuelling fears and generating greater uncertainty, Mr. Colville said.

On the Tunisian border UNHCR staff report hearing distant gunfire inside Libya and Libyan pro-Government supporters yesterday staged a show of support at the frontier. New arrivals continue to report facing intimidation and harassment at border checkpoints between Tripoli and the Ras Adjir crossing, with a group of Sudanese men telling UNHCR yesterday that they had all their money and possessions taken. But others say they could leave with little or no interference.

Significant progress has been made with repatriating third-country nationals from the Egyptian border and by the end of yesterday only around 1,700 remained, Mr. Colville said. Efforts to repatriate people from the Shousha camp on the Tunisian border, current home to some 4,700 people, continue.

UNHCR and the inter-governmental International Organization for Migration (IOM) have run some 265 flights to repatriate more than 58,000 people from Tunisia, Egypt and Algeria since the start of March.

WFP is expanding its food safety net programmes in Egypt and Tunisia to assist hundreds of thousands of people in communities hard hit by the loss of remittances previously sent home by migrant workers.

In Egypt it is making local purchases of 1,280 tons of rice, vegetable oil, and fortified date bars for distribution in the southern governorates of Assiut and Sohag, enough to feed 90,000 people for one month. In Tunisia, it is purchasing food locally for 280,000 people whose families have been affected by the turmol.

UN News Service

Posted on

International Day for The Elimination of Racial Discrimination Should Challenge Us Against all Forms of Discrimination

In 1966, the United Nations General Assembly declared 21st of March as International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination. Celebrated annually, and meant to remind countries of their collective responsibility in the fight against all forms of discrimination, this day’s observation owes its existence to the 1960 Sharpeville Massacre in which 69 people who were part of a peaceful demonstration against “pass laws’’ were brutally murdered by the South African apartheid regime. At that time, indigenous black Africans were legally required to carry dompas identity documents and to produce them whenever required to do so by the South African police. There were dire consequences for those who failed to produce such documents and many ended up in jail. In 1960, people of the township of Sharpeville participated in a peaceful march against ‘pass laws’ but were fired upon by the police. In South Africa, 21 March is celebrated as Human Rights day and is a public holiday.

More than 50 years after the Sharpeville Massacre, human rights activists and peaceful demonstrators still go through unimaginable suffering at the hands of those in authority. The ongoing killing of innocent civilians and peaceful demonstrators in Yemen, Bahran, and Libya are but a few examples that remind us that in some parts of the world people who dare question their governments still risks a similar fate to that of Sharpeville residents. As the world celebrates International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination thousands of people pursuing the struggle against elimination of all forms of discrimination, intolerance and other injustices are either behind bars, in exile or await dire consequences including death. Human Rights Watch reports on the state of human rights practises around the world paints a disturbing picture. What is further worrying though is the lacklustre approach that leaders and international bodies seem to adopt when occasions arise for them to show leadership and harshly condemn human rights violations. The 2011 Human Rights Watch’s report note that “in place of a commitment to exerting public pressure for human rights, they (governments that can be counted on to be on the side of human rights activists) profess a preference for softer approaches such as private “dialogue” and “cooperation”. The report goes further to list recent examples of soft approaches and these include “ASEAN’s tepid response to Burmese repression, the United Nations’ deferential attitude toward Sri Lankan atrocities, the European Union’s obsequious approach to Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan, the soft Western reaction to certain favored repressive African leaders such as Paul Kagame of Rwanda and Meles Zenawi of Ethiopia, the weak United States policy toward Saudi Arabia, India’s pliant posture toward Burma and Sri Lanka, and the near-universal cowardice in confronting China’s deepening crackdown on basic liberties. In all of these cases, governments, by abandoning public pressure, effectively close their eyes to repression”.

Months back, the world welcomed the release of Aung San Suu Kyi, Burma’s pro-democracy leader from almost 20 years of house arrest by Burma’s military government yet Chinese writer, human rights activist and Nobel Laureate Liu Xiaobo is still behind bars. Liu Xiaobo, the only winner of the Nobel Peace Prize still in detention was sentenced to eleven years in prison by the Chinese government after co-authoring ‘Charter 08’, a manifesto that is robustly calling for democratic rights for the people of the People’s Republic of China. There is currently an ongoing campaign against his ongoing imprisonment.  The campaign consists of more than 70 organisations including PEN South Africa’s Writers in Prison Committee and Poetry International South Africa. The question is, what are we doing as individuals when faced with situations of injustices? This year’s celebration should therefore challenge us to be more tolerant of those that differ from us and less tolerant of repressive governments and people in our lives who show disregard of the rights of others. Martin Luther King Jnr once said “our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter”. He further maintained that “the ultimate treasure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience but where he stands at times of controversy”. In deed these wise words remain relevant even today and challenge all good men and women not to close their ears and deliberately block the loud cries of help from those around them.

