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Vol II No. 16
April 2000
CHANGE Radio
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Development Time Page
ENERGY
Energy solutions needed in rural areas 2mins. 14secs 3 FAO and World
Energy Council call for sustainable, less expensive
energy systems
CONFLICT
Africa: Dumping ground for firearms 1min. 7secs 3 Arms dealers become
millionaires by supplying to a continent hungry
for war
TRADE
Fear of global trade 1min. 3secs 4 Leaders of poor nations believe
that economic globalization may
hold painful and frightening downsides for their countries
HEALTH
Unraveling the mystery of resistant malaria 1min. 31secs 4 Scientists
offer explanations for how malaria parasite builds drug resistance
WOMEN
Beijing plus five! 1min. 25secs 6 Women Broadcasters meet in Paris
to discuss progress
Environment
POLLUTION
Incinerating medical waste is a serious threat 1min. 52secs 5 The
dangers inherent in incinerators for medical waste highlighted
African flamingos threatened 1min. 4secs 4 A mystery disease is
rapidly decimating the population of flamingos in the
Kenyan rift valley
CONSERVATION
Water for the 21 st century 63secs 6 Water may become scarcer as the
century moves on
DISASTERS
Disaster on the Danube 1min. 45secs 6 Cyanide leakage leaves fishes
and birds dead on the Danube
Tragedy in Mozambique 1min. 25secs 11 Floods have devastated much
of southeastern Africa leaving many homeless
Special Focus Aids In Africa 1min. 52secs 6
Beyond statistics 2min. 36secs 7 The faces of AIDS in Africa
The spread 1min. 37secs 7 There seems to be no stopping the scourge
as it spreads across the continent 1
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Turning back the clock on development 4mins. 29secs 8 AIDS is not
having a positive effect on a continent still largely
underdeveloped
Creating a continent of orphans 3mins. 18secs 9 Children are fast
becoming the hardest hit by the epidemic
No money, no drugs, no hope. 1min. 41secs 9 While treatment for
AIDS is available Africa is still largely in the dark
A ray of light 1min. 4secs 10 Possible AIDS treatment discovered
in Argentina
Threat to livelihoods of woodcarvers in Ghana 1min. 22secs 11 Water Conservation
in Central America 1min. 49secs 12
Quick Tips on water conservation 1min. 59secs 12
Children's section How cheetah got his speed 1min. 58secs
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The giraffes in the sky 1min. 12secs 10 How Nguluve Got his Tail 2mins. 28secs
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Parting shots Unforgettable quotes on environment and development
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News
Energy solutions needed in rural areas 2min. 14secs Only about
7 percent of the world's electricity production today meets the basic human
needs of rural people
in developing countries. And only 33 percent of rural communities have access
to electricity according to a joint report of the World Energy Council and the
UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).
The report, The Challenge of Rural Energy Poverty in Developing Countries,
noted that the vast majority of people living in rural areas of developing
countries are overwhelmingly dependent on inefficient technologies
such as burning wood. Dung and crop residue also provide energy for cooking,
heating and light. In the poorest rural households, the amount of energy consumed
is less than what is needed for a minimum standard of living.
The report went on to state that, "rural energy development must be decentralized
to place rural people at the heart of planning and implementation".
Dependence on traditional fuels and biomass will continue in the foreseeable
future in many rural areas. But improvements can be made and the place to begin
is with existing indigenous technical knowledge. Well tested
methods should put into account the role of rural women as "experts" most familiar
with the household fuel supply problems.
Technologies like wind, solar, hydro and biomass offer potential to improve
energy supply in rural areas but a culture of poor repair and maintenance services
may prove to be severe barriers to adopting these technologies.
The report called on governments to better promote renewable and sustainable
energy technologies in rural areas by offering affordable rural credits that
help farmers increase their income. By switching from inefficient
and costly energy to more efficient, less expensive and healthier energy systems,
energy needs will be met. FA O
Africa: dumping ground for firearms 1min. 7secs No African country
has yet enshrined ownership of guns in its constitution, yet the continent is
awash with
quantities of arms dumped by opportunistic foreign arms salesmen. The proliferation
of civil wars, continued political dissent, and plain thuggery give Africans
unlawful reasons to use guns. These guns cost very little. In
fact according to a high ranking official of the United Nations Institute for
the Prevention of Crime and Treatment of Offenders (UNAFRI), "an AK – 47 costs
as little as two tubers of yam in some places". The proliferation of
these guns is causing a lot of problems especially in the Great Lakes region
where an estimated 150,000 guns are in circulation in Karamoja, Northeastern
Uganda.
