BBC NEWS
Where clean water is a pipedream
By Richard Black
Environment correspondent, BBC News website
If you want a graphic demonstration of the health impacts of poor drinking water, look no further than Zimbabwe.
Three thousand people dead, at least 60,000 ill - all from a disease that is almost completely preventable.
In general, with very few exceptions, people simply do not get cholera when the water supply works. It is almost unknown in the west for that single, simple reason.
As the World Health Organization (WHO) puts it: “Measures for the prevention of cholera have not changed much in recent decades, and mostly consist of providing clean water and proper sanitation.”
In Zimbabwe, political and economic circumstances have created a situation where the availability of clean water and proper sanitation is no longer routine.
People are now feeling the impacts of that lack of investment - investment that research shows is well worthwhile.
“Research shows that if you invest $1 in clean water and sanitation, the return is between $5 and $28,” says Yves Chartier of WHO’s water, sanitation, hygiene and health unit.
The cholera bacterium is far from being the only infectious microbe lurking in dirty water. Typhoid, cryptosporidium, giardia
the list continues.
“About 10% of the total global burden of disease is down to poor water, sanitation and hygiene,” says Dr Chartier.
It was this kind of statistic that led governments to sign up in the year 2000 to the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) - a set of targets on issues such as maternal health, education and poverty.
The water target is straightforward - to halve the proportion of the world’s population without access to clean water and proper sanitation by 2015.
In the years immediately following the signing of the MDGs, water and sanitation were seen as “poor cousins”, attracting less aid money and interest than some of the other issues.
But on water, at least, that has changed.
“The world as a whole is now on target to meet the water MDG, but a number of countries and regions are still off track,” says Andrew Hudson of the UN Development Programme’s (UNDP) water governance programme.
“Most of the countries that have made impressive progress were poor countries, and that to me is a tremendous message because it shows it’s less about the money and much more about the political will.”
Protect and survive
Statistics are compiled on the basis of “reasonable” access to “improved” supplies of drinking water. This means that within a kilometre or so there should be a source such as a standpipe, a borehole, a protected well or spring - or, of course, it can come straight into your house.
The “protection” element is aimed at making sure that unwanted things including the cholera bacterium do not get into the water source - especially preventing people and animals from defecating in the vicinity.
That is sometimes easier said than done, especially in city slums, where the sheer lack of space often means latrines have to sit next to supply streams - or even, in extreme cases, that the outflow from the latrines becomes the supply stream.
UNDP data shows that in many countries, as the urban population increases, the proportion of that urban population with access to safe water declines; infrastructure investment does not keep up with a growing urban population.
And whereas investment in water has put the world on target for the water element of MDG 7, sanitation is a different matter.
“There’s still a stigma of talking about sanitation,” comments Dr Hudson.
“But countries such as India, that have mounted massive community-led campaigns on things like elimination of open defecation, have made really big strides.”
Underground movement
In eastern India, however, and in neighbouring Bangladesh, another way that poor water causes poor health has come into dramatic relief in recent years.
In the 1980s, tales of illness in Bangladeshi villages began circulating - an illness that was eventually traced to arsenic in the water they were drinking.
With surface water sources likely to harbour disease-causing microbes, aid agencies had initiated a programme of digging wells to provide safer drinking water - not realising that the water would bring with it enough arsenic to constitute a chronic poison.
The problem has now been detected in other countries, and according to one recent estimate, about 140 million people are at risk from drinking water containing the toxic metal, which causes cancers and lung disease.
Compared with water-borne microbes, water-borne pollution has received little attention, according to the Blacksmith Foundation, a charity whose aim is to clean up pollution hotspots in developing countries.
Cleaning up the India/Bangladesh arsenic problem is probably beyond anyone’s capacity right now - although agencies are looking at it - but industrial pollution is a different matter.
In the slums of many developing world cities, you find water of hues that water does not naturally assume - blues, yellows, purples and greens that speak of industrial outflows not very far upstream.