 

Posted on

No-Fly Zone Over Libya Established; Gadhafi Threatens ‘Long War’

VOA

The top U.S. military officer says a U.N.-authorized no-fly zone over Libya is “effectively” in place after the United States and its allies carried out a series of cruise missile attacks and airstrikes on Libyan military targets.

Admiral Mike Mullen told U.S. television networks Sunday that no Libyan government aircraft have flown over the country since the U.S.-led military operation began Saturday against Libyan air defenses and ground forces.

The no-fly zone is aimed at protecting Libyan civilians from attacks by forces loyal to Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi, who is trying to crush a month-long uprising against his 42-year rule.

The U.S. military’s Germany-based Africa Command says the United States used F-15 and F-16 warplanes and three B-2 stealth bombers in a series of airstrikes on pro-Gadhafi forces before dawn Sunday.

Mullen says the airstrikes targeted Libyan government troops near the eastern city of Benghazi, stopping them from marching on the opposition stronghold. Witnesses say the attacks destroyed dozens of military vehicles, leaving the bodies of pro-Gadhafi fighters strewn in the wreckage.

Western warplanes also dropped bombs on the outskirts of the Libyan capital, Tripoli, early Sunday, drawing anti-aircraft fire from government forces.

Gadhafi responded to the U.S.-led attacks by threatening to engage Western powers in a “long war.”

In an audio address broadcast on state television early Sunday, Gadhafi labelled the United States and its allies as the “devil” and accused them of plotting to steal Libya’s oil. He said his government has opened arms depots to Libyans to enable them to resist foreign forces.

Thousands of Gadhafi supporters have gathered at his highly-fortified Bab al-Azizia residence in Tripoli. Admiral Mullen accused the Libyan leader of using human shields to try to thwart coalition attacks.

Libyan state television says the airstrikes and missiles have killed at least 48 people, including children, and wounded about 150. Mullen says he has seen no evidence of civilian casualties from the operation.

The White House says President Barack Obama got an update on the military operation in a conference call with U.S. national security officials as he visited Brazil Sunday. It says he also discussed diplomatic consultations on the situation in Libya with the advisers, who included Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Defense Secretary Robert Gates.

Earlier, Obama said the Libyan leader had given the West no choice but to take military action.

The operation began Saturday with French airstrikes and the firing of more than 100 cruise missiles by U.S. and British vessels in the Mediterranean. The U.S. Africa Command says the missile strikes destroyed 20 out 22 Libyan air defense facilities, while the status of the other two targets was being assessed.

Admiral Mullen said the United States expects to hand over leadership of the no-fly zone operation to its partners and play a supporting role in the coming days. He said the operation could achieve its goals even if Gadhafi holds onto power.

The U.N. Security Council passed a resolution Thursday authorizing the no-fly zone and the use of “all necessary measures” to protect civilians from attacks by pro-Gadhafi forces. Libyan government forces had been closing in on rebel-held towns.

The air and missile strikes represent the biggest international military operation in the Middle East since the 2003 U.S.-led led invasion of Iraq.

Posted on

Practical Steps to Reduce The Risk and Vulnerability of The African Woman to HIV

Volunteers who participated in a study on reducing the risk of HIV infection in women listened as the test results were announced during a meeting in Vulindlela, Kwazulu-Natal, South Africa. Photo by (Joao Silva for The New York Times)

K. Amponsah-Manager

Among the estimated 22.5 million people living with HIV in Sub-Saharan Africa, women and girls continue to be disproportionately represented. In South Africa, for instance, it is estimated that one-in-three women aged 25-29 are living with HIV (Human Sciences Research Council (2009). Another estimate puts the proportion of maternal orphans – those who have lost their mother – orphaned by AIDS as over 70 percent (Budlender, D. et al., 2008). This is surely a dispiriting statistic. Several reasons can be attributed to this trend including rape and other sexual abuses, cultural practices and societal expectations of women. There are also biological factors that contribute to this inclination. For instance, the female genitals have a more exposed surface area than the male genitals have. Also, there are higher amounts of HIV in semen than in vaginal fluids while again more semen is exchanged during sex than vaginal fluids. These together with the social and cultural factors above precipitate a situation that places the woman at a more disadvantage point of view.

