http://www.irinnews.org/irin-fp.aspxUpdated everydayen-gbMon, 09 Nov 2009 10:14:04 GMTCAIRO Monday, November 09, 2009 (IRIN) - The conversion of excess rice straw into fertilizer, rather than simply burning it off could be the solution to a problem that has plagued Cairo residents for the last 10 years: the “black cloud” that decends on the city every October and November. CAIRO Monday, November 09, 2009 (IRIN) -  The conversion of excess rice straw into fertilizer, rather than simply burning it off could be the solution to a problem that has plagued Cairo residents for the last 10 tears: the “black cloud” that decends on the city every October and November.

Hundreds of thousands of rice-growing farmers burn their excess rice straw after harvest to prepare for a new farming season, but the government is making efforts - some say insufficient efforts - to tackle the problem.

“This is how we turn hay [rice straw] into useful fertilizer that farmers can use to enrich their land with natural nutrients,“ Sayed Eissa, a 25-year-old agricultural engineer, told IRIN, as he sprayed mounds of dried hay with a special liquid formula and then mixed the grass thoroughly to ensure it was fully moist.

With the help of an assistant in the small factory in Qalyubia Governorate - in Egypt’s Nile Delta, about 120km north of Cairo - he put the hay in a machine that minced it. It was then taken out and left in the open air to give the bacteria a chance to become active. “This way, we can benefit from the tons of hay that accumulate here without causing any harm to the environment,” he said.

Eissa and others who staff the scores of agricultural waste recycling factories are part of Egyptian government efforts to limit the smoke pollution.

Rice, a staple of the Egyptian diet, is normally grown on some 486,000 hectares of Egypt’s 3.2 million hectares of agricultural land. This year, farmers grew rice on an additional 162,000 hectares of land. Agriculture experts say that 0.404 hectares (one acre) of rice produces two tons of hay, meaning the country accumulated 3.2 million tons of hay this year.
 
Some of the hay is used as feed for livestock but experts say more than 60 percent is burned before the new planting season.

Respiratory problems

“The black cloud is behind most of the severe respiratory problems affecting thousands of Egyptians every year,” said Ahmed Abdel Wahab, an independent pollution consultant. “This problem is so persistent that no end appears to be in sight.”

“To get rid of the hay, I must burn it,” said Abdel Hamid Said, a farmer from the Nile Delta governorate of Sharqia, about 90km north of Cairo.

Farmers like Said say the mounds of hay that accumulate on their land become home to rats and snakes that eat their crops and can even destroy their harvest. “We also feel afraid that snakes might attack our children,” he added.

But this is not without cost to Egyptians who either live in the capital or around the farms. When rice straw burning occurs, millions of residents must travel in poor visibility on the roads and many use masks to reduce the effect of the smog.

A few kilometres from where Eissa was making rice hay fertilizer, specialists at the Benha General Hospital were counting the numbers of people being admitted with respiratory problems. Officials at the hospital said respiratory diseases increase by 150 percent in October and November because of the black cloud.

“My son fell ill a few days ago because of this massive burning of agricultural waste,” said Hesham Mashhour, a 40-year-old civil servant. “Farmers continue to burn the straw, while the government is silent.”

Complacent?

The Ministry of Environment said it has made progress in curbing the black cloud. “The cloud appeared only 40 hours this year instead of 190 hours last year,” Ahmed Abul Soud, chairman of the Air Quality Unit in the ministry, said. “We’re trying to end it, but it will take some time.”

Sceptics say the smog will never disappear if the government’s focus is only on limiting rice-straw burning and not on tackling other causes of pollution in the city, such as that from vehicles.

According to the UN Environment Programme, in normal times the average Cairo resident ingests more than 20 times the acceptable level of air pollution, and this year the problem is also being exacerbated by the incineration of mounds of rubbish abandoned in the streets - an indirect consequence of the May 2009 pig cull. http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=86742

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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=86933WAJIR EAST Thursday, November 05, 2009 (IRIN) - The sound of the evening bell at a local boarding high-school in Wajir, in the northeast of Kenya, did not always signal the end of the day's classes. Instead it marked the end of the evening bathroom break as “bucket toilets” were emptied for the day. WAJIR EAST Thursday, November 05, 2009 (IRIN) - The sound of the evening bell at a local boarding high-school in Wajir, in the northeast of Kenya, did not always signal the end of the day's classes. Instead it marked the end of the evening bathroom break as “bucket toilets” were emptied for the day.

Such stories are commonly told with a mixture of humour and concern in the semi-arid region of Wajir, where most residents have little access to improved sanitation - with serious health implications.

"Wajir is prone to diarrhoea outbreaks," Francis Njoroge, Wajir East medical health officer, told IRIN. "Diarrhoeal diseases are [the] third [most] common illness in children below five years.

"Several factors could be contributory: the town lacks a sewerage system [and] uses a bucket system... people depend on boreholes... and many of the community water wells are not protected, exposing them to contamination," Njoroge said.

Outside the town, people use water from open dams, which they share with animals. "During the rainy season, run-off water washes animal waste into the dam, contaminating it," he said.

Wajir residents rely on shallow wells, due to increasing water salinity at depth, which are exposed to contamination during flash floods and from seepage.

The larger Wajir, which borders Somalia, Ethiopia, as well as the Kenyan towns of Mandera, Moyale, Isiolo and Garissa, lies in an area with large aquifers supplied by perennial rivers and dry seasonal river basins - also sources of contamination.

Like most of northern Kenya, Wajir has experienced a prolonged drought and livestock deaths. Animal carcasses litter watering points, posing a further health risk.

Contamination

Wajir South Development Association (WASDA) programme manager, Haretha Bulle, told IRIN of the challenges.

"There are [largely] no flush toilets and no pit latrines," Bulle told IRIN. A few flush toilets can be found in some hotels and in newer settlements but are rare in households.

According to a UN World Health Organization report, latrine coverage in rural Wajir is about 5 percent and just a little higher in the town.

Because of the high water table, pit latrines are not viable, and residents mainly rely on unhygienic bucket toilets - improvised from plastic jerry cans.

"Waste is collected from the bucket latrines by a tractor, which serves the whole town," Bulle noted. The town has a population of about 220,000.

"Households are not able to dispose of waste [and] are forced to dispose it anywhere," she said. "When it rains, the whole town smells. The water gets contaminated more easily and changes colour."

Refuse pit and open pit dumping is prevalent.

El Niño threat

According to Wajir town resident, Khadijah Ibrahim, ongoing El Niño-related rains will only exacerbate the situation. Her family of eight shares one bucket toilet with three other households - about 24 people in total.

"Sometimes the municipal council comes to empty the bucket after a week or 15 days. By the time the waste collectors come, the bucket toilet is already overflowing," Ibrahim said.

Her children, the youngest of whom is three, have been trained to wear shoes before going to the toilet to protect themselves, "but they only use soap to wash their hands before they eat", Ibrahim said.

Eco-toilets

The Arid Lands Development Focus (ALDEF) NGO is piloting eco-toilets, which use heat trapped by solar panels to burn human waste, reducing it to ash.

The toilets do not use water, instead relying on a dehydration/evaporation system. Diyad Hujale, ALDEF programme manager, told IRIN the target was mainly the town centre, which requires about 5,000 toilets.

Hujale recommended that Wajir town’s by-laws should make it compulsory for any upcoming construction to have an eco-toilet facility. The challenge, he said, is "how to get rid of the bucket toilet".

However, the cost of setting up an eco-san unit, about KSh60,000 (US$800), is prohibitive for private households.

Health education

Past recommendations to improve drainage and sanitation in Wajir have not yielded much, according to Bulle of WASDA. "It is one disaster after the other. When the rains come, we think of the drainage but forget about it when the drought comes."

At present, village elders in Wajir are being taught how to chlorinate the community wells, according to health officer Njoroge. Health education on the importance of protecting the wells is also being provided.

He said the construction of more toilets is being encouraged in new settlements, where communities are provided with water treatment chemicals.

"Health education is ongoing. Of importance is that there is continued disease surveillance in the district," he said. The solution lay in "providing clean water to the community and safe disposal of human waste via a sewerage system".

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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=86896KANDAHAR Wednesday, November 04, 2009 (IRIN) - Afghanistan appears to be getting drier: Since the 1996 drought many traditional irrigation sources such as springs, streams, rivers and man-made subterranean aqueducts have been drying up in the southern provinces, according to the Ministry of Agriculture, Irrigation and Livestock (MAIL).KANDAHAR Wednesday, November 04, 2009 (IRIN) - Afghanistan appears to be getting drier: Since the 1996 drought many traditional irrigation sources such as springs, streams, rivers and man-made subterranean aqueducts have been drying up in the southern provinces, according to the Ministry of Agriculture, Irrigation and Livestock (MAIL).
 
A succession of dry years in 1999-2004 and the severe drought of 1999-2001 substantially reduced cultivated areas in the south and east and put great pressure on grazing land, says Afghanistan's Environment 2008 joint report http://postconflict.unep.ch/publications/afg_soe_E.pdf by Afghanistan's National Environmental Protection Agency (NEPA) and the UN Environment Programme (UNEP).
 
"Ecosystem services, soil water content, and conditions of rangelands are most affected by climatic hazards and changes. The effects on food crops and livestock are similarly high. Irrigated agriculture, livestock herders and dry land farmers are considered the most susceptible to the impacts of weather hazards and climatic changes," the report said.
 
Many farmers are battling persistent drought, which has also affected subterranean aqueducts known locally as `kareze’ http://www.fao.org/nr/water/aquastat/countries/afghanistan/index.stm or `qanat’, which channel water from underground aquifers for use in irrigation.
 
“Drought has destroyed more than 80 percent of `kareze’ and springs in [the southern province of] Kandahar,” the head of MAIL in Kandahar, Abdul Hai Nemati, told IRIN. “This has devastating impacts on agriculture and rural livelihoods,” said Baba Jan, 59, a farmer in Arghandab District, Kandahar Province.
 
DFID-funded report
 
A 2009 report -http://www.livelihoodsrc.org/uploads/File/2007447_AfghanCC_ExS_09MAR09.pdf funded by the UK’s Department for International Development (DFID) and written by the Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI) entitled Socio-economic Impacts of Climate Change in Afghanistan - said increasing desertification and land degradation were likely: "Drought is likely to be regarded as the norm by 2030, rather than as a temporary or cyclical event."