“So we’ve been running pilot projects in India trying to clean up hexavalent chromium, which is produced by the country’s huge tanning industry,” says Blacksmith’s executive director Meredith Block.
(Hexavalent chromium, the pollutant involved in the Erin Brockovich case in the US that was immortalised on celluloid by Julia Roberts, is a known carcinogen.)
“And by injecting a chemical (an “electron donor” into the groundwater we could turn it to the [non-toxic] trivalent form; analysis suggests it’s working, with no side-effects.”
One of these pilot projects, in Kanpur, was on a site that Ms Block says is typical of many developing world cities - an industrial estate, home to perhaps 50 or more small factories, working with or producing a mix of hazardous substances such as heavy metals and pesticides.
The health impact of water pollution globally is unknown.
A 2007 study from Cornell University estimated that 40% of deaths worldwide were associated with some kind of pollution - though how much of this is water-borne is another question.
But, says Ms Block, it is proving hard to interest agencies in polluted water.
“The environmental causes aren’t related to climate change or global warming,” she says. “And it seems that people in the US couldn’t care less if you can’t relate an issue to global warming.”
Diseases such as cholera, by contrast, do have a climate link. The cholera bacterium ( Vibrio cholerae ) appears to survive better in warmer waters, leading to fears that it could emerge in regions such as the southern coasts of the US as sea temperatures increase.
But for the mass of humanity, climate is likely to be a minor determinant of the water quality they get, and the disease burden that implies.
To quote the WHO on cholera: “Since 2005, the re-emergence of cholera has been noted in parallel with the ever-increasing size of vulnerable populations living in unsanitary conditions.
“The provision of safe water and sanitation
remains the critical factor in reducing the impact of cholera outbreaks” - as it does for many other diseases of water.
It sounds easy - but for the 100 or so countries off target with MDG 7, most spectacularly Zimbabwe, it is proving anything but.
Richard.Black-INTERNET@bbc.co.uk
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/science/nature/7873516.stm
Published: 2009/02/08 16:05:10 GMT
© BBC MMIX
Written by Sarah in Africa, Articles, Clippings, Water ~
I’ve spent a lot of time in Kisumu. For more than two years, Kenyans in Kisumu have been asking me about Barack Obama and if I think that he can be president. Early in his senate term Obama made a visit to Kisumu. Kenyans donned Obama for President t-shirts and bought them up in record time. Shortly thereafter, I made a visit to Kisumu, but by then, t-shirts were hard to come by, and even my colleagues couldn’t find any more.
Yesterday I got an email from one of my CARE Kenya colleagues in Kisumu congratulating me on the election. I also chatted briefly a few Atlantan friends living in Kisumu. Today they are enjoying a public holiday celebrating Obama’s win. But even before the public celebration, people had taken to the streets. Brooks sent the photo below (by Brooks Keene and Shadi Saboori, friends in Kisumu, Kenya).
By Brooks Keene and Shadi Saboori, friends from Atlanta living in Kisumu
You can see more of the celebration at Brooks’ blog: Keene Thoughts
I am also pasting below and article about the celebrations in Kisumu. It’s not only an exciting day for America, but also for Kenya.
KISUMU, Kenya | By Jeffrey Gettleman Call it redemption.
This town, in the epicenter of Kenya’s Obamaland — the same area where Barack Obama’s father was from and where some of his cousins, half-brothers and a very gregarious 80-something step-grandmother still live — exploded into cheers when the news broke that Mr. Obama had won the presidency.
Thousands of people sang, danced, blew whistles, honked horns, hugged, kissed and thumped on drums — all down the same streets where not so long ago huge flames of protest had raged.
“Who needs a passport?” people yelled. “We’re going to America!”
It was sweetness on many levels. A black man in the White House. A half-Kenyan at the helm of the most powerful country on the planet. And a fair election, which Kenyans have learned is nothing to take for granted.