Muruli Musaka, Uganda's Minister of State for Security told a two day conference
of experts in Kampala recently that "given its vulnerability arising from its
geographical location with some of its neighbors, which are
being confronted with on -going insurgency, Uganda is very much concerned with
the of expanding prevalence of illegal firearms".
It was agreed at the conference to establish an African Firearms Center (AFAC)
under the auspices of UNAFRI, based in Kampala. AFAC will promote coordination
and cooperation of efforts of African governments towards
combating trafficking in firearms, their parts, and components and ammunition
on the continent. Newslink Africa 3
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Fear of global trade 1min. 29secs Leaders of developing nations expressed
fears of the downsides of global trade at a weeklong U. N Conference
on Trade and Development in Bangkok, Thailand. In a UN meeting held every four
years, leaders of developing countries expressed fears that they cannot access
wealth created by a global system centred on high technology
and increased power by multinational corporations.
Malaysian Prime Minister, Mahathir Mohamad, said while developing nations welcome
the collaboration of such multinationals with local companies, "we fear that
if they are allowed into our countries unconditionally,
they may swallow up all our businesses".
U. N Secretary General, Kofi Anan, called for rich nations to help their poor
neighbors. Developing nations need debt relief and open markets for their products,
and wealthy nations should help countries that encourage
investment and guarantee their people a share in the benefits, Anan said.
"The downsides of globalization are indeed painful," said the Phillipine president
Joseph Estrada, "but taking the bitter pills against its ills is superior to
living inside a sterile bubble".
deseretnews. com
African flamingos threatened 1min. 4secs A mystery disease is rapidly
decimating tens of thousands of flamingos on Lake Bogoria in the Kenyan Rift
Valley
Conservationists claim that this is as a result of human pollution. So far an
estimated 50, 000 birds have been killed on the lake which has the biggest concentration
of flamingos in the world.
Tests done on corpses of the birds show the presence of nine or ten heavy
metals in their tissues. According to Gideon Motelin, who specializes in flamingo
studies at Kenya's Egerton University "it is not normal to find
arsenic, lead, mercury, chromium, and copper in the livers and kidneys of these
birds".
Conservationists believe the source of the pollution is the farms near Lake
Nakuru, about sixty miles south of Bogoria, which the flamingos abandoned two
years ago.
Jackson Rayini of the World Wide Fund for Nature believes that if this continues
"we may lose quite a keystone species'.
Although there have been outbreaks of disease in both 1993 and 1995, each
lasted for just a month. The latest outbreak of deaths began in July 1999.
Birdsmag
Unravelling the mystery of resistant malaria 1min. 31secs Australian
scientists may have discovered how the malaria parasite becomes resistant to
drugs, raising the hope
of developing new treatments for the deadly disease. Research carried out at
the Melbourne's Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research shows that
a protein called Pgh 1 is involved in the mutations of the gene
which prevents the anti -malarial drugs accumulating in the parasite's cells.
The malaria parasite – transmitted to humans through mosquito bites – is responsible
for the deaths of more than two million children and adults annually, affecting
people in Africa, India, South East Asia, some pacific
islands and South America. 4
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Dr. Alan Cowman, the head of the research team explained this development offers
a new target for drugs.
"If we understand the mechanism the parasite uses to evade the lethal action
of anti – malarial drugs we can try to put it in reverse," he said. " We may
be able to inhibit directly the action of the Pgh 1 protein so that a
drug
like chloroquine can work again." Nature
New Technology in Southern Africa halts Extinction 1mins. 51secs The
death of a wild cheetah recently in Namibia could have been a big loss to the
world's gene pool. This young
free ranging male, represented a valuable source of genetic material, vital
in the maintenance of genetic diversity and the future survival of his species.
However due to a unique conservation project making use of exciting developments
in reproductive technology and conservation biology this cheetah's genetic legacy
lives on. The latest developments in human and domestic
animal reproduction are being applied to wildlife species to avoid extinction.