"The vulnerability of the agricultural sector to increased temperatures and changes in rainfall patterns and snow melt is high. Increased soil evaporation, reduced river flow from earlier snow melt, and less frequent rain during peak cultivation seasons will impact upon agricultural productivity and crop choice availability," the report said.
 
Crop failure levels due to water shortages and the amount of potentially productive land left uncultivated will probably increase. More water intensive staple crops will become less attractive to farmers, with a likely increase in the attractiveness of those that are more drought-hardy, including opium poppy, it added.
 
Some 80 percent of the country’s 28 million people live in rural areas and depend on agriculture, according to the NEPA/UNEP report.

Lack of investment
 
MAIL officials say Afghanistan has enough water for irrigation and other needs, but the UNEP/NEPA report says “functional irrigation systems are running at about 25 percent efficiency against their potential of 40-60 percent.” Lack of investment in irrigation systems, lack of modern irrigation tools such as pumps, and a lack of awareness among rural farming communities were to blame, it said.

“Sometimes farmers waste some 30 percent of the water while irrigating a field,” Abdul Haq Rashiq, an agronomist and lecturer at the faculty of agriculture in Kabul University, said.
 
The drying up of irrigation sources and poor irrigation management have forced more and more families to consider leaving the land to seek alternative livelihoods. Some are selling livestock and land in order to dig deep wells, buy power generators and water pumps and irrigate other land for fruit trees, said MAIL’s Nemati.
 
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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=86864SANAA Tuesday, November 03, 2009 (IRIN) - Tens of thousands of people in Milhan District, Mahwit Governorate, around 100km northwest of the Yemeni capital Sanaa, are facing acute water shortages due to lack of rainfall, according to local officials.SANAA Tuesday, November 03, 2009 (IRIN) - Tens of thousands of people in Milhan District, Mahwit Governorate, around 100km northwest of the Yemeni capital Sanaa, are facing acute water shortages due to lack of rainfall, according to local officials.

Most of the district's residents depend on rainwater so are vulnerable in the dry season, and many springs have dried up, according to Mohammed al-Nuzail, head of the General Rural Water Authority (GRWA) in the governorate.

Up to 40,000 women and children are obliged to walk - or rather clamber - 10-15km to reach the nearest water sources, said Ali Saeed, a local environmental activist.

"People must climb 1,500-1,800m-high mountains to reach springs… Steep mountains put the lives of women and children at risk; some of them fall," he said, adding that the springs were in such remote places that not even donkeys could reach them.

Thousands of girls were dropping out of school in the district as a result of the water shortage, said Mohammed Abdurrazaq, head of the Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Project at the World Bank office in Sanaa.

According to the government's Central Statistics Bureau, 92 percent of Mahwit's 555,000 people in 2008 lived in rural areas where farming and herding were the main sources of income. Many districts lacked roads.

Poverty

"I have two cows," said local farmer Mohammed al-Maghraba, aged 50. "They produce two calves per year which I sell for YR80,000 [US$400]. This money is not enough… How is it possible for me to construct a cistern that costs hundreds of thousands of [Yemeni] riyals?"

But limited help may be on its way for Mahwit: "We will provide rural residents in Mahwit with construction materials [cement, steel and pipes] to build rainwater catchment tanks themselves next year," the World Bank’s Abdurrazaq said.

Only 10 percent of the district’s 90,000 people have underground cisterns for harvesting rainwater, which they can use for up to two months in the dry season, said the head of the district's local council, Mohammed Abdu al-Nusairi, adding: "Some of them agree to share the stored water with relatives, while others refuse.”

An artesian well costs $50,000 to build while average monthly income per household (of about six members) is about $100. There is only one artesian well per 6,000 people in the district, al-Nusairi said. “Over the past three years, we dug five wells but found water in just one."

"We have thought about digging wells in other areas and running pipes to the district, but our limited budget makes this impossible,” said al-Nusairi.

Abdullah Al-Numan, an environment expert at Sanaa University, said decreased rainfall in Yemen over the past seven years may be the result of changing climate in the region. "In many parts of Yemen, including the northwest region, rainfall decreased from 300mm more than 20 years ago to 180mm over the past five years," he said.

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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=86847DILI Tuesday, November 03, 2009 (IRIN) - Bio-briquettes, a cheap and environmentally friendly fuel, could have the twin benefit of mitigating unemployment and deforestation in Timor-Leste - two significant problems in one of Asia's poorest nations.DILI Tuesday, November 03, 2009 (IRIN) - Bio-briquettes, a cheap and environmentally friendly fuel, could have the twin benefit of mitigating unemployment and deforestation in Timor-Leste - two significant problems in one of Asia's poorest nations.

"We're increasing our capacity for our future," said Mateus Tame, one of a group of young workers learning the art of briquette production in Dili, the capital, who was busy turning gallons of mush into neat stacks of what looked like cardboard doughnuts.

"It's difficult for young people to find jobs. We are a new country," the 20-year-old said.

Since formal independence in 2002, Timor-Leste's post-occupation generation has struggled to find work. While most of the population of 1.1 million is engaged in subsistence farming, unemployment in urban Dili peaks at about 40 percent among the youth, according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

Widespread unemployment contributed to the crisis in 2006 when more than 150,000 people were displaced.

According to the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre [http://www.internal-displacement.org/], the violence was the result of political rivalries dating back to the independence struggle up to 1999; divisions between "easterners" and "westerners"; as well as chronic poverty and a large and disempowered youth population.

Today about 40 percent of the population live below the poverty line of US$1 a day, according to the UN.

With bio-briquette production, three people can make about 750 briquettes a day, sold for 2 cents apiece, with the potential for workers to make about $4-5 a day.

Environmental benefits

According to the Asian Development Bank, the forests, home to 25 rare and endangered bird species, are fast disappearing, with an estimated 31 percent of the area seriously degraded.

An estimated 17.4 percent of the forests was destroyed between 1990 and 2005, say activists.

Nicholas Molyneux, sustainable environment capacity building adviser to Haburas, the environmental civil society group spearheading the project, told IRIN: "In Metinaro [on the outskirts of Dili] we calculated that people were illegally extracting about 10 truckloads a day to sell as fuel wood, each truck probably with three or four tonnes in it," he said.

"It's a forest that isn't being replenished in any kind of way," Molyneux said.

Deforestation, coupled with high seasonal rainfall, makes Timor-Leste's land less fertile and creates a vicious cycle that ultimately ends up with the whole natural environment becoming degraded, he added.

While unsustainable deforestation continues, it is mostly out of necessity for cooking fuel; however, for the project to really work, Haburas must first convince people the briquettes are a viable alternative to wood.

Making the briquettes involves a solution of water, shredded paper, sawdust and coffee husk mixed together and then shaped with one of five wooden presses before being laid out to dry.

The paper comes from local offices, the sawdust from a nearby waste-management company and the coffee husk from the Cooperativa Café Timor, which has donated space on its grounds for the briquette groups to use as a training centre.

The briquettes burn quicker, easier and cleaner than wood, and they are cheap, especially considering that a small bundle of wood costs 25 cents and much of the population spends a considerable proportion of their income on fuel wood.

Given time, Molyneux hopes a small-scale industry can be run independently countrywide.

According to Abilio Fonseca, national adviser for the government's National Directorate for International Environment Affairs: "Our observations are that poverty in the community contributes to over-exploitation of primary natural resources, like collecting wood for sale."

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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=86848KUTUBDIA Tuesday, November 03, 2009 (IRIN) - The fisherman, his wife, three sons, two daughters, a sister-in-law, a dog and a goat and I eye each other dubiously. The family of eight is not certain whether I will be able to sleep in their mud hut, which is slightly bigger than a large sports utility vehicle. The animals seem to agree.KUTUBDIA Tuesday, November 03, 2009 (IRIN) - The fisherman, his wife, three sons, two daughters, a sister-in-law, a dog and a goat and I eye each other dubiously. The family of eight is not certain whether I will be able to sleep in their mud hut, which is slightly bigger than a large sports utility vehicle. The animals seem to agree.

Brajhari Das, the fisherman, quickly makes up his mind. "Kono samsaya nahin [There is no problem]," he says in Bangla.

Just then, the heavens open. The monsoon rains - two months late - begin to pound the tin roof, deafening us. Brajhari shouts to make himself heard above the din, "Space is not a problem, but can you manage on the mud floor?"

The rain drips in. His daughters, Priyanka, 12, and Priyushi, 8, giggle as I try to dodge the leaks, but their father has weightier problems on his mind - the hut is less than 500m from the sea, which is creeping closer "day by day".

Brajhari and his family live in a village on Kutubdia, an island off Bangladesh's southeastern coast in the Bay of Bengal. Stronger and higher tides, cyclones and storm surges are eating away all the islands; Kutubdia, which once covered 250 sq km, has been reduced to about 25 sq km within a century, but the islanders are convinced the sea level is also rising.

Brajhari, who heads the local fishermen's association, is 41 but looks in his late 50s. "It is a hard life as a fisherman - it is a dangerous profession," he says wearily, running his fingers through his greying hair. His face his tired but his eyes sparkle when he talks about his children, or the fish he caught that day.

Rupen, his 14-year-old son, speaks a bit of English. "My father goes out to the sea every six hours; he has an hour-long break in between and then he is back on the sea. We worry all the time if he will come back or not." Most days, after spending almost the entire day at sea, he makes a little over a dollar.

A few years ago, Brajhari disappeared while at sea. A rescue team from the village found him months later in the custody of the coastguard in neighbouring India, after he had drifted west into the Indian side of the Bay of Bengal.

Last month Brajhari bought his own boat with money carefully saved over many years. "He is now independent - earlier, he had to beg people in the village to take him along to the sea," Rupen said proudly.

The boat cost him 50,000 taka (US$723) - in the village of a 1,000 fishermen, only 20 own boats. Brajhari, who understands some of the conversation, beams.

Besides their "lifelong struggle with the sea", as Brajhari's wife, Purumi, put it, the islanders also have to beware of sudden climatic events, like cyclones.

Their village, East Aliabardail, was hit by Cyclone Aila in May 2009 and part of their hut was destroyed. Aila killed at least 190 people in Bangladesh but no lives were lost in the village because disaster officials evacuated most residents in time. Outside, the waves crash in the rain.

Cyclones, and the coastline creeping steadily inland, have forced the family to relocate and build new homes five times in the past three decades. "Because of all these cyclones we have left all our [dinner] plates and other belongings at my parents' house, which is a permanent structure further inside the island," said Purumi as she served food on the only two plates in their home.

"It would be good if the officials would fortify the island's coastline; we will have a better chance at survival in this drowning land," said Brajhari.