People here stayed up all night, swatting mosquitoes as they watched the election results trickle in on TV sets with fuzzy pictures. The last time this many Kenyans were riveted by an election — their own, in December 2007 — riots erupted after the opposition candidate lost and Kenya’s incumbent president won. Widespread allegations of vote rigging sent tens of thousands of young men into the streets, to loot, burn and kill. Much of Kisumu, usually a relaxed town along the steamy, hippo-infested shores of Lake Victoria, was ravaged.
But on Wednesday, many of the same young men who had been doing the burning, the looting and worse, were all smiles, part of the happy wave of emotion that coursed through Kisumu. Passersby and mini-bus drivers and bicycle taxi men got swept into the streets, where Obama posters, Obama pins and even Obama wall clocks were selling faster than juicy papayas.
“This has restored my faith in democracy,” said Duncan Adel, a computer technician who had been part of the election protests last year.
About an hour away, down a bumpy dirt road, Mr. Obama’s extended Kenyan family held a 1,000-person bash in their ancestral village of Kogelo.
“We’re going to the White House!” they sang.
[Most people in Kisumu are Luo, the ethnic group of the top opposition leader and coincidentally the same ethnic group of Mr. Obama’s father. There is an old joke in Kisumu that a Luo will become president of the United States before becoming president of Kenya. It has indeed come true.]
By mid-morning, the Kenyan government declared Thursday a national holiday. It meant a day off. And surely more partying. View the article here.
Written by Sarah in Africa, Articles, Life, News, Photos ~
Home for Halloween
By IRSHAD MANJI
Published: October 31, 2008
FOR me and my family, Oct. 31 has always been significant. Not because it’s Halloween, but because that’s the day we arrived as refugees to a free part of the world.
Beginning in August 1972, thousands of Asian entrepreneurs fled the East African country of Uganda after its dictator, Idi Amin, declared us to be bloodsuckers, seized our property and gave us three months to leave or die.
My family and I had only Ugandan passports, so we couldn’t escape to Britain or India like many of our neighbors. We’d been in Africa for two generations; my father and his brothers owned a car dealership in Uganda’s capital, Kampala. We didn’t know where to go, but we knew we couldn’t stay: Amin viciously enforced his 90-day deadline.
By the final week of October, the nations that would otherwise accept Ugandan exiles had exceeded their quotas. My family heard that Sweden and Canada might make room for a few more, and so out of desperation my mother, my sisters and I flew to Montreal, with Dad to follow. We had no guarantee that Canada would admit us.
We also had no guarantee that we’d meet an extraordinary immigration agent. But on Halloween 1972, we did.
Though the middle-aged woman had doubtless been dealing with a flood of Ugandan refugees, and though burnout could have led her to turn us back or indifferently wave us through, she chose to talk with a harried mother shepherding three girls under age 7. “Why do you want to live in Montreal?” the agent asked, en français.
My mother, who grew up in the Belgian Congo, mercifully could respond in French. “Why do we want to live in Montreal?” Mum repeated, buying a few seconds to think. “Well, Montreal begins with the letter ‘M,’ and our family’s name begins with the letter ‘M,’ so maybe God believes we will fit nicely together.”
Sensing my mother’s fear, the immigration agent assured her that this wasn’t an interrogation. “It’s just that I’m looking at your daughters,” she explained, “and I realize that they’re all dressed for tropical weather. Madame Manji, have you ever seen snow?”
Terrified at the prospect of being booted out, my mother blurted out, “No, but I can’t wait to!”
“Then you’ve come to the right country,” the agent assured Mum. “With your permission, however, I’d like to send you and your children to Canada’s version of a mild climate.” Several stamps of the paperwork later, we boarded a plane to Vancouver, where I learned to make peace with rain.
Some would reduce this immigration agent to a shrewd gatekeeper of cheap labor, carting us off to a city that would get rich from the Asian work ethic. And yet she was more complex than a caricature. Instead of simply unloading us on the local authorities, the agent cared enough to ask what we might need more of — peace, yes, but also fleece. Her small act of empathy bucked an ice-cold system.