The Wildlife Breeding Resource Center (a working group of the Endangered Wildlife
Trust) is developing methods of extracting viable genetic
material from recently dead animals through its Gamete Recovery International
Programme.
Less than 12 hours after the cheetah's death, the testes arrived in South Africa
where the material was processed and 15 straws of sperm were frozen, each straw
representing one dose needed to artificially inseminate a
female. This material is now safely stored in a gene bank and may one day result
in the birth of cubs, fathered by an animal who died many years before but whose
contribution to the future survival of his species, still continues.
WildNet Africa
Incinerating medical waste is a serious threat 1min. 52secs Incinerators
for medical and municipal waste have been linked to severe public health threats
and pollution in
the United States and Europe. The combination of intense public opposition and
increasingly strict environmental pollution regulation has led to the cancellation
or closure of many incinerators in industrialized countries. The
result is that many incinerator companies are targeting developing nations who
are not yet aware of the serious health and environmental threats associated
with incineration.
This press alert was issued recently by Save Earth Nigeria, to warn the public
against the purchase of incinerators for medical waste in Lagos.
The alert stated that the U. S Environmental Protection Agency has found medical
and municipal waste incineration to be the top sources of severely toxic dioxin,
as well as mercury. These and other toxic substances have been
implicated as causes of cancer and as notable endocrine disrupters with adverse
effects on reproduction, development and the immune system.
The report went on to urge the Federal and State Ministries of Health and
the general public not to allow the importation of a technology that is becoming
obsolete in other parts of the world and prevent Africa from being
a dumping ground for toxic waste. Save Earth 5
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Water for the 21 st century 63secs According to the World Commission
on Water for the 21 st Century, some 20 percent more water than is
available will be needed for the additional 3 billion people who will be alive
25 years from now.
The Commission's statement, issued to commemorate the World Water Day 1999,
marked the first time that a major effort is being made to link global water
scarcity to food security.
The second world water forum and ministerial conference will be held March
17 – 22 in the Netherlands. NEFEJ
Disaster on the Danube 1min. 45secs The leakage of 10 000 tones of
cyanide – laden sludge into the Danube river has taken a heavy ecological toll.
The cyanide, which was used to separate gold from ore at a mine in Baia Mare,
Romania, was washed from an open storage basin into the Tisza, a tributary on
the Danube on the 30 th of January. Now, almost everything on
the Tisza's murky waters is lifeless. Fishermen have hung black banners from
houses and bridges, mourning their lost livelihoods.
The concentration of cyanide in the waters is estimated to be 130 times more
than the safe limit making the waters lethal. However cyanide dilutes and decomposes
easily thus its effect should not last very long. But toxic
heavy metals have leaked too and while these do not kill animals or fish instantly,
they can cause long term ill health and cancers. The effect of this disaster
is expected to linger in the waters of the Danube for the next five
years.
The World Wide fund for Nature estimates that a quarter of all rivers of Eastern
and Southern European are heavily polluted. Some like the Tisza are "ecologically
dead".
The economist
Women broadcasters meet in Paris 1min. 25secs Broadcasters from around
the world gathered in Paris to move beyond the rhetoric and collaborate on a
series
of programmes on the lives of women in the year 2000, five years after Beijing.
This meeting of women broadcasters was held from the 17 th to the 18 th of February
2000. Ugonma Ekeanyanwu, Programme Officer
for Communicating for Change, represented the West African subregion at the
TVE/ UNESCO sponsored forum. The aim of the meeting was to produce gender sensitive
programmes to be aired around the world
during the fifth anniversary of the Beijing Women's Conference tagged Beijing
+5 to be held in New York from the 5 th to 9 th of June 2000.
According to Ms Ekeanyanwu the conference was highly successful as broadcasters
were able to brainstorm on issues that relate to the conditions of women from
different regions of the world. Themes such as women in
power, health, poverty, employment, violence/ reconciliation and education were
some of the themes that were discussed at the forum.