A woven cane mat suspended on two wooden poles divides the hut into two rooms, one with a table for each of the children to study and eat at, and some plastic chairs; there is no other furniture.

All their clothes hang on a rope along a wall of the hut. Their most precious belongings - photographs of long-lost friends and the children's school certificates - are locked in a small wooden box on a shelf.

The family eats when Brajhari brings home his catch; most of the money he earns each day is spent on rice. "We love our rice - our family needs at least six kilograms every day," he said, heaping it onto his plate. There are some curried shrimps and a fried hard boiled egg to go with the rice.

The family have their meal after Brajhari and I have eaten. Priyanka and Priyushi help their mother clean up. After dinner the children finish their homework beneath the solar lamp provided to five houses in the village by the UN Development Programme (UNDP).

"I got the UNDP to open a school for our village," Brajhari commented. "I don't want our children to go into this profession [fishing] - I want them educated and out of here. There is no future here on this island."

His eldest son is a tailor in Dubai, but has been not yet been able to send money home, another is a hairdresser in town, and then there is Rupen, who "wants to be someone famous - pray for me". The youngest son is in primary school. Priyanka and Priyushi giggle and cover their faces shyly. "I think they might become doctors or teachers," says Purumi, trying to answer for them.

The rains stop suddenly. We realize we are all a bit tired from being forced to have a rather loud conversation and woven cane mats are spread out on the mud floor for the night.

I get to sleep near the entrance between the dog, the goat and Purumi's sister. None of the animals stir in the night, but I am awakened around midnight, when Brajhari has to go to sea. He creeps back into the hut around 5 a.m., throwing his wet clothes outside. Purumi is up and sweeps the muddy entrance.

The village is surrounded by slushy clay soil. My feet sink into it as I go out to brush my teeth, clutching my bottle of mineral water. The villagers head for the hand-pump. A plastic sheet tied around four poles serves as the neighbourhood toilet; the women rush to get there before the men get up.

It is another day. Brajhari has to go out to sea again. After a quick bath under the village hand-pump, he and Purumi prepare for their morning prayers. They fill two brass containers with water, cover the water with flower petals and place the urns on a raised mud platform in a corner of their home. They squat in front of the platform and pray.

"We worship the sea and the River Ganges," said Brajhari. "Their water is our life - we seek their blessings and ask them to be kind to us every day."

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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=86854CAPE TOWN Tuesday, November 03, 2009 (IRIN) - Countries with growing populations can boost food production without punishing the environment if they are willing to experiment with less harmful farming practices, experts at a recent conference on biodiversity suggested. CAPE TOWN Tuesday, November 03, 2009 (IRIN) - Countries with growing populations can boost food production without punishing the environment if they are willing to experiment with less harmful farming practices, experts at a recent conference on biodiversity suggested.

Agriculture uses more than one-third of land in most countries, according to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), and is one of the chief drivers of environmental degradation and biodiversity loss.

"We need better research on agricultural production systems and biodiversity, both as an input and output," said Leslie Lipper, an FAO environmental economist.

The experts at the conference organized by Diversitas, an international programme on biodiversity science, said that with the right balance between science and good policy, a sustainable path could be found.

Lipper said this would help understand the linkages between biodiversity and agricultural production. Loss of biodiversity reduced the options for ensuring more diverse nutrition, enhancing food production, raising incomes, being able to cope with environmental constraints, and managing ecosystems.

Farmers, the largest group of ecosystem managers, could turn this situation around by changing the way they farmed and tilled the land.

Most farming practices are "extractive", which forced "the farmer to mine the very resource that underpins our ability to feed ourselves", said Achim Steiner, director of the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), who expressed concern over the heavy use of fertilizer and pesticides.

FAO estimates that about three-quarters of the genetic diversity in agricultural crops have been lost over the last century. Experts at the conference called for minimizing the use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides, and changing the mix of crops, varieties and animal breeds.

Greater collaboration between the environmental and agricultural sectors, the sharing of know-how between countries, better access to markets for smallholder farmers, and increasing the incentives for greater genetic variety in crops were also cited as crucial steps in balancing food production with environmental sustainability.

Power of science

Lawrence Kent, interim deputy director of the Gates Foundation's Agricultural Development Program, was optimistic about the power of science to ameliorate poverty and hunger, and noted a number of areas where improvements can be made in the value chain of food production, including the use of biotechnology and genetic engineering (GE).

GE crops have been presented by some as an answer to the problem of future food production, especially in the development of drought- and flood-tolerant crops that can also grow with smaller inputs of fertilizers and pesticides.

However, questions about the environmental and human health risks of GE crops have resulted in bans in the European Union and Australia, and a moratorium by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

"Biotechnology is simply a tool, certainly not an end in itself," said Kent. "What's most important is to look at things on a case-by-case basis, and not to generalize about biotechnology or conventional breeding, or any of the other methods people use to improve crops."

Lipper agreed: "I think too often people get hung up on the GMO debate and it distracts from the potential benefits of biotechnology in general."

Whatever combination of methods is employed, it is likely that the area of land used for agricultural production will increase, affecting natural biodiversity as more forest and grassland are cleared for planting.

"We need to think about where that will happen and have land-use planning systems in place so that when agriculture does expand, it will do so in the places that we want it to. And the quicker we can move toward improvement in technologies, which may include GMOs [genetically modified organisms], the more chance we have of reducing area expansion," Joshua Bishop, Chief Economist at the IUCN, told IRIN.

"There are so many factors at work here - it's not just a technological issue, it is also about trade policy and agricultural extension, and even internal market reforms," he said.

"So there are lots of factors that would allow farmers to invest in and improve productivity, and if that's combined with good land-use planning, you can get the best of both worlds, increasing returns to farmers without necessary expansion of the land base."

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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=86857ABATETE Tuesday, November 03, 2009 (IRIN) - Severe erosion over many years in Anambra, southeastern Nigeria, has cut off or destroyed hundreds of homes, businesses, farms and schools, prompting the governor to call for a state of emergency in the area where he says thousands of people now risk being displaced.ABATETE Tuesday, November 03, 2009 (IRIN) - Severe erosion over many years in Anambra, southeastern Nigeria, has cut off or destroyed hundreds of homes, businesses, farms and schools, prompting the governor to call for a state of emergency in the area where he says thousands of people now risk being displaced.

Among the worst-hit towns are Ideani, Abatete, Oko, Ekwulobia, Nanka and Onitsha, according to Anambra environment commissioner Michael Egbebike, with as many as one million people who could be forced from their homes.

Buildings have collapsed in several towns including Idi Ani, and farmers in the area have seen their fruit trees washed away during this year's rains, according to the town’s traditional ruler Igwe Okoye. “We’ve lost a lot of orange trees, mango trees and palms.” He said buildings and other resources have also been affected.

In nearby Abatete, deepening gulleys threaten to make the town’s only state-run school unreachable, town councilor Efobe Okeke told IRIN.

“Many homesteads and cash crops are daily in danger of yielding to the fury of this monster,” Okeke said. “It is devastating.”

Abatete store-owner John Uche told IRIN: “My store which was my source of living was washed away this year; I need help to feed my family.”

Why

Until 150 years ago southeastern Nigeria was covered by thick rainforest but soil degradation began with the widespread planting of trees to meet European demands for palm oil in the mid-19th century, according to environmentalists. Palm trees generate soil salinity, according to state environmental protection agency (EPA) director Emma Ude Akpeh.

The combination of this loose soil, hilly landscape and strong rains for several months of the year are ideal erosion conditions, she said. She added that farmers’ habit of burning off brush destroys roots and shrubs that could help curb erosion.

Poor urban planning, population growth and improper waste disposal have converged to exacerbate the problem, environment commissioner Egbebike told IRIN. People dump refuse or build houses on waterways and canals, obstructing the flow of rain-water, causing deep gulleys to form when it rains.

Government accountability

EPA’s Akpeh told IRIN the state environmental protection agency is working to clear rubbish from ditches and collecting rubbish house-to-house. The Anambra environment ministry meanwhile is planting trees near towns to stem erosion and is encouraging families to reinforce their houses with sand bags during the rainy season, Egbebike said.

But he said the commission needed more federal and international support to make a real difference. Anambra’s governor has joined four governors from erosion-prone neighbouring states to appeal for federal funding.

Village leaders in Ideani and Abatete are taking matters into their own hands by encouraging inhabitants to plant erosion-resistance and soil-binding crops such as India bamboo and cashew trees, according to town councilor Okeke. “You can’t fold your hands and watch your house be carried away,” he said. “But individuals cannot handle the situation alone.”

Traditional ruler Okoye said with each passing year the cost of inaction grows. “What would have been controlled with less than one million naira [US$6,000] 10 years ago cannot be controlled now by 10 billion naira [$66 million] now.”

hu/aj/nphttp://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=86863BAGHDAD Monday, November 02, 2009 (IRIN) - Rain thoughout Iraq’s semi-autonomous northern Kurdistan region, which has been absent for two years, is prompting the return of farmers who had abandoned their land, according to officials.BAGHDAD Monday, November 02, 2009 (IRIN) - Rain thoughout Iraq’s semi-autonomous northern Kurdistan region, which has been absent for two years, is prompting the return of farmers who had abandoned their land, according to officials.
 
“The drought that hit the region over the past two seasons has affected our main irrigation sources, surface and well water, and that has had a negative impact on all our crops - mainly wheat and barley,” Paldar Mohammed Amin, head of the Arbil Agriculture Directorate, said.
 
“We are optimistic this season as the beginning is good so far," Amin told IRIN. “Farmers can cultivate their land and start planting this month, while others will do so in January and February.”
 
If the weather continues like this, he said, this season will yield more than 350,000 tons of wheat and barley in the three governorates that make up the Kurdistan region. Last year, farmers produced only a third of that amount, and in 2007 only 12,000 tons were harvested.
 
Amin said the authorities would support farmers by subsidizing seeds and irrigation equipment, and help with loans for wells and equipment, but no details were available.
 
Displaced
 
According to a 13 October 2009 report by the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), more than 100,000 people have been displaced by the drought since 2005.
 
Man-made subterranean aqueducts (known as karez) have traditionally provided a reliable supply of water, but many had dried up.
 
The report said nearly 40 percent of the 683 karez in five northern provinces (Dohouk, Arbil, Sulaimaniyah, Kirkuk and Mosul) were abandoned in 2005, and the 116 still in use this summer had diminished flows, putting an additional estimated 36,000 people at risk of displacement.
 