There are several steps communities and policy makers can take to reduce the women’s vulnerability to the epidemic and reverse this distressful trend. These include:

Involving men: In a typical African relationship, the man controls when and how sex happens. The man decides the frequency of sex and whether any protection is used during sexual relationship. The current education targeting men to use condoms should continue but it should place a bigger accent on educating men to respect the women’s choice and needs in sexual relationships. Gender-based violence and stereotypes should be core of any anti-HIV campaigns in African communities.

Accessibility to healthcare needs: Past anti-HIV and family planning campaigns have focused on the man, but it is time to pay attention to the needs of the woman if we can really cut the percentage of women that continue to be afflicted by the HIV epidemic. While the female condom (FC) is available to most women in the developed countries who want to use it, FC is merely another indulgence that the African woman cannot just afford. The situation gets even more challenging as the female condom can be several times more expensive than the male condom. It is therefore crucial for health policy makers and private organization to step in and offer to make these products accessible to the women at a cost that they can afford. Also, women who are abused sexually should have free access to blood tests and other medical services to determine their status. This will halt the further spread of HIV and other sexually-transmitted diseases (STDs) they might have contracted during the assault. Studies show that women with other untreated STDs are more likely to contract the HIV virus than their STD-free counterparts or those who have access the reproductive healthcare needs.

Economic Opportunities and Education: It is sad fact that in the African society, the bread-winner is automatically self-empowered to call the shots and since in most cases, it is the man who holds that title, the women in these societies are the always at the receiving end when it comes to decisions affecting sexual intercourse. A journey to economic empowerment will be relatively long, but in the long run, it is the surest strategy that will place women in positions that they can influence decisions that affect their own lives. According to the UNAIDS, women without education are four times more likely to have the belief that there is no way to prevent HIV. These women do not expect and do not demand any protection during sex even when they know their partners have multiple sexual partners. Early sexual intercourse and early marriages are big factors in predicting a girl’s vulnerability to HIV. In Niger, for example, 50% of girls get married by the age of 15. However, studies show that girls with more education tend to delay marriage and tend to delay their first sexual intercourse. Providing every girl child with at least the basic education will certainly make a dent.

Campaign against social and cultural practices harmful to the woman: Some practices are ‘universally’ classified as sexual violence but are accepted practices in some communities across African and other parts of the world. These include female genital mutilation or female circumcision, marital rape and girl trafficking. In a survey in Kenya, 14% of women said their own husbands (most of whom have multiple sexual partners) had raped them in the past. All these practices disproportionately expose women and girls to HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases. According to the UN, women who have experienced any of such abuses are three times more likely to be infected by HIV.

Reducing the woman’s vulnerability to HIV is vital in curbing the prevalence and saving the unborn. In fact 390 000 out of the global 430 000 children newly infected with HIV during 2008 were from sub-Saharan Africaas a result of mother-to-child transmission (USAIDS). Why should we wait any longer in tackling the woman’s sexual health needs?

[ad#Adsense-468×60]

Posted on

Tanzanian Man Kills Wife to Sell Body Parts

A Tanzanian man has been arrested by police for purportedly trying to sell his wife’s body parts including her head, breasts and genitals.

The man is said to have confessed during interrogation by police on Saturday. The suspect confessed to killing his wife after he heard that human body parts were in demand in Shinyanga in the north of Tanzania where the man lives.

“The suspect had a plastic bag and claimed to be carrying pork, but police guards at a bank … checked the contents and discovered a human head, breasts, genitals and other parts,” said regional police commander Diwani Athumani.

The man, arrested on Friday, will undergo psychiatric testing before trial.

Sale of human body parts is not uncommon in the East African state, where dozens of albinos have been murdered for their body parts, which are then used by witch doctors to concoct lucky charms.

Posted on

Forbes Ranks Ghana Eleventh Friendliest Nation in The World

Ghana has been adjudged the eleventh friendliest country in the world, making it one of the most preferred tourism destinations around the globe. Ghana was the only African country that was ranked high in a survey undertaken by Forbes, a reputable international magazine.

The survey which was done in consultation with a cross-section of world travelers in 2010, found that Ghana is one of the “most welcome nations.” Thailand came first, followed by Columbia, which was said to have very pleasant citizens and was a preferred destination, in spite of the perception of a centre of drug cartel operations.