CfC
Special focus
AIDS in Africa 1min. 52secs According to UNAIDS, an umbrella
body for five U. N bodies, the World Health Organization and the World
Bank, 33.6 million people in the world have AIDS – over 23 million of them are
in the sub-Saharan Africa. More than 16 million have died from AIDS; 3.6 million
of them are children under the age of 15. Other alarming
statistics on this scourge called AIDS include: 6
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Of the 5.6 million new infections in 1999, 3.8 million of them are in Africa.
2.6 million people died from AIDS last year, 85 percent of them in Africa
Of the 13 million children orphaned by AIDS, 10 million of them are in sub Saharan
Africa As a result of the disease, there is reduced life expectancy in sub Saharan
Africa from 59 years to 45
between 2005 and 2010, and in Zimbabwe from 61 to 33!
When compared to the bubonic plague, which was reckoned to have killed 30 million
people in medieval Europe, an estimated number of 71 million people would have
died from AIDS by 2010.
According to Rene Bonnel, of the World Bank, " these numbers have human faces
that is what is so hard to grasp"
CNN. com
Beyond statistics 2mins. 36secs In South Africa Gugu Dlamini admitted
on television that she had AIDS. When she returned home, she was
beaten to death by fellow villagers.
At just 14, Kevina, a Ugandan girl has lost both parents, aunts and uncles to
AIDS. Now she cares for four younger brothers, three younger sisters and an
84year -old blind grandfather.
The epidemic is showing its ugly face more and more in other countries of
the world like in India and China. But the focus right now is on Africa where
10 of the 11 infections, which occur every minute, are diagnosed. Where
in some countries, doctors and nurses are dying faster than they can be replaced
and where treatment ranges from the inadequate to the non-existent.
In South Africa one out of every 10 people have AIDS. Every day 1700 new cases
are reported across hospitals in the country. Factors contributing to the spread
of the disease include poverty, ignorance, the prohibitive
cost of AIDS drugs, an aversion to discussing sex and some say, promiscuity.
"Promiscuity is a loaded word" says Dr. Robert Shell of the Population Research
Unit at Rhodes University " I would say that AIDS is the result of unsafe sexual
practices… ignorance about reproductive health is the
biggest factor and (this) is related to poverty and illiteracy" .
In the meantime President Mbeki of South Africa has shocked the world by opposing
the use of AZT, one of the most successful AIDS drug and by appointing an AIDS
council that lacks medical researchers or AIDS
experts. CNNinteractive
The spread 1min. 37secs Mobility of labor and rapid urbanization has
contributed to cities in sub-Saharan Africa where 40 to 50 percent
of the population have AIDS.
Wars have also contributed to the problem. Like migrant workers , truck drivers
and young men , soldiers often visit "commercial sex workers" or prostitutes,
90 percent of who are believed to have AIDS. Nigerian soldiers
with the ECOMOG forces in Sierra Leone and Finnish soldiers serving as peacekeepers
in Namibia brought AIDS with them when they returned home.
Girls and women are often forced to have sex with men in male dominated African
cultures. In fact, in some areas infected men believe they can be cured by having
sex with a virgin. As a result many 12 year -old girls 7
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become infected.
The reported AIDS rate among women in Africa is much higher than men but then
again most men are not being tested. Meanwhile, they unknowingly pass on the
infection. Indeed, a U. N survey found that 30 percent of
young African women believe that if a man looks healthy, he cannot have AIDS!
CNN. com
Turning back the clock on development 4mins. 29sec
More than one quarter of working age adults are infected with HIV, a statistic
that has profound implication on the economic development of the continent.
Families for instance will have to use depleted resources to care for a member
ill with AIDS rather than invest in necessities or children's futures. And when
AIDS claims a major source of financial support in a family,
communities must take responsibility for the orphans and the elderly. Countries
on their part must draw on a diminishing pool of trained and talented workers.
A study of urban populations in Cote d'Ivoire revealed that families with
a sick member from AIDS cut spending on their children's education in half and
reduced food consumption by 40 percent as they struggled to
cover health expenditures that have soared to four times their usual level.
The same observation was made in Uganda and Tanzania.
Despite the figures, one of the paradoxes of the HIV epidemic in sub-Saharan
Africa is that for most of this decade, it has not made a dent on standard microeconomic
yardsticks such as the Gross Domestic Product (
GDP).