“Generations of families, shared history, and connection to a place will be lost when the village dies. The displacement of people will then lead to additional social and economic problems,” Dale Lightfoot of the department of geography at Oklahoma University said in the 56-page report.
 
“Families have made the painful decision to sell their livestock and leave their village for another location where water is not so scarce,” the report said, adding: “Population declines have averaged almost 70 percent among the villages adversely affected since drought and excessive pumping began drying up so many karez.”
 
The karez technology was developed in ancient Persia and comprises a linear series of wells that are linked underground by a downward sloping tunnel which collects the accumulated well water and delivers it to surface canals at the foot of hills.
 
Mohammed Jawhar Harees, a 56-year-old farmer from Sulaimaniyah Province, told IRIN the drought had forced him to abandon his land in early 2006. The father-of-eight said he had moved to the city and worked as a cleaner in a secondary school, then as a guard in a residential building and was now working as a gardener.
 
"We are… very hopeful that we can eventually go back to the land where our ancestors lived," he said.
 
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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=86835HANOI Friday, October 30, 2009 (IRIN) - While residents in Vietnam’s low-lying coastal provinces were riding out Typhoon Ketsana, few knew that upriver the storm had unleashed a new hazard.HANOI Friday, October 30, 2009 (IRIN) - While residents in Vietnam’s low-lying coastal provinces were riding out Typhoon Ketsana, few knew that upriver the storm had unleashed a new hazard.

Thousands of logs, many apparently illegally harvested, were racing down the swollen rivers and at least 100 houses along the riverbanks were destroyed before the timber came to rest, jammed under bridges and piers.
 
Vietnamese forestry officials said the wood was likely taken from the country’s rapidly shrinking old-growth forests in the Central Highland provinces.
 
“We identified some logs that travelled 100km from Phuoc [a district in Quang Nam Province],” said Le Nho Nam, director of the Phuoc Forestry Protection Unit, one of the last old-growth or mature nature forests in the country and home to several endangered animal species.
 
Since old-growth trees in the park are protected, Nam said it was likely some were illegally harvested.

“We face difficulties in protecting our forests as we don’t have enough manpower or adequate equipment,” said Pham Thanh Lam, director of the Forestry Protection Unit in Quang Nam Province.
 
He blames deforestation – whether it is from illegal logging or to make way for hydroelectric plants – for the sustained flooding that followed Typhoon Ketsana.
 
In August, the forestry department issued a report citing 4,841 cases of illegal deforestation in the first half of 2009. There were hundreds of attacks on forestry officials in the same period, including loggers who tried to run down rangers with their vehicles.

Vietnam’s wood-processing industry, which supplies hardwood tables and chairs to the world, is now one of its largest exports, earning US$2.8 billion last year.
   
Landslide risk
 
“Forests help to prevent floods as we are in a high sloping terrain,” said Lam. “Reduced forest coverage makes flooding worse.”
 
In the past two decades, 78 percent of Vietnam’s old-growth forests have vanished, leaving it with only 85,000ha of old-growth forest.
 
According to the Asian Disaster Reduction Centre (ADRC) [see: http://www.adrc.asia/] in Bangkok, such changes have serious consequences.
 
“Deforestation increases the risk of landslides,” Susith Arambepola, director of the centre’s urban disaster risk management programme, told IRIN. “When there is less tree cover, the run-off is higher and the soil becomes weaker,” he said.
 
Concerned about the rapid loss of its forests, the government has embarked on an ambitious planting programme to increase forest cover to 43 percent of the country from a low of 28 percent, says Dao Xuan Lai, who heads the UN Development Programme’s Sustainable Development office in Hanoi.
 
The quality of the forests is poor and biodiversity is low, said Lai, so they cannot protect the soil from erosion or retain large amounts of water in heavy rain.
 
Last month, Typhoon Ketsana killed at least 164 people in Vietnam, after making landfall in central Quang Nam province on 29 September.
 
The highest number of deaths, however, was not in Quang Nam on the coast but in the mountainous province of Kon Tum after rains triggered flash floods and landslides.
 
Several villages were completely buried in mud.
 
Vietnam is plagued by natural disasters, and has been named as one of 10 countries in the world most prone to disasters caused by climate change.
 
According to the UNDP, typhoons, floods and droughts mean that one million people need emergency aid every year.
 
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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=86806NAIROBI Thursday, October 29, 2009 (IRIN) - Flash floods caused by four days of torrential rains have displaced more than 15,000 people in the southwestern town of El-Waq near the Kenyan border and submerged most homes and businesses, say localsNAIROBI Thursday, October 29, 2009 (IRIN) - Flash floods caused by four days of torrential rains have displaced more than 15,000 people in the southwestern town of El-Waq near the Kenyan border and submerged most homes and businesses, say locals.

"Most of the town is under water, with people moving to higher ground around the town," Alaso Gurhan, a resident of El-Waq, in Gedo region of southwestern Somalia, told IRIN on 28 October.

The local administration and civil society groups have been able to move many people to safer ground, she said.

She said mothers with small children and the elderly were being given priority in the provision of shelter material. "We are all in the open now with very little help. We don’t have much so we have to give first to the weakest."

A lot of livestock have reportedly died due to the ongoing rains. "Hundreds of goats and sheep weakened by the drought have succumbed to the rains and the cold weather," said Ali Hassan, a civil society activist.

He said El-Waq, like the rest of Somalia, was waiting for the rain but it was "too much in too short a time. If the rain continues the way it has for the last four days we will be in serious trouble."

He said most of the residents, about 18,000 with some 900 displaced families (5,400 people) from Mogadishu, had been affected. "We are no better than the displaced today," he added. He said the population was concentrating on the hills around the town. "Any higher ground in the area is now occupied."

Hassan Hussein, an engineer with Development Frontier International, an NGO, told IRIN they were now trying to dig trenches to allow the water to drain from the town.

He said there was still a danger of more flooding since the rains were ongoing. He said his group was organizing the population to alert them to any more danger. "We are using the loud-speakers in mosques to tell people to help the weak and to get to higher ground."

People who are still in low-lying areas were also being told to move to higher ground, he said.

He said shelter material was urgently needed. "There are many people who are too weak to stay in the open or in the flimsy shelters we have. We need help in the provision of tents and other shelter material if we are to avert a serious health situation."

There are fears that with the rains mosquitoes and waterborne diseases will not be far behind, he warned.

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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=86791JOHANNESBURG Thursday, October 29, 2009 (IRIN) - An African international agreement has opened the door to a debate on the rights and protection of people displaced by natural disasters, with a nod to migration as a result of climate change. JOHANNESBURG Thursday, October 29, 2009 (IRIN) - An African international agreement has opened the door to a debate on the rights and protection of people displaced by natural disasters, with a nod to migration as a result of climate change.

The Kampala Convention, a ground-breaking treaty adopted by the African Union (AU), promises to protect and assist millions of Africans displaced within their own countries. Significantly, the treaty recognized natural disasters as well as conflict and generalized violence as key factors in uprooting people.

Jean Ping, chairperson of the Commission of the African Union, told IRIN that "more and more people are likely to be displaced" as Africa experiences more frequent droughts and floods brought about by climate change.

He said the inclusion of displacement by natural disasters was informed by the global debate on the need to develop a framework for the rights of "climate refugees" - people uprooted from their homes and crossing international borders - because the changing climate threatened their survival.

The treaty also calls on governments to set up laws and find solutions to prevent displacement caused by natural disasters, with compensation for those who were displaced. Migration expert Etienne Piguet said with the Kampala Convention the AU had "once again" tried to push the envelope.

In 1969 the Convention Governing the Specific Aspects of Refugee Problems in Africa, adopted by the then Organization of African Unity, had gone a step further than the 1951 UN Refugee Convention by using a definition of "refugee" that included not only people fleeing persecution but also those fleeing war or events seriously disturbing public order.

Piguet described the reference to people displaced by natural disasters as an "interesting attempt" to find "adequate answers to the new concern about migration linked to environmental degradation".

In 2008 climate-related natural disasters like droughts, hurricanes and floods forced 20 million people out of their homes, while 4.6 million people were internally displaced by conflicts, according to a recent joint study by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) and the Geneva-based Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre.

The Representative of the UN Secretary-General (RSG) on the Human Rights of the Internally Displaced Persons in a submission to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change noted that people uprooted from their homes by natural disasters enjoyed protection under the existing human rights law and the guiding principles on internal displacement.

However, the Kampala Convention also calls on governments to "prevent or mitigate, prohibit and eliminate root causes" of displacement, and find "durable solutions" to them.

Moussa Idriss Ndele, President of the Pan-African Parliament, the legislative body of the AU, said the debate in Kampala on the rights of people displaced by natural disasters did not "quite evolve properly - we did not address the issue of climate change" because most people still believed conflict was the biggest trigger of displacement.

Can of worms

However, it was unclear which events could be linked to climate change. "More and more people are being displaced by floods, which are becoming more and more frequent and intense," said Rachel Shebesh, chair of the African Parliamentarian Initiative for Climate Risk Reduction.

The RSG said there was a need to clarify or even develop a legal framework to help people who moved inside or outside the country because environmental degradation and slow-onset disasters - like desertification, salination of soil and groundwater - made areas uninhabitable, and if displaced persons could not return to their homes they should be considered forcibly displaced.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has projected more frequent and intense floods and droughts in Africa during the next few decades, and the debate is not only set to continue, but to intensify.

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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=86805SOUTH MOUNT HEBRON/TEL AVIV Tuesday, October 27, 2009 (IRIN) - It's a hot September day in the desert hills of South Mount Hebron in the West Bank, an hour’s drive south of Jerusalem. A small convoy of four water tankers makes its way along an unpaved road to deliver water - purchased by a group of Israeli and Palestinian NGOs - to Bedouin Palestinians living in small communities in the hills.SOUTH MOUNT HEBRON/TEL AVIV Tuesday, October 27, 2009 (IRIN) - It's a hot September day in the desert hills of South Mount Hebron in the West Bank, an hour’s drive south of Jerusalem. A small convoy of four water tankers makes its way along an unpaved road to deliver water - purchased by a group of Israeli and Palestinian NGOs - to Bedouin Palestinians living in small communities in the hills.

Severe drought has left traditional water holes dry or depleted, and the absence of any water infrastructure means the local Bedouin/Palestinian villagers consume extremely small quantities of water - some 15 litres per person per day, according to activists, Bedouins and provisional Israeli government data, compared to 240-280 litres per person per day in Israel, according to the Israeli water authority in 2008.