As an adult, I’ve come to understand why I’m so blessed to have immigrated to an open society. Here, the individual — and the choices she makes — matter. The agent chose to practice the first lesson of human rights: just because a problem doesn’t affect you personally doesn’t mean it ceases to exist.
Mum tells me that she’s never been able to track down the lovely lady who let us into Canada. Still, she won’t be forgotten. As Madame Manji reminded her girls on Halloween in 2002, “When we touched this soil, we won the lottery of life.”
Idi Amin died in Saudi Arabia a year after that. Friends assumed that I’d be cursing his corpse. No. His hatred introduced my family to the gift of choices.
On Halloween, one can be forgiven for obsessing with murderers, but it’s not Idi Amin who will dominate my thoughts. It’s the immigration agent.
Irshad Manji, the author of “The Trouble With Islam Today,” is the director of the Moral Courage Project at the Wagner Graduate School of Public Service at New York University.
Written by Sarah in Africa, Articles, Life, News, Uganda ~
George W. Bush (R) shakes hands with Yoweri Museveni (L) during a bilateral meeting
Bush meets Ugandan leader on UN margins
15 hours ago
UNITED NATIONS (AFP) — US President George W. Bush praised Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni’s leadership in working to end African conflicts Tuesday as they met on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly.
“He’s been a very strong leader on a number of fronts. First, he’s been very helpful in solving regional conflicts on the continent of Africa, and I want to thank you for your leadership,” Bush said as they held talks.
The US president also highlighted Uganda’s successes in battling HIV/AIDS and in fighting malaria, notably with US assistance.
Museveni praised the expansion of US aid to Africa under Bush, and thanked him for US steps to help the continent improve its infrastructure and energy and attract much-needed investment.
“This is really the way forward. And President Bush has been tremendous on that. He has actually been a very good friend of Africa and we salute you, our gratitude,” said Museveni.
Written by Sarah in Africa, Articles, News, Uganda ~
No, it’s not an email forward (although some of those of late have been very funny). This is an article from Uganda’s Sunday Monitor from September 21, 2008. It’s a little insight into both Ugandan commentary on the US elections and a little idea about some Ugandan ideas and values.
http://www.monitor.co.ug/artman/publish/sunday_life/How_to_be_Sarah_Palin_71837.shtml
How to be Sarah Palin
Dorene Namanya
1.Who is this woman?
She is a former beauty queen. She came in second in the Miss Alaska contest and in fact won the Miss Congeniality title. But most of us only got to know about her because Senator McCain thinks she is all that. I mean, why else would he choose her to become the potential vice president?
It could be her looks, or it could be what we are about to learn about this wonder woman. She is the Governor of Alaska and as a child, she would sometimes go hunting with her father before school, a thing that she enjoyed so much that would later shape her adult life. She has a strong conviction for doing what is right.
Here, be the judge of this; when her stepmother-in-law decided to run for mayor, Sarah Palin instead supported her opponent. Of course it was not because mothers-in-law and daughters-in-law do not generally get along, but probably because she thought the other person was better suited to run the office. So to be Sarah Palin, you have to be Miss Mary two-goody shoes, you have to dislike your stepmother-in-law, be a politician, and above all, be in the good books of John McCain.
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2. May God’s will prevail
Sarah describes herself as a Bible-believing Christian. And when you hear how many times she alludes to the Bible, you will be convinced that this is true. As a young girl, she headed Christian athletes’ fellowship in school, and every time before a basketball match, she led the team prayer. An outstanding candidate for the Kingdom of God you may say. In fact, she believes that God is responsible for everything. On the topic of Iraq, she asked that people pray for the soldiers and that “there is a plan and that that plan is God’s plan.” Yes. God has tendencies of sitting in the oval office and deciding to invade countries.
In regards to a proposed natural-gas pipeline she said, “I think God’s will has to be done in unifying people and companies to get that gas line built. In keeping with the tradition of the Bible therefore, she is very much against homosexuality, and believes it should be discriminated against.