The argument, according to a 1997 release by the World Bank, is that declines
in population growth caused by AIDS would tend to offset any declines in economic
growth caused by the epidemic. This, in part, is due to the
cold logic of demand and supply: the labor surplus in most African countries
means that workers removed from the workforce by AIDS can be replaced without
loss of productivity.
However standard economic statistics such as the GDP do not measure the economic
impact of AIDS in Africa. The impact of the disease must be seen in the larger
context of human welfare. For instance countries
have lost 10 to 20 years of life expectancy thus reversing years of investments
in human capital. GDP does not capture this dimension of human loss and welfare.
Already the epidemic's burden on the healthcare system is increasingly obvious,
although efforts to quantify the impact have lagged. In South Africa it is estimated
that 50 percent of the beds in large provincial hospitals are
occupied by people with AIDS. Because it is difficult to measure the macroeconomic
impact of an epidemic directly, experts have had to depend on economic models
which are based on a set of assumptions. By factoring
in labor supply and healthcare finance to existing models, a rough estimate
of 0.5 percent reduction in GDP is recorded as an impact of AIDS on the economy
of the continent. While this might not seem crippling, one must
note that a lower growth rate always leads to a cumulative effect..
For example a country with a growth rate of 2 percent a year in the absence
of AIDS will inrease its Gross National Product per capita by 81 percent in
one generation which is about 30 years. With an AIDS epidemic,
growth rate will be reduced by 1.5 percent a year thus leading to a 25 percent
reduction of the GNP per capita in the same period.
CNN. com 8
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Creating a continent of orphans 3mins. 18secs AIDS in Africa touches
children in two ways -the disease kills their parents, leaving them orphans
and the
disease infects children themselves. Africa right now is home to 90 percent
of the world's HIV – infected children. In sub Saharan Africa 470 000 children
die every year from AIDS. In many cases the virus was
transmitted to them by their mother. Of 30 children born to HIV positive mothers,
approximately 10 will acquire AIDS by simply being born. Another four will become
infected through breast-feeding. Most of these
children will not live to see their 5 th birthdays
Children are also becoming infected through sexual contact. Among young people,
girls have a higher infection rate than do boys of the same age. The cruel myth
that an infected man can be cured by having sex with a virgin
is also contributing to the rise of the disease among girls. Girls may also
agree to exchange sex for favors or typically for payment of school fees.
The existence of orphans in Africa is not new. Usually they are by tradition
absorbed in extended family networks. With the advent of AIDS the extended family
has become over extended.
AIDS has now orphaned 9 percent of Zambia's children. In Zimbabwe, 7 percent
of children are orphans while in Malawi 6 percent. 11 percent of Uganda's children
are AIDS orphans, the highest percentage in the world.
AIDS orphans suffer on two levels. They need to drop out of school to care for
a dying parent or to care and provide for younger siblings. They are likely
to have been exposed to tuberculosis and other opportunistic
infections plaguing an HIV – positive adult. They may be sent to live with grandparents
who already care for grandchildren from three or four families.
It must be noted that orphans are more likely to live in poverty and be malnourished.
They are more likely to engage in hazardous labor including prostitution. Other
issues are the high incidence of crime and violence
amongst orphans.
As adults continue to die of AIDS, the children are left in a vacuum deprived
of parental guidance – a sea of youth, disadvantaged, vulnerable, undereducated,
without hope or opportunity.
CNNInteractive
No money, no drugs, no hope 1min. 41secs Treatment of AIDS has been
so successful in the industrialized countries that complacency is feared to
be
setting in. However this is not the case in Africa.
In the developed world it costs up to 15 000 dollars a year for a person living
with AIDS to buy the cocktail of drugs that help them live better and longer.
In Africa where there are 4 million new cases every year the term
treatment does not apply. With very few exceptions a positive test for HIV in
Africa is a death sentence.
In the United States with a population of about 274 million, about 10 billion
dollars is spent every year on research, treatment and prevention of AIDS. The
nations of Africa, with a total population of 543 million spend
only 165 million dollars a year.