Water from local Palestinian suppliers in the nearby Palestinian towns of Yata and Hebron can cost 50 NIS (US$13) per cubic metre. A herd of 100 sheep drinks up to 1.5 cubic metres a day, forcing villagers to pay thousands of NIS in the dry months to keep them alive. Sheep and goats are the life-blood of the Bedouin community.

Regular showers, laundry washing and running water in toilets are non-existent, local Bedouin told IRIN.

Yaacov Manor, a volunteer accompanying the water convoy on 26 September, told IRIN: "The villagers collect rainwater, but it is only enough for a short period of time. In recent years there has not been sufficient rain and they have been forced to buy water from local water vendors. By contrast, the [Israeli] Carmel settlement, which is in the area, receives water regularly, and even has gardens.”

The Israeli Civil Administration said in response: "In general, the Palestinian water authority is responsible for supplying water to Palestinian residents. Nonetheless, the Civil Administration has opened a water filling spot in the Carmel area, where water has been transferred from the [Carmel] community for Palestinian use for many months now."

Other Palestinians not faring much better

While the water situation for this particular Bedouin community is extremely tough, Palestinians elsewhere in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT) do not fare much better.

According to a 27 October 2009 report [http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/asset/MDE15/027/2009/en/e9892ce4-7fba-469b-96b9-c1e1084c620c/mde150272009en.pdf] by Amnesty International (AI), Israelis consume more than four times as much water per capita as Palestinians.

AI accused Israel of depriving Palestinians of access to adequate water, saying that by maintaining total control over the shared water resources and pursuing discriminatory policies Israel is violating the rights of the Palestinian population to water.

“Israel allows the Palestinians access to only a fraction of the shared water resources which lie mostly in the occupied West Bank, while unlawful Israeli settlements receive virtually unlimited supplies,” Donatella Rovera, AI’s researcher on Israel and OPT, told IRIN.

While Palestinian daily water consumption barely reaches 70 litres a day per person, Israeli daily consumption is more than 300 litres per day - more than four times as much, according to AI. In some rural communities Palestinians survive on barely 20 litres per day, the minimum amount recommended for domestic use in emergency situations. Some 180,000-200,000 Palestinians living in rural communities have no access to running water and the Israeli army often prevents them from even collecting rainwater, AI said.

The Israel Water authority said the report “distorts the truth” and that Israel “holds up its end of the Oslo agreement regarding water sharing”.

Uzi Landau, Israel's minister of national infrastructure, called the report “a lie” and said it reflected Palestinian propaganda. “Despite Israel's severe water crisis, Israel transfers large quantities of water, greater than it is obliged to according to the [Oslo] agreement.”

The Palestinian water authority was not available for comment.

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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=86765MIDRAND Tuesday, October 27, 2009 (IRIN) - Disaster risk reduction as a tool for climate change adaptation is a "technical mouthful" said Rachel Shebesh, chair of the African Parliamentarian Initiative for Climate Risk Reduction. MIDRAND Tuesday, October 27, 2009 (IRIN) - Disaster risk reduction as a tool for climate change adaptation is a "technical mouthful" said Rachel Shebesh, chair of the African Parliamentarian Initiative for Climate Risk Reduction.

Members of the Pan-African Parliament thought so too. The legislative body of the African Union met in Midrand, halfway between Johannesburg and Pretoria in South Africa, for a parliamentary debate on climate change in Africa.

Shebesh, the new champion of disaster risk reduction (DRR) in Africa for the UN International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (UN-ISDR) has been given the job of making the subject accessible.

Why?

The UN Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Disaster Risk Reduction, Margareta Wahlström, said DRR was "the first line of defence" against climate risks. Many countries did not have a plan that covered what to do to adapt to the impact of climate change, but drawing up a disaster risk reduction plan was a starting point.

DRR deals with the short-term changes in climate variables, such as temperature; adaptation to climate change is about long-term changes to climate. It is now widely acknowledged that reducing vulnerability to climatic variables could improve resilience to the increased hazards associated with climate change.

What does it mean?

Wahlström acknowledged that trying to explain to countries what this meant, and how to take DRR into account, could sometimes be problematic. Essentially, it is about "disaster-proofing" any plan or programme.

"You take into account the current and future disaster risks. If you are building a bridge in an area, you study the soil, ask the people who live in the area about what they know about the conditions in the area: do they build in the area? What precautions do they take? The easiest thing to do is draw up a check list."

Wahlström said she had come across several cities and towns in developing countries who had already been doing this, and "we are now busy putting all this information together for our next report."

She also said she would not be surprised if "disaster-proofing" became a pre-requisite for sourcing money for any climate change adaptation project, "but I would rather countries took up the initiative on their own." India, she said has made it mandatory for projects costing a certain amount to be disaster-proof so as to qualify for funds.

jk/he http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=86774BUJUMBURA Friday, October 23, 2009 (IRIN) - Heavy rains have destroyed 214 homes, leaving about 1,070 people without shelter in Gihanga commune, western Bubanza province.BUJUMBURA Friday, October 23, 2009 (IRIN) - Heavy rains have destroyed 214 homes, leaving about 1,070 people without shelter in Gihanga commune, western Bubanza province.

Crops were also destroyed. “The worst hit is Village 5 where 104 houses were destroyed and crops of cassava, beans and maize were completely damaged,” Gordien Kanjori, administrator of Gihanga commune, told IRIN.

Zacharie Nzoyisaba from Village 5 told IRIN: “I am living in difficult conditions; my roof of iron sheets has collapsed. Our stores of food are like mud because of the harsh rains; our future is dark as more rains are to come. The government should rush to rescue us before we die.”

Spéciose Habonimana, a widow, whose small house was destroyed in the April rains, was in despair. “I had sought shelter at my son’s but his house was destroyed during this week’s rains; its walls are completely destroyed. I am very old and cannot farm. Even my children who are feeding me are in difficulty; I do not know what I shall do.”

Most of the people affected have sought shelter in public buildings and with households not destroyed by the rains. “In Village 5, affected families have sought shelter in nearby churches and schools; others are sheltered by their neighbours who were lucky not to have their houses destroyed by the rains,” Kanjori said.

The villagers have not yet received any assistance since the rains hit Gihanga on 20 October.

A delegation of Ministry of National Solidarity officials, led by the director of the repatriation department, Chantal Hatungimana, is in Gihanga to assess the needs of the destitute families. She pledged to mobilize senior officials of the ministry so that relief can reach the affected urgently.

According to Kanjori, iron sheeting was the biggest need. “We call on the ministry to bring iron sheets. The ones that were on the houses were so damaged they cannot be re-used. Residents would find it hard to buy the iron sheets themselves as they are expensive,” he said, adding that houses with thatch roofing also needed iron sheeting, as the grass for thatching had been burned.

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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=86720DAKAR Thursday, October 22, 2009 (IRIN) - Irregular and below-average rains in parts of northeastern Nigeria and eastern Niger have shortened the growing season for many farmers, sparking malnutrition and food insecurity concerns among aid groups and analysts.DAKAR Thursday, October 22, 2009 (IRIN) - Irregular and below-average rains in parts of northeastern Nigeria and eastern Niger have shortened the growing season for many farmers, sparking malnutrition and food insecurity concerns among aid groups and analysts.

In parts of the eastern Sahel, encompassing western Chad, northern Nigeria and southern Niger, the rains came late - in early July - picked up in August, and slowed down in September. Overall they were below-normal when compared to a 1998-2004 average, according to Nick Novella, Africa forecaster at the US climate prediction centre NOAA.

“Rainfall needs to be both sufficient and well-timed in the Sahel to enable some crops the four months they require to mature,” World Food Programme’s West Africa assessment officer, Jean-Martin Bauer, told IRIN.

Poor rainfall and early sowing failures were experienced in Tillabéri, Maradi, Zinder and Diffa in Niger, and pockets of 11 northern Nigerian states, according to regional weather forecasters and government sources.

But WFP’s Bauer told IRIN: “It is too early to tell the magnitude of the situation.” WFP, the US Agency for International Development’s Famine Early Warning System (FEWS NET), agriculture ministries and NGO representatives are assessing the crop and pasture situations in Chad, Burkina Faso, Nigeria and Niger this week and next, said Bauer.

Malnutrition concern

With already high rates of chronic malnutrition and child mortality in both countries, “any production deficits - even minor ones - can impact an already very fragile nutritional situation,” said FEWS NET programme manager John Scicchitano, basing his analysis on FEWS NET reports.

Diffa has Niger’s highest rate of acute malnutrition at 17 percent, according to the most recent government assessment; while UNICEF estimates 38 percent of under-fives in Nigeria suffer from chronic malnutrition.

'Never again' Niger 2005
Crisis continues
Teetering on famine
Famine looms
Marching against locusts, drought
Wild leaves supplant missing food

Scicchitano added that malaria, which continues to be a danger at the end of the rainy season, puts children at greater risk of malnutrition, according to the World Health Organization.

Nutrition problems could start to emerge this year as a result.

Harvest

While harvests in Nigeria and Niger could be normal in some places, there are indications that some farmers will harvest nothing, Scicchitano reported.

Some zones in Niger’s far-east Diffa Region had no rainfall for 60 or more days, killing off rain-fed crops, said Mainema Mallam Mamadou of the local NGO Food Security and Local Economic Development (SADEL).

In Zinder, southern Niger, Secretary-General of the Federation of Agriculture Input Vendors Karimo Hamni told IRIN: “Preliminary harvest figures do not give us much hope… Our cash crops of beans and peanuts did poorly, which hits more than our stomachs. We are looking at cutting household expenses.”

He estimated almost 60 percent of the 57 villages his federation services, which include 4,300 growers, face a crop deficit this year.

Ibrahim Nomau, a farmer from Dundubus village in Nigeria’s Jigawa State, told IRIN: “This year’s harvest has been good for early planters and for farmers who used improved seed varieties with shorter maturity periods… but farmers who used low-yield traditional seeds with longer maturity periods are in for a loss.”

Sorghum and rice are of particular concern in the region, he added.

Pastoralists

Preliminary findings indicate agro-pastoral zones in Niger and northern Nigeria have been particularly hard hit by the insufficient rains, with pasture for livestock expected to be diminished, according to FEWS NET.

This could have a serious impact on pastoralists who have already seen their grazing land reduced over recent years, and their purchasing power eroded by persistently high staple food prices, the organization said. Pastoralists in Niger noted livestock weight loss and low milk production in the early part of the rainy season.