3. Tree hugger?
Not. To be Sarah Palin, you have to have no love for the environment. Scratch that. You have to absolutely ignore the environment all together. Feel free not to take any time off your busy political schedule to learn anything about the environment. And such attitude will get you thinking like this; that global warming is not caused by human beings. Aliens perhaps? Not that it is surprising, considering she has been chairman of an oil drilling company and her husband works for BP, an oil drilling company. What is that old saying - you can’t bite the hand that feeds you? Right, so to be Ms Palin, you should be clear about which side of your toast is buttered.
Sarah Palin also hates the natural environment. She is a life long NRA (National Rifle Association of America) member, kills animals at every chance, and has sued the federal government for putting polar bears on the endangered species list.
4. Family values
She preaches about the sanctity of marriage, the importance of family, and other conservative evangelical Christian philosophies. She stands strong defining marriage as the sole right of a man and woman. Not man and man. Or woman and woman. In 2006, she okayed denying benefits to homosexual couples. In 2008, she vetoed a bill stating that denying rights to gays and lesbians is unconstitutional. Her own underage high school student daughter is pregnant. Out of wedlock. Of course she comes off as a woman of great character for letting her daughter keep the baby. She is after all publicly against abortion. To be Sarah Palin, you have to believe that family values have nothing to do with teenage pregnancy. You should preach family values everywhere except in your own home.
Another saying comes to mind. Charity begins at home Sarah. To be a perfect Sarah Palin, you have to have one description of family; Mother, Father, and heterosexual children.
5. The gun followed the cross
We have seen above that Ms Sarah is a good Christian. Kind of reminds us of another set of Christians. Remember them?
The missionaries? Remember how they introduced God only a few days before introducing us to the machine gun? Well, Sarah takes the teachings of the missionaries ever so seriously. As a result, she is a firm believer in the goodness of the gun. She supports the constitutional right to bear firearms. I bet that gun must have come in handy when she had to hold a gun to her daughter’s boyfriend to marry her after making her pregnant.
Okay, so I am lying, she did not literally hold a gun to the boy’s head, but surely a high school student can’t have been too eager to walk down the isle yet? Anyway, to be Sarah Palin, you have to be a lover of guns. You have to ignore that those things have been known to kill. And there you have it - how to be Sarah Palin 101.
Written by Sarah in Africa, Articles, News, Uganda ~
http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/august/7/newsid_2492000/2492333.stm
1972: Asians given 90 days to leave Uganda
The Ugandan leader, Idi Amin, has set a deadline for the expulsion of most of the country’s Asians.
General Amin said all Asians who are not Ugandan citizens - around 60,000 - must leave Uganda within 90 days.
The military ruler’s latest statement amended his original expulsion order two days ago when he said all the country’s 80,000 Asians had to go.
Asians, who are the backbone of the Ugandan economy, have been living in the country for more than a century.
But resentment against them has been building up within Uganda’s black majority.
Expulsion surprises Britain
General Amin has called the Asians “bloodsuckers” and accused them of milking the economy of its wealth.
Up to 50,000 Asians in the former UK colony are British passport holders.
In a broadcast, General Amin said he would be summoning the British High Commissioner in Kampala to ask him to arrange for their removal.
The expulsion order has taken Britain by surprise.
General Amin overthrew Uganda’s elected leader in a military-backed coup last year but the British authorities had regarded him as a man they could work with.
Currently around 1,000 Asians from Uganda settle in the UK each year under an enlarged quota allocation introduced last year.
But a growing number have been attempting to circumvent the system and enter Britain illegally.
Right-wing MPs have warned that letting more Ugandan Asians into the UK could raise racial tensions.
They are urging the government not to take them in.
Conservative MP Ronald Bell said Uganda’s Asians had no real links to Britain.
Speaking on behalf of the Monday Club’s Immigration Committee, Mr Bell said: “They were either born in India or have retained close connection with India.
“They have no connection with Britain either by blood or residence.”
Written by Sarah in Articles ~
