Drought, hunger in Madagascar

Food security - an ongoing problem pressing itself on humanity, causing civil unrest and forcing mass migrations.

MADAGASCAR: On the slippery slope to hunger

28 Apr 2009

Source: IRIN

Reuters and AlertNet are not responsible for the content of this article or for any external internet sites. The views expressed are the author's alone.

JOHANNESBURG, 28 April 2009 (IRIN) - Florine Zafy, who runs the health centre in Sampona, a tiny town in the Anosy region of southern Madagascar, has become as desperate as the parched landscape: three consecutive years of drought and meagre harvests have put thousands in the area on the slippery slope to hunger, and the children usually go first.

Mothers and children were at the frontline when malnutrition met weakened immune systems Zafy said, and "at this point the problem is becoming critical". She started screening children in mid-March and by the end of April had already identified some 90 severely malnourished under-fives. "It's been getting worse and worse for a while now," she commented.

Besides a chronic lack of water, the south also suffers from a shortage of health staff and treatment supplies. some 15,000 Malagasy in the Sampona area depend on Zafy's centre and she runs it pretty much on her own, a situation not uncommon in the region.

With the chances of good rain in the south of the huge Indian Ocean Island highly unlikely, she has little reason to believe things will get better anytime soon. "There are already so many cases that it is difficult to cope," she said, opening the clinic door to some 30 mothers and many more children waiting for screening and treatment that day.

Worried mothers of hungry children

"I am afraid for my children now because I can't feed them," Siza Matavy, who had brought her children for screening and was first in the queue, told IRIN. One child was already on a treatment called Plumpy'nut, a high-protein, high-energy, peanut-based paste provided to health and nutrition centres by the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF), and she hoped the other two might benefit too.

"We don't have much land that we can [cultivate]," Matavy said. Poor rains and more mouths to feed as her family expanded over the past years meant constant hunger, increasing under-nutrition, and rising worry over about the future.

Sazy, 22, a single mother of three who had just walked seven kilometres to bring her children to the clinic, was next. Visibly emaciated, her 12-month-old daughter was referred to a hospital for admission and free treatment, "But it is impossible for me to go," she said.

Although transport for the 25km ride to the hospital would probably not cost more than the equivalent of US$1, and the hospital would reimburse her, she simply did not have the money to pay in the first place, and also could not leave her other two children unattended. Sazy's desperation is echoed across southern Madagascar. At a health centre in Ifotaka, also in the Anosy region, another worried mother, Sitrapoe, told IRIN she had sold her family's last asset, a goat, in December 2008 and now had nothing left. Her nine-month-old daughter was screened and found to be severely malnourished.

Running on empty

This depletion of wealth - no more than a wafer-thin buffer against abject poverty to begin with - and deepening vulnerability was common in the drought-affected south and, more so now than in previous years, was a major concern, said Zo Roabijaona, Director of the government's Early Warning System (SAP) in the region of Androy.

"Lack of rain is at the heart of the problem ... [but] the drought used to occur every 10 years, then every five; now we have drought every year," he said. In the past, communities had managed to build up resilience and had been able to cope with an occasional bad harvest, but three consecutive years of poor rain meant their assets were gradually being sold off to feed families and had by now been depleted. By December 2008 SAP had sounded the alarm, warning that some 400,000 people were living in food-insecure districts, so this was by no means a sudden surge, Roabijaona said - the problem had become chronic. What UNICEF had called a "silent emergency" - the nutrition crisis - had lingered, and had become progressively worse for some time now.

A nutrition survey in April by the Ministry of Health, the National Nutrition Office and UNICEF, in five districts of the Anosy and Androy regions, indicated that global acute malnutrition rates in children under the age of five had reached "serious" levels and were edging towards "critical". According to UNICEF, over 100 health facilities were equipped to treat severely malnourished children, but with Madagascar's resources overstretched, its health services overwhelmed and the numbers of malnourished children climbing, this was not enough. "Additional financial resources are absolutely critical for us to be able to address the threat that the current drought poses to the survival of children," said Bruno Maes, the UNICEF Representative in Madagascar.