Markets

Food shortages are not simply a matter of rainfall, noted the Center for Global Development (CGD) in its “How Can We Avoid Another Food Crisis in Niger?” September 2008 report. “While droughts are often associated with production shocks in Niger, the relationship between drought and food crises is not well-understood… Local grain markets are highly responsive to national and sub-regional production and price shocks.”

It is too early to tell how a below-average harvest would affect Nigeria and Niger’s food markets, according to analysts. A FEWS NET October 2009 report LINK predicted the harvest in the eastern Sahel could lead to a decline in prices of some crops, but prices are still expected to stay at above-average levels into 2010.

Prices of millet, sorghum, beans and rice in Niger had fallen by 6 percent between mid-September and early October, according to the government.

The depreciation of Nigeria’s naira currency has made it unattractive for Niger’s producers to sell, which could curtail the high grain sales from Niger to Nigeria that deepened the 2005 crisis, said one analyst.

Recurrent drought and West Africa’s most devastating locust invasion in 15 years left millions in Niger at risk of hunger in 2005. (See read more box)

Food prices remained high throughout 2008 and the first half of 2009 as food and livestock producers, traders and governments strived to replenish stocks of cereals, cowpeas and oilseed that a poor 2007 harvest had depleted, said the October 2009 FEWS NET report.

In 2008 Niger reported a 38 percent increase in cereal production over 2007 but despite this, one million people faced food shortages going into the 2009 harvest period - more than 200,000 of them facing severe insecurity - based on a March 2009 government plan.

National cereal reserves were low as of early October, at just 2 percent of target levels in Nigeria - down by 18 percent since March - and 44 percent in Niger, according to FEWS NET.

Preparation

Some interventions have helped. The Niger government sold sorghum and cereals at below-market prices in the west of Niger in Tillabéri and Tera , during the rainy season, benefiting buyers, said FEWS NET.

In Niger on 15 October, the government convened food security agencies to “harmonize harvest figures”, pledging to take “appropriate” measures following the analysis.

Nigeria’s Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) has warned 11 northern states to start contingency stockpiling and planning responses with partners, NEMA head Mohammed Audu-bida told IRIN.

In addition to boosting public grain stocks and preparing for food insecurity, responding to perennially high levels of malnutrition should be an equally high priority for policy-makers, said Scicchitano.

aj/pt/aa/bb/cbhttp://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=86689NAIROBI Thursday, October 22, 2009 (IRIN) - Authorities in the self-declared autonomous region of Puntland, northeastern Somalia, are compiling data on foreign helicopters said to be poaching and stealing wildlife from the area while at the same time scaring off the farm animals.NAIROBI Thursday, October 22, 2009 (IRIN) - Authorities in the self-declared autonomous region of Puntland, northeastern Somalia, are compiling data on foreign helicopters said to be poaching and stealing wildlife from the area while at the same time scaring off the farm animals.

"We have been getting reports in the past few months of unidentified helicopters swooping in from the sea and attacking and taking wildlife," Abdiqani Yusuf Ade, Puntland's Environment Minister, told IRIN.

He said the authorities did not have a clear picture of “who was involved or from what countries”.

Ade said Puntland was calling on countries whose forces were stationed off the Somali coast as part of the anti-piracy efforts to stop the poaching if they were involved.

He said the authorities had asked residents in the coastal villages to take photographs of the helicopters. "We are trying to get visual evidence to show the world. If the information we are getting is correct, what is happening is illegal," he said. "These forces are here to fight piracy; they should not be poaching our natural resources."

Noise pollution

Abdiaziz Aw Yusuf, the district commissioner of Jariban, near the area where the helicopters are alleged to be poaching, told IRIN it had been going on for some time. "They usually operate in an area between the coastal villages of Eil Danan and Dhinowda Digdigle."

He said the helicopters scattered the wildlife and once they had landed, two or three men captured the animals. He said the most common game in the area was gazelle and ostrich.

Yusuf said the noise of the helicopters was affecting the local population and their livestock. Many were lost after being frightened by the planes and stampeding. He said some had been eaten by predators.

"We have forwarded our complaints and what information we have collected to the Puntland government," Yusuf said.

Easy access

Ahmed Aden, an elder in Garad town, 5km south of the area, told IRIN the helicopters came from ships that could be seen from the land.

Aden said because the area was flat and grassy, it was easy for the helicopters to land. He said the dust raised disoriented the animals, allowing the men on board to capture them.

"It has become normal to see them on a daily basis," Aden said. "They [foreign forces] claim to be guarding against pirates but who is guarding us and our resources against them?"

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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=86690SAN DOMINGOS Thursday, October 22, 2009 (IRIN) - Aid agencies are encouraging communities to diversify their agricultural production in Guinea-Bissau, where 90 percent of farmers grow rice or cashews to survive, making them vulnerable to erratic rainfall and price fluctuations.SAN DOMINGOS Thursday, October 22, 2009 (IRIN) - Aid agencies are encouraging communities to diversify their agricultural production in Guinea-Bissau, where 90 percent of farmers grow rice or cashews to survive, making them vulnerable to erratic rainfall and price fluctuations.

“The rains sometimes come very early, sometimes stop very early, so there’s a problem with rice,” said the Food and Agriculture Organization’s (FAO) programme manager in Guinea-Bissau Rui Fonseca. “And price fluctuations make cashews uncertain…We are telling producers you can continue with rice and cashews but you can plant other things too.”

Farmers can attract more consistent prices with other crops, said Fonseca. Tomatoes and carrots currently sell at US$2.30 per kilogram in the capital Bissau.

FAO and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) run programmes aimed to help farmers cope with shocks and boost their cash-crop income while promoting nutritional diversity.

Average income in Guinea-Bissau is $1.30 per day, according to the UN.

FAO, prompted by the food price crisis, has been encouraging farmers in Oio and Bafata regions to grow millet, taro, peanuts and green beans since mid-2008.

Raw cashews which currently sell for 28 US cents per kilogram, down from 60 cents earlier in the season, do not yield enough income for farmers to live on, said Safietou Sanya, president of an ICRC-supported market gardeners association in Three Kilometres village, 3km from the northern city of San Domingos in Cacheu region.

ICRC works with village associations in the region, planting gardens, building wells, training people in gardening techniques and distributing seeds, said ICRC’s Guinea-Bissau programme manager Alfa Diallo. In Three Kilometres rows of lemon, avocado and mango saplings are lined up for sale at $3.40 a plant.

“This year I was able to save enough money through [the garden] to send my children to school,” said association president Sanya. She and fellow members planted and sold onions, peppers, cabbage, okra and tomatoes this year, she told IRIN.

Die-hard habits

But despite the potential benefits of moving beyond cashews, aid groups encounter reluctance among some farmers to change the crops they grow – or eat, ICRC’s economic security adviser Ilda Pina told IRIN. “All they have known is rice and cashews….To change people’s habits is very difficult; we have to move very slowly.”

Some ethnic groups in Guinea-Bissau do not eat tomatoes or green beans, she said. “It is not in their tradition.”

The government estimates that 20 to 30 percent of inhabitants in the north are moderately malnourished, though many northern communities supplement their staples with nutrient-rich wild foods such as palm oil, baobab fruit, cashew fruit and tamarind, according to Pina.

Aid agencies encourage farmers to eat the vegetables they cannot sell.

Even with diversification a number of challenges remain for farmers in the region. Three Kilometres is near San Domingos, but approximately half of the vegetables produced by farmers in villages further north go to waste because members cannot reach nearby markets, said Sanya. The route connecting villages north of San Domingos is a dirt track that is impassable for much of the six-month rainy season.

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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=86697DHAKA Wednesday, October 21, 2009 (IRIN) - Fishermen and experts agree: climate change is taking its toll in the world’s largest bay, with more sudden changes in atmospheric pressure and storms. DHAKA Wednesday, October 21, 2009 (IRIN) - Fishermen and experts agree: climate change is taking its toll in the world’s largest bay, with more sudden changes in atmospheric pressure and storms.
 
“Global climate change is responsible for the increasing number of tropical storms in the Bay of Bengal,” A.Q.M. Mahbub, head of Dhaka University’s Disaster Research Training and Management Centre, told IRIN.
 
“Global warming is raising the temperature of the tropical ocean regions, resulting in more atmospheric disturbances,” he said, estimating that by 2030 the bay’s temperature may rise by 1.3 centigrade.
 
From 1991 to 2000, 20 depressions originated in the bay, including 12 cyclones, the Bangladesh Meteorological Department (BMD) [see: http://www.bmd.gov.bd] reported.
 
However, between 2001 and 2009, there were 39 depressions, six of which intensified into cyclones.
 
Mohammad Rasheduzzaman, a meteorologist with the BMD, said 2009 had already proven a particularly turbulent year: Of nine depressions to date, two - ‘Bijla’ and ‘Aila’ - had become fully-fledged cyclones, he said.
 
Impact on livelihoods
 
For those whose livelihoods depend on their ability to fish these waters, the impact is direct.
 
If a trawler owner has to abandon a fishing trip due to bad weather, the fishermen return empty-handed as they get a share of the catch in lieu of wages. If a fisherman is lost at sea, his family faces dire consequences: Employers do not provide financial safety nets.
 
As weather conditions become more changeable, many are increasingly prevented from fishing in the bay.
 
“Over the past year, the sea has grown more and more turbulent. Atmospheric pressure changes are frequent. In August, we only had five days for fishing, and in September only six,” said Mujibur Rahman, convener of the Cox’s Bazaar fishing boat owners committee, confirmed.
 
Along the country's southeastern coast in Cox’s Bazaar District, the livelihoods of more than 100,000 fishermen are under threat, local sources say.
 
“In the last nine months, I had only about 30 days of fishing. Once the warning signals are up, it’s not safe to go back to sea for almost a week. Never before have I known the sea to be so merciless,” Abdul Jalil, a veteran fisherman of 35 years in the coastal town of Cox’s Bazaar, explained.
 
Trawlers are prepared for week-long fishing trips, with related costs often exceeding US$1,400 a trip. If a trawler has to return home suddenly due to bad weather that investment is lost.
 
Most owners say they are losing money, and many have sold their trawlers, with many fishermen leaving the profession altogether, becoming day labourers and rickshaw-pullers instead.
 
Meanwhile, those who venture out in bad weather do so at their own peril.
 
“It’s not only the money; deep-sea fishing is fast becoming a very hazardous profession. In the last month alone we lost seven fishermen in 12 shipwrecks,” Rahman said.
 