Since in many countries only 40 percent of the hospitals have access to basic
drugs it is not surprising to have doctors refuse to readmit patients because
in the words of a medical researcher in Durban; "we can't afford to
spend money on people who are going to die". CNN. com 9
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A ray of light 1min. 4secs A tree in Argentina has yielded a compound
that attacks the AIDS virus. Another tree found across Africa
makes an anti -fungal compound that might work against the mouth infection that
plague HIV patients.
Researchers told a meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of
Science that their findings show that the world's forests are still a rich source
of new drugs – and they say that their programs are also
good examples of how developing countries can benefit from their natural resources.
CNNInteractive
Children's Section
How the cheetah got his speed 1min. 58secs Once upon a time the
Creator decided to find out which of His animals could run the fastest -and
so He entered
the cheetah in a race with the tsessebe, which is the swiftest of all the
antelopes. The cheetah had soft paws then, and he realized that they were not
suited for real speed. So he borrowed a set of paws from an obliging
wild dog.
The race started from a high baobab tree. The Creator Himself was in charge,
and the two contestants were told to run right across the plains to a hill on
the far side. The animals lined up and then – go! They leapt away.
The tsessebe soon took the lead, and by halfway, he was so far ahead he seemed
sure to win. But suddenly – disaster! Tsessebe stumbled on a stone and crashed
to the ground: he had broken his leg.
The good-natured cheetah, instead of running past and winning the race, stopped
to help his opponent.
The Creator, seeing this, was so pleased by the cheetah's unselfish act that
he bestowed upon the cheetah a gift; He made him the fastest animal in the land,
and what's more, allowed him to keep the paws of the wild dog.
When the hippo was hairy
A Giraffe in the Sky (An ancient Bushman legend) 1min. 12secs At
the very beginning of time, say the Bushmen, the Sun did not know its way around
the heavens. Giraffe had
a habit of staring curiously at everything, and so the Creator thought that
it would be a good idea to give Giraffe the task of watching over the Sun, so
that it didn't go astray.
Giraffe took his job very seriously. Indeed, he was so good at it that the
Sun never again took a wrong turn. The creator was very proud of Giraffe, and
He decided to honour him. He rearranged a few stars so that they made
a giraffe shape in the sky, and you can still see it to this day.
The Bushmen call the pattern Totowa (Giraffe), and use it to guide them when
they travel at night. English-speaking people call Totowa the Southern Cross,
and use it as a guide, too.
When the hippo was hairy
How Nguluve Got His Tail 2mins. 28secs In the beginning, the animal
had no tails. One day the Creator prepared a great collection of tails and summoned
all the animals to come and choose one.
Each animal in turn looked over the pile of tails and selected the one which
he thought best suited his looks and his needs and went away satisfied and complete.
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Now, when Ndhlovu the elephant's turn came, he could not decide between tow
grey tails which he fancied, the one small and the other large and long. He
tried them on this way and that, one after another and both together.
When the time came to make a decision, he was unable to put one down, so he
stuck the big one on in front and the little one behind, and walked off with
two tails.
As the Creator had counted all the animals and made enough tails for only
one each, Ndhlovu thus took not only his own, but somebody else's tail as well.
So when the turn came for the last animal in the queque, which
happened to be Nguluge, the warthog, there was not tail left for him.
Poor Nguluve was too ashamed and unhappy to take his place among his friends
who were busily shoeing off their new tails and swishing them this way and that.
So he scrabbled around, turning stones and digging with his
nose into the ground until he unearthed a thin, little piece of tree root. 'What
a perfect tail, ' he thought to himself. Very proud of his new appendage and
of how clever he had been in finding it, Nguluve waned to show it off at
every opportunity.
And that is why he sticks it straight up in the air as he runs along, for everyone
to see and admire! Shangani folk tales
In brief…
Threat to livelihood of woodcarvers in Ghana 1min. 22secs The
indiscriminate felling of trees in Ghana over the years has put the traditional
trade of wood carving under
threat. As a result the wood carvers have come together to save their trade
by adopting a common approach to the issue of tree felling.
The president of the wood carvers association of Ghana, Louis Botchway, recently
reiterated the commitment of the association to assist in planting trees to
replace the ones they cut down. Other objectives of the association
include the introduction of quality controls in the trade, search for international
markets for members and the promotion of wood economy through the frugal use
of raw materials.