Australia took the third place, while Costa Rica, Canada, Greece and India, captured the fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh spots respectively. The United States was adjudged the eighth friendliest nation, followed by Turkey in the ninth position, new Zealand, tenth, Ghana eleventh, Fiji twelfth and Vietnam in 13th position. Reasons attributed to Ghana’s ranking include the fact that tourism in Ghana is “driven by natural history, colourful festivals, historic sites and the hospitable people”.

Unlike in many other African countries, Ghana’s different ethnic groups live side by side in relative harmony. “This sub-Saharan African county is renowned for its hospitability, friendliness, tolerance and patience,” the Forbes survey said of Ghana.

The survey, which was published early this month, said the achievement of Columbia was as a result of a national drive to promote its tourism potentials towards increasing tourist inflows. By so doing, the survey said, the nation desired to do change world’s own perception of itself.

The Ministry of Tourism, reacting to the outcome of the survey, said government was excited. “We are excited but government will not be carried away by our ranking,” James Agyenim Boateng, Deputy Minister of Tourism told the Times in Accra. Meanwhile, Ghana has improved in the latest rankings of the world’s favourite tourism destinations, moving two places up.

According to the latest travel and tourism index of the World Economic Forum, the country moved from 110 in 2009 to 108 in 2010 among the 139 countries surveyed. The movement is an endorsement of efforts by government to improve the sector, currently the fourth highest earner of foreign exchange.

The ranking was based on three main indicators, the regulatory framework covering the travel and tourism industry, business environment and infrastructure, and human, cultural and natural resources. In Africa, Ghana was ranked 10th after countries like South Africa, Mauritius, Kenya, Rwanda and Cape Verde.

Ghana performed a little better in the various sub-categories. Of the 139 countries, its regulatory framework was ranked 108th, the business environment and infrastructure was ranked105th whilst its’ human, cultural and natural resources was ranked 104th. Switzerland remains the most favoured tourism destination in the world.

Posted on

Canadians Make Malaria Breakthrough

Mother and daughter sleep under mosquito net to prevent bites from the parasite carrying mosquito

Lana Haight, Postmedia News

SASKATOON — Scientists in Saskatoon have developed an inexpensive malaria treatment that will help the million people who die every year from the infection.

“This is the most important drug in the treatment of malaria today. The World Health Organization says it should be the first line of defence,” said Patrick Covello, a senior research officer at the National Research Council in Saskatoon.

Covello and his team figured out a way to produce a difficult-to-cultivate chemical needed to build effective malaria drugs.

The breakthrough was announced Friday at the National Research Council Plant Biotechnology Institute.

The best drugs available to fight malaria are made with artemisinin, a compound derived from the sweet wormwood plant found in parts of Asia and Africa. But cultivating and harvesting the plant and then extracting artemisinin is time-consuming and labour intensive, says Covello. And the supply of the natural compound is also dependent on weather and growing conditions.

In 2003, Covello began work to identify the genes in the wormwood plant that produce the protein that leads to artemisinin.

“We identified four genes in what we call the pathway to artemisinin in the plant,” he said in an interview.

Meanwhile, University of California at Berkley researchers found they could develop a precusor to artemisinin by introducing chemicals into yeast.

Covello contacted Amyris Technologies, a spinoff company from the Berkeley research group, to suggest it use the genes his group had identified in the wormwood plant. When two of the genes identified in Saskatoon were introduced to the yeast compound developed at Berkeley, the production of artemisinin doubled.

The Institute for OneWorld Health, the American-based organization that has led the project to develop the semi-synthetic artemisinin, and pharmaceutical company Sanofi-aventis jointly announced on Friday that the drug company is preparing to ramp up production using the genes identified in Saskatoon.

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which has already contributed $42.6 million toward the American research, is also supporting the production of the drug to ensure it will be available on a not-for-profit basis for the developing world.

“The idea is to provide the developing world with antimalarial drugs at the lowest possible cost and, in addition, to provide a very stable supply because this yeast-fermentation process is shorter term and more reliable than growing the plants themselves,” said Covello.

Covello understands that Sanofi-aventis will begin commercial-scale production in 2012.

The federal government has spent $869,000 over eight years to support the Saskatoon research.

“Our government is committed to improving the health of women and children in developing countries,” said Gary Goodyear, minister of state for science and technology, in a government news release.

“This new development in the production of a malaria treatment represents a major development in the fight against the disease. It will strengthen Canada’s position as a world leader in health research and provide a reliable and affordable solution.”

The Vancouver Sun