“The number of fishing trawlers and fishermen lost to the sea is increasing every day. If this continues, very soon fishing may come to a complete standstill in the Bay of Bengal,” he warned.
 
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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=86666NAIROBI Monday, October 19, 2009 (IRIN) - As countries across East Africa and the Horn of Africa begin to receive El Niño-related enhanced rainfall, disaster risk reduction experts from 10 countries in the region are meeting in Nairobi to develop strategies for reducing the negative impact of the evolving El Niño phenomenon.NAIROBI Monday, October 19, 2009 (IRIN) - As countries across East Africa and the Horn of Africa begin to receive El Niño-related enhanced rainfall, disaster risk reduction experts from 10 countries in the region are meeting in Nairobi to develop strategies for reducing the negative impact of the evolving El Niño phenomenon.

"Africa, and in particular the Horn of Africa, suffers more and more the impact of climate-induced hazards," Pedro Basabe, the Africa programme representative of the UN International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (UNISDR), said on 19 October at the beginning of the three-day conference, organized by the InterGovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) and World Bank. "Drought and floods affect directly or indirectly millions of people each year, in particular the poor who are the most vulnerable."

According to the IGAD Climate Prediction and Applications Centre (ICPAC), which produces monthly and seasonal climate outlooks, the Greater Horn of Africa is prone to extreme climate events such as drought and floods, which often have severe negative effects on the region’s key socio-economic sectors.

Experts from Burundi, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda, Sudan and Somalia are attending the conference, of which the second and third day will be held in the western town of Kisumu, with participants making field trips to nearby flood-prone areas.

In a keynote speech, Moses Gitari, a senior deputy secretary in the Kenyan Ministry of State for Special Programmes, said memories of the negative impacts of the 1997-1998 El Niño and awareness efforts by climate experts had helped the country develop several disaster preparedness strategies.

"These include education, awareness and information sharing, risks and vulnerability analysis, people-centred early warning, adaptation to climate change, environmental protection, vulnerability reduction through development and social programmes and community coping mechanisms," Gitari said.

He added that community level intervention was pivotal to any disaster risk reduction strategy.

Gitari said the meeting was timely since some of the intervention efforts could require support beyond individual countries' borders.

Abbas Gullet, secretary-general of the Kenya Red Cross Society, said the government, UN agencies and NGOs had, in September, developed a National Contingency Plan for El Niño, "which is being [put into operation] currently".

"We have pre-positioned relief items, human and material resources countrywide in all the eight regions we work in and have conducted drills in some of the regions with a view to putting preparedness capacity on alert status," Gullet said. "It is our hope that this workshop will provide opportunities to explore the various ways and means of entrenching disaster risk reduction in communities we work with and provide a way forward for building safer and resilient communities countrywide."

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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=86642COLOMBO Friday, October 16, 2009 (IRIN) - The seas off Batticaloa in the country's former war-torn east are home to one of the most fertile spawning grounds off Sri Lanka, and fishermen rarely had to travel far for a good catch.COLOMBO Friday, October 16, 2009 (IRIN) - The seas off Batticaloa in the country's former war-torn east are home to one of the most fertile spawning grounds off Sri Lanka, and fishermen rarely had to travel far for a good catch.

But of late, traditional fishermen who use boats powered by outboard motors or canoes to fish have complained of meagre harvests.

"I went out on five consecutive days, and only yesterday did I return with some fish, but only 6kg," said Tamil Chelvam, who operates a boat from Tirivendu beach, just south of Batticaloa.

Locals blame a recent influx of large fishing trawlers into their waters for their dwindling catches. Before the encroachment, a good catch would earn fishermen up to US$174, and a normal catch, about $85.

But now, after paying helpers and offsetting other expenses, including fuel, the small catches do not leave them with much, they say.

"They have big boats, big nets and they stay out at sea for days," S. Paskaran, who has been a fisherman for more than two decades, told IRIN. "The problem for us is that they catch in shallow waters and deep sea, but we can only go a certain distance."

Post-war opportunities

Sri Lanka's eastern waters were not exploited until 2008, despite being rich fishing grounds.

The country's bloody civil war was based on demands by the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) for an independent state in the north and east. During the war, the LTTE established its base in the northeast, making the waters off that part of the island out of bounds.

The 26-year conflict ended in May 2009, when government forces defeated the LTTE. However, the rebels were forced out of the east much earlier, in mid-2007, and the waters gradually opened for fishing.

Larger boats have been arriving in increasing numbers since the end of the war, say locals.

The boats come from major southern fishing ports, including Negombo, and also from Kalmunai, an important fishing hub about 40 km south of Batticaloa.

Development boon

With Sri Lanka's economy expected to grow by as much as 6 percent next year, officials say they hope to see more development in Batticaloa, and Valaichchenai, a fisheries harbour about 30km north of the town.

"More development like ice factories and harbour facilities means larger boats will come in as time goes on," Domingo George, the assistant district director for fishing for the Batticaloa District, told IRIN.

The Fisheries Department issues permits to boats from outside Batticaloa and George said there were 27 such boats operating out of Valaichchenai.

Most now in operation off the harbour were about 9.75m long, George said, adding that larger boats were a boost to the local economy, which had been sapped by years of conflict.

"When the development of the harbour is complete, we will see boats as large as 45ft [13.7m] coming in," he said.

He said larger boats had been barred from shallow water fishing, but most of them employed people from the local community as deck hands and for other work.

Monitoring trawlers

The chief minister of the country’s Eastern Province, Sivanesathurai Chanthrakanthan, said there had been no public complaints so far of over-fishing by multi-day trawlers.

But the problem has the potential to affect hundreds of traditional fishermen living along the coast, and Chanthrakanthan said the government would keep an eye on the situation.

"So far we have not heard any complaints like that. It may be an isolated case or a trend that people have just begun to notice," he told IRIN. "If it turns out to be a persistent issue, we will have to look into it."

While boats outside the region cannot operate without proper authorization, fishermen said there had been reports of large trawlers staying out at sea for months in the area off Batticaloa.

They said government intervention would be needed to safeguard their incomes, as they lacked the finances to acquire newer boats or equipment.

"If we continue to get small hauls like this, we will ask for restrictions on outside fishing," Paskaran said. "We thought the end of the war would be good for us, but we never anticipated this."

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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=86610JAKARTA Friday, October 16, 2009 (IRIN) - Climate change is contributing to more frequent and deadlier natural disasters, and governments need to speed up measures to mitigate their impact, the UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, John Holmes, warns. JAKARTA Friday, October 16, 2009 (IRIN) - Climate change is contributing to more frequent and deadlier natural disasters, and governments need to speed up measures to mitigate their impact, the UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, John Holmes, warns.

Holmes, in Indonesia for a two-day visit after a deadly 30 September earthquake off West Sumatra, warned there would be more intense typhoons, flooding, droughts and forest fires because of climate change.

“Look at the trend. How many [disasters] there are and how bad they are, not only here but also in Central America, and it's perfectly clear what's happening and that's what scientists said would happen,” Holmes, also the UN’s Emergency Relief Coordinator, told IRIN in an interview on 15 October.

“To me, that means there's a link between climate change and more frequent disasters,” he said.

Given this, governments should be better prepared, and take measures to reduce the impact, he said.

“That means people not living in areas that are flood-[prone]; it means making sure buildings are not in areas that are flood-[prone],” said Holmes.

Holmes also said recent disasters in the Asia-Pacific region made negotiations for a new climate change deal - which are faltering - all the more important.

The Asian region has been hit by several disasters in recent weeks, including devastating floods in the Philippines, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam and Nepal, affecting millions.

About 99 percent of those killed by natural disasters were in the Asia Pacific region, said Holmes.

“Obviously it's important to reduce emissions, that's fundamental to stopping climate change in the end. But in the meantime, whatever we do about emissions, the results are already with us for the next 50 years,” he said.

Separately, Holmes urged disaster-prone Asian countries to spend one-tenth of their development funds on efforts to reduce disaster risks.

The international community spent US$12 billion on disaster relief last year. "A 10 percent figure of what you are spending on response or even on development should go into disaster-risk reduction because that is a good investment," he told reporters.

Funding for West Sumatra

Holmes travelled to quake-hit areas in West Sumatra and met the head of the National Disaster Management Agency (BNPB), as well as humanitarian agencies.

He said the UN would release about $7 million from the Central Emergency Response Fund for aid efforts in West Sumatra, including 12 projects focusing on emergency shelter, nutrition, reopening schools and health sector support.

The UN on 9 October launched a $38 million appeal to help the Indonesian government meet the needs of quake survivors.

The BNPB has revised the death toll from the earthquake to 1,117, including those missing and believed buried in landslides.  

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said in its latest situation report on 15 October that 198,200 households needed emergency shelter.

Lack of access to remote areas remains the major obstacle to providing aid to survivors, but the Indonesian Military (TNI) has agreed to deploy 500 soldiers to rebuild roads or create new access routes to affected areas, OCHA said.

Reconstruction delays

Oxfam Indonesia’s humanitarian programme manager, Sébastien Fesneau, said survivors needed tarpaulins, tents and plastic sheeting for shelter - as well as food.

But he said rebuilding houses would prove a greater challenge, because the brick industry in West Sumatra had been paralysed by the quake.

“It will be a problem when we are looking for adequate building materials, and this could possibly delay the reconstruction phase,” Fesneau told IRIN.

Some NGOs were considering building transitional shelters using bamboo or coconut trees pending the availability of building materials, he said.

Fesneau also said many survivors had been forced to sell their belongings to meet their basic needs, resulting in what he called “asset erosion”.

“We will introduce a cash transfer programme targeting the most vulnerable groups to ensure their belongings will not be sold,” he said.

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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=86617GAZA CITY Thursday, October 15, 2009 (IRIN) - Thousands of Gazan farmers may be unable to replant their crops during the region’s main planting season in October due to agricultural land still damaged by the Israeli offensive at the start of the year, and a lack of agricultural materials like seeds and fertilizers, according to officials.GAZA CITY Thursday, October 15, 2009 (IRIN) - Thousands of Gazan farmers may be unable to replant their crops during the region’s main planting season in October due to agricultural land still damaged by the Israeli offensive at the start of the year, and a lack of agricultural materials like seeds and fertilizers, according to officials.

Half of Hatem Khubair’s four hectares of farmland in Beit Lahiya, a city in the northern Gaza Strip, were destroyed during the Israeli offensive earlier this year.

“I can’t afford to rehabilitate my land. The Israeli army bulldozed my crops - onions and carrots - and parked tanks on it, destroying the irrigation system,” said Hatem.