The financial standard
Tragedy in Mozambique 2mins. 17secs
Floods have devastated much of southeastern Africa. Hundreds of lives have
been lost, thousands more face hunger, and Mozambique's economy is in mortal
danger. The floods have pushed back large numbers of the
Mozambicans into poverty who have just recently begun to pull themselves out
of it.
The floodings have dislodged thousands of land mines and carried them to places
previously considered safe. This year's floods have also turned the low fields
where most of the planting is done to mud porridge.
It is estimated that 220 000 Mozambicans will need food aid in the next three
months, a figure that will rise if the waters do not recede before the planting
season, which should begin in April. The Mozambique government
have solicited aids to the tune of 65 million US dollars but to date only 13.5
million were pledged by March 1 st .
Efforts to fly food and supplies to the needy are hampered by the scattered
nature of the settlements. And the water is not the only peril they face. The
floods bring disease with them. Vast stretches of new swampland are
breeding ground for malarial mosquitoes and cholera. Hunger and exhaustion among
the survivors hanging on trees lower their resistance to disease. And since
between an eighth and a quarter of adults in the flooded
communities are HIV – infected, the resistance is often not very great to start
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Water Conservation in Central America 1min. 49secs The last two years
have undoubtedly been very destructive for the Central American region, and
water is
among the natural resources most affected. The mismanagement of many watersheds,
increased deforestation in areas near water sources, the heavy rains that when
the Hurricane March struck (caused serious flooding,)
have led to the propagation of many diseases such as malaria and dengue fever.
Despite the abundant rains, water still remains in a state of crisis.
While it is necessary to improve the use of water for human consumption and
as a source of economic revenue, the many problems relating to water and its
conservation should not only be in the hands of environmental
technicians biologists, foresters or even government. It is essential that everyone
make commitment to take care of these resources.
To have water in the long term, we must begin by not polluting our water resources.
Deforestation must be stopped, areas near watersheds and rivers must be reforested
and we must implement policies to compensate those who protect these environmental
services. Education programs and information
campaigns that explain how best to prevent the pollution of the sources of this
previous liquid – water, depends on us.
Quick tips on water conservation 1min. 59secs Water and life are inseparable.
Through mismanagement, waste and pollution of our water resources we are
creating an imbalance in the water cycle. What can you do to conserve water?
Place a brick in the water tank of your toilet. This conserves water, as the
brick allows you to store the amount of water you really need for flushing the
toilet. Make sure you turn off all taps properly. A dripping or leaking
tap can waste more than 90 litres of water per week.
Drain your washbasin or toilet with products that do not harm your health or
pollute the environment. To clean your toilet, pour some boiling water down
it twice a week or pour in ¼ cup of bicarbonate of soda and ¼ cup
of vinegar and cover it for the night. Use natural products to clean your kitchen
bathrooms and tile floors. Vinegar can be used as a substitute for bleach or
Clorox, lemon may be used to clean metal items and bicarbonate
of soda can be used to remove stains in the toilet. And to disinfect use ¼ cup
of borax (boric acid) with one gallon of boiling water.
Remember there is enough water to satisfy all our needs. Be part of the solution.
WWF
Parting shots
Some memorable quotes on conservation and the environment "The
generations of living things pass in swift succession, and like runners in a
race they hand on the torch of
life." Lucretius,
Founder poet and philosopher, 96-55 B. C.
"Take not too much of a land, wear not out all the fatness, but leave in it
some heart." Pliny the Elder
Roman writer, 23-79 A. D. 12
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"Do you think you can take over the universe and improve it? I do not believe
it can be done. The universe is sacred. If you try to change it, you will ruin
it."
Lao-Tzu Founder of Taoism, 604-531 B. C.
"Please leave something for us. Our generation needs a home too; we can't
live in this grime and dirt left for us by you. You ancestors left the world
OK. Please do the same for us."
Malanie Boyd Eleven-year-old from Barbados.
Ín the end we conserve only that we love. We will love only what we understand.
We will understand only what we are taught."
Baba Dioum, Senegalese poet.
"Whoever is kind to the creatures of God is kind to himself." Mohammed,
Prophet and religious leader, 520-632.
"Hurt not the earth, neither the sea, now the trees…" The Bible,
Revelations, 7: 3. 13
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