Alarm over the worsening drought, the aftermath of two recent cyclones that brought widespread damage and flooding, and the ongoing political turmoil, prompted the humanitarian community in Madagascar to make a joint "Flash Appeal" for $36 million on 7 April, but barely $1 million in commitments has been made to date.

tdm/he© IRIN. All rights reserved. More humanitarian news and analysis: http://www.irinnews.org/

Cholera flourishes with neglected sanitation in population centres

Further tragedies in the wake of mismanagement, corruption, exploitation and indifference on the part of decision makers and whoever else could have helped.

WATER-GUINEA BISSAU: Neglecting Infrastructure at the People's Peril
By Ebrima Sillah

BISSAU, Apr 17 (IPS) - The most recent cholera outbreak in Guinea-Bissau killed 225 people before it was brought under control in February; 14,000 people were infected by the water-borne disease, most of them in the capital, Bissau.

There have been seasonal outbreaks of cholera in Bissau in each of the past five years due to poor water infrastructure and a reliance on open wells.

Jose Manuel Ramos, a water engineer at Bissau's Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources which is also responsible for water management, told IPS that neglect and a lack of investment has left most of the capital's sewage system damaged with dirty water from ruptured pipes polluting ground water.

He said the sewage and water pipes in the city were laid in the colonial era some 45 years ago, and are now outdated and obsolete. Over time, inadequate care and maintenance has meant the colonial infrastructure has rusted.

"When the water infrastructure was being built in the 1960s, Bissau had a population of not more 60,000 people. Today we have well over 350,000 people in the capital. This has put immense pressure on the existing infrastructure," he says.

As a result, residents of the capital have been forced to dig wells in their back yards in order to get water. But health experts have long warned that such water sources are not safe, especially during rainy season, when contaminated run-off finds its way into the wells.

In its latest country report, the United Nations Children Fund, UNICEF, says only 20 percent of the population in the capital has access to pipe-borne water and even the water in the tap is of questionable quality because of lack of modern facilities to properly treat the water. Bissau also lacks proper waste disposal and according to UNICEF "potentially contaminating garbage is left around the streets including the city centre."

A bloody civil war in 1998-1999 and successive military coups since then have been followed by a decade of political instability, insecurity, and economic stagnation. This has aggravated an infrastructure crisis in Bissau.

Silvia Luciani, UNICEF country representative to Guinea-Bissau, told IPS that the political instability has meant that outside assistance from donors has also been hindered. "Unless there is guaranteed stability the people of this country especially women and children who are just innocent bystanders, will continue to lose."

Carlos Pedro, a doctor in the capital's main hospital Simão Mendes National Hospital, told IPS that in the past three years, especially during the rainy season from August through November residents in the capital brace themselves for cholera.

The medical system is ill-equipped to control the outbreaks. "Currently most of the trained doctors have left because of lack of motivation," Pedro said. "Any time there is outbreak of cholera or any other disease, we find it difficult to move around because we dont have enough vehicles and ambulances."

Water engineer Ramos said his ministry - in collaboration with the World Bank - has concluded a study into the water needs of the residents of the capital and other big cities and a report has been submitted to donors for funding. Already the World Bank has started building water reservoirs in the capital, laying 24 kilometres of water pipes at a cost of nearly $6 million. The European Commission has also signed a $3.9 million project with Guinea Bissau to improve its water infrastructure and rural water systems which will include solar-powered water points and pumps in rural communities.

Once these projects are complete, they will provide residents of the capital and other settlements with clean, safe drinking water, according to Ramos.

But Cesario Sa, director of Water and Electricity Services in Bissau, says even when the World Bank water project is completed, many people may still be prefer to use water from wells because that is free. "This is a country where there is widespread poverty and where salaries are not paid regularly. So many will see paying for water as additional burden."

Donors spent over $800,000 before the 2008/2009 epidemic was contained, money that could have been better utilised in other areas. UNICEF and the Ministry of Health have put in place a national response for cholera epidemic plan which include message development on cholera prevention, disinfection of the capital's wells, management of potentially contaminating human waste and the distribution of hygiene and sanitation products.

"This is extremely important in our cholera prevention strategy," says Luciani, "because our recent study shows that only an estimated 30 percent of the population performs essential hygiene practices."

Water-borne diseases constitute one of the main causes of child mortality in Guinea-Bissau, which has the world's fifth-highest level of child mortality with almost one in five children dying before age five.

Copyright © 2009 IPS-Inter Press Service. All rights reserved.

Africa's children bear scars of trauma in silence - report

Reporting on the traumatic consequences of strife-torn environments on children the psyche of children.

(Excerpts:)

"Often the emphasis is on rebuilding buildings, roads and infrastructure in countries like these, while the importance of 're-building people' and their fragile mental health is overlooked and dismissed," Behrendt said.

Of the former child soldiers interviewed in Liberia, most of whom were "recruited" by force, 60 percent said they had witnessed another child being punished to death. Nearly nine in 10 children said they had seen a member of their family being threatened with death or killed... The study found that children who had no direct experience of violence and lived with their parents still suffered high levels of trauma in what researchers said was "a spill-over culture of violence brought about by years of social instability." "Time and time again we found adults trying to raise children in societies in which they are themselves under enormous pressure - from economic insecurity, inter-ethnic hatred, political violence, the terrible aftermath of civil war and their own trauma," said Stefanie Conrad

Africa's children bear scars of trauma in silence - report

21 Apr 2009

Written by: Natasha Elkington

File photo shows a Nigerian child silhouetted against a gas flare at an oil facility in Nigeria's southwest delta.
REUTERS/George Esiri RSS/WS

In Burkino Faso, a young girl watches her father's throat being slit and her older brother being burnt alive by rebel soldiers. A 12-year-old girl from Sierra Leone is caught by rebels and forced to have sex with them. A teenage boy from Liberia witnesses his mother being skinned alive while trying to flee to a Guinea refugee camp. These are just some of the stories shared in a new report released by Plan International that found children in West and Central Africa are suffering extreme psychological trauma as a result of civil war, ethnic cleansing, AIDS and trafficking. "The children and young people in our studies have already been exposed to more violence in their short lives than most of us will ever experience in our lifetime," Alice Behrendt, one of the report's authors, said in a statement. The first psychological study of its kind - "Silent Suffering" - in conjunction with Family Health International assessed more than 1,000 children and adolescents living in Liberia, Togo, Sierra Leone, Cameroon and Burkina Faso. The report says violence and instability in West and Central Africa have forced growing numbers of children on to the streets where they are more vulnerable to being trafficked, sexually abused and exploited as cheap labour. Others were enlisted as child soldiers. Of the former child soldiers interviewed in Liberia, most of whom were "recruited" by force, 60 percent said they had witnessed another child being punished to death. Nearly nine in 10 children said they had seen a member of their family being threatened with death or killed. In the same group, 84 percent had found themselves "surrounded by, lying underneath or stepping on" dead bodies. "I tried to run away, but there was no way out," said one girl from Sierra Leone in the report. "There were dead bodies everywhere. I had to step on them, there were too many and I could not find my way out." The study found that children who had no direct experience of violence and lived with their parents still suffered high levels of trauma in what researchers said was "a spill-over culture of violence brought about by years of social instability." "Time and time again we found adults trying to raise children in societies in which they are themselves under enormous pressure - from economic insecurity, inter-ethnic hatred, political violence, the terrible aftermath of civil war and their own trauma," said Stefanie Conrad, who co-authored the study, in a statement. Researchers found that children caught up in conflict faced high risk of mental illness, suicidal tendencies and post-traumatic stress syndrome. For example, in Sierra Leone, 70 percent of girls with no parental support had contemplated committing suicide and 80 percent of boys. Nearly one-third of that group had already attempted to kill themselves. For many victims, the study was the first time they could detail the violence they experienced and the impact it had on them, and researchers said "they were impressed by the children's extraordinary resilience in extreme circumstances." Since the research was carried out, Plan has set up mobile units made up of trauma counsellors and psychologists to treat the children judged most at risk. And it wants to see more psychosocial services on