“I lack money and materials,” said Hatem, estimating the damage at US$27,000, not including the production losses he and his family of eight face this season.

Farmers are struggling to restore the 1,700 hectares of agricultural land damaged or destroyed during Israel’s 23-day offensive which ended on 18 January 2009, according to a UN Development Programme (UNDP) report entitled Damage Assessment in Gaza’s Agricultural Sector.

The ruined crops include about 929 hectares of orchards and about 500 hectares of vegetables, said the report.

Destruction of vegetation cover and compacting of soil by strikes and tank movements degraded the land, making it difficult to revegetate and vulnerable to becoming barren desert. About 5,200 farmers in Gaza - out of about 10,000 - were directly affected by the offensive, according to UNDP.

Livelihoods at risk

The entry of essential goods to Gaza via Israeli-controlled crossings, including agricultural materials, remains either restricted to limited quantities or denied, leaving Gazan farmers at risk of being unable to replant their crops this season due to the shortage of seeds, fertilizer, plastic sheeting and nets for greenhouses, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

The livelihoods of an estimated 10,000 farming families - some 65,500 people - may be affected as a result, the report [http://www.ochaopt.org/documents/ocha_opt_the_humanitarian_monitor_2009_august_english.pdf] said.

Roughly two-thirds of Gaza’s 1.5 million people are deemed food insecure, while unemployment hovers over 40 percent, said the UN Food and Agriculture Organization. [http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=83757]

“FAO and other UN agencies are supplying farmers with materials like animal feed and gardening units for crop production,” said FAO official Erminio Sacco in Jerusalem. “The winter cycle of harvesting is the most important to Gaza farm production.”

According to Israeli Defence Ministry spokesperson Shlomo Dror, there is no shortage of agricultural materials in Gaza.

“We restrict the entry of all materials that can be used to manufacture explosives, which does not include seeds and fertilizer,” said Dror. “Kerem Shalom [Gaza’s only commercial crossing] [http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=84312] is only capable of handling 100 trucks per day, limiting the amount of materials that can enter, and first priority is for humanitarian goods.”

UNEP report

A recent report [http://www.unep.org/PDF/dmb/UNEP_Gaza_EA.pdf] by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) on environmental conditions in Gaza following the Israeli offensive, estimated that 17 percent of cultivated land, including orchards and greenhouses, was damaged or destroyed.

The report estimates the costs - in terms of damage to farmers' livelihoods as a result of damage and contamination of agricultural land, alongside reconstruction, including ensuring the land is safe to re-plant - at around US$11 million.

Fragile soils

Gaza farmers are facing the challenge of trying to restore their lost agricultural production in a region surrounded by sand dunes and with fragile soils.

With the support of the Dutch government, local NGO Agricultural Development Association (PARC-Gaza) launched several projects in August to help affected farmers, said Thijs Debeij, second secretary of the Representative Office of the Netherlands to the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah.

“Only 25 percent of the agricultural land damaged or destroyed during the war has been rehabilitated by local NGOs and UN agencies,” said PARC director Ahmed Sourani.

FAO estimated [http://www.apis.ps/documents/AGR%20Sector%20Gaza%20Report_final.pdf] total losses to the Gaza agriculture community as a result of the offensive at US$268 million, including US$180 million in direct damage and US$86 million in projected losses.

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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=86590DAKAR Thursday, October 15, 2009 (IRIN) - Cholera outbreaks in West Africa generally trigger extra hand-washings in households and panic-buying of bleach for treating water. But beating the deadly – but easily preventable – illness requires that such hygiene practices become routine, health experts say.DAKAR Thursday, October 15, 2009 (IRIN) - Cholera outbreaks in West Africa generally trigger extra hand-washings in households and panic-buying of bleach for treating water. But beating the deadly – but easily preventable – illness requires that such hygiene practices become routine, health experts say.

Researchers with the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) say knowing the drivers behind behaviour and tying hygiene messages to those impulses is crucial for preventing cholera, which has become a recurring health emergency in West Africa.

“If we want sustainable change we need to make sure people practice things so they become habits,” Jeroen Ensink of LSHTM’s environmental health group told IRIN.

One way for aid agencies to do so, he said, is to dissociate hygiene messages from cholera – which is seasonal – and link them instead to general diarrhoeal disease.

Ensink also said it might be time to “re-brand” hygiene and health messages, as knowledge of cholera’s causes does not always translate into new habits. “Hand-washing messages need not be just about health; they can be about: if you want to be modern, to smell nice, to be attractive to the opposite sex, use soap.” The use of proper latrines can be linked to privacy instead of just proper hygiene, he added.

LSHTM has studied the impact of government and aid agency prevention and preparedness measures in Guinea and Guinea-Bissau as part of a project funded by the European Commission humanitarian aid department (ECHO).

Coherent

The ECHO project aims to build a more coherent approach to cholera control with sound preparedness and early response. And ECHO says ‘quick impact’ actions in vulnerable communities should be accompanied by longer-term prevention measures.

To date, emergency and development strategies fail to address the disease properly, lacking common objectives and complementary actions, ECHO says.

ECHO is focusing on Guinea and Guinea-Bissau, where cholera has become endemic; during 2007 and 2008 over 23,000 people were infected and 560 died in the two countries.

But all of West Africa is highly vulnerable to cholera and a regional approach is needed; ECHO and its partners will study lessons from Guinea and Guinea-Bissau to see what might be applied more widely.

As part of the ECHO-funded project UN Children’s Fund and NGOs are training local health workers in responding to cholera, boosting communications strategies and developing emergency kits, which include sanitation and water purification materials, to keep outbreaks in check.

“We know that the solution to cholera is an overall improvement in water, sanitation and environmental conditions,” said ECHO water and sanitation expert Francisco Gonzalez. But he said before such significant and permanent changes can be made, proper preparedness and response can save a lot of lives.

But to be effective anti-cholera actions must not be merely reactive, health experts say. LSTHM researchers observed in Guinea-Bissau that while most people could recite verbatim hand-washing and other hygiene messages, they apply them consistently only when cholera strikes. Changing such behaviour takes years, not months, said LSHTM’s Ensink.

The World Health Organization calls cholera a principal indicator of social development. Overcrowding in poor-sanitation urban areas is a main driver of cholera. And the disease hits the poorest of the poor most heavily. With factors like poverty, rapid and unregulated urbanization and poor infrastructure all favouring cholera outbreaks, substantial socio-economic fixes are necessary to eliminate cholera as a cyclical health disaster.

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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=86596BAGHDAD Wednesday, October 14, 2009 (IRIN) - In the late 1990s 22-year-old Manal Sabir Abdullah from Basra was diagnosed with lung cancer, from which she eventually died in 2004.BAGHDAD Wednesday, October 14, 2009 (IRIN) - In the late 1990s 22-year-old Manal Sabir Abdullah from Basra was diagnosed with lung cancer, from which she eventually died in 2004.

"Her cancer was bizarre as none of our relatives had cancer before and she had never had bad health or harmful habits," said her husband, Hassan Najim Ghanim. "None of the doctors could determine how she developed the disease but most believed it was probably caused by contaminated air, soil and water," he said.

Remnants from Iraq's three recent wars - the Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s, the Gulf War in 1991 and the US-led invasion in 2003 - coupled with the absence of adequate government controls on emissions and industrial effluent, have turned Iraq into one of the world's most contaminated countries, say officials.

"There are a number of environmental challenges in Iraq,” Environment Minister Narmin Othman told IRIN. “One of them is water, air and soil contamination caused mainly by emissions from cars and generators in crowded areas, unplanned use of chemical fertilizers, war remnants and bombing with depleted uranium."

She said her ministry had identified military vehicles and tanks contaminated with radioactive materials dating back to the wars of 1991 and 2003, but no action had been taken to get rid of them.

There was a lack of government supervision of the waste being discharged into the country's two main rivers - the Tigris and Euphrates. This included waste from heavy industry, tanning and paint factories, as well as raw sewage and hospital waste, she said.

"The contamination levels are rising significantly in Iraq," she concluded.

Depleted uranium

The US-led coalition forces used depleted uranium (DU) as a “penetrator “ at the core of armour piercing tank rounds in the 1991 and 2003 wars. Amid growing reports of ill-health among veterans, an international campaign has sought a global ban on DU weapons [http://www.cadu.org.uk/] on public health grounds.

The US Department of Defense has denied that depleted uranium is an exposure threat, but does monitor soldiers with embedded DU armour fragments as a result of combat operations. So far, the amounts of DU detected after tests “pose no known” health risk, William Winkenwerder, assistant secretary of defense for health affairs, said in a statement. [http://www.ha.osd.mil/asd/message2.cfm]

But in a landmark ruling in September 2009, [http://www.bandepleteduranium.org/en/a/287.html] a British jury concluded that exposure to depleted uranium in the 1991 Gulf War was the likely cause of the colon cancer that killed British veteran Stuart Dyson in June 2008.

DU is a heavy metal and a by-product of the uranium enrichment process. It can enter the human body by inhalation, eating contaminated food, eating with contaminated hands or by exposing an open wound to contaminated dust or debris, according to Rahim Hani Nasih, a doctor in Mosul.

It can also contaminate soil and water, and coat buildings with radioactive dust. Wind and sandstorms spread the contamination, leading to diseases, including cancer, Nasih said.

In a 2005 publication, the UN Environment Programme identified 311 sites in Iraq contaminated with DU and said cleaning them up would require several years. No figures were available from the Ministry of Health on how many cancer cases might have been related to or caused by contaminated war remnants.

Basra study

Qusai Abdul-Latif Aboud, head of the Enhancing Health Directorate (EHD - affiliated to the Health Ministry) in the southern governorate of Basra, said war remnants in Iraq had become one of the main causes of cancer - along with smoking, emissions of harmful gases, and other kinds of pollution.

An EHD study earlier this year had noted that 340 cases of leukaemia had been registered between 2001 and 2008 in Basra. This compares with 17 cases in 1988 and 93 cases in 1997, Aboud said.

The study focused only on leukaemia, as cases of the disease had risen sharply in Basra.

It also found that the amount of uranium in Basra’s soil had jumped from 60-70 becquerels per kilogram of soil prior to 1991 to 10,000 becquerels per kilogram in 2009. As much as 36,205 becquerels per kilogram have been recorded in areas with abandoned remnants of war.

He said EHD relied on the media and community leaders to spread awareness about self-protection and how to avoid contaminated areas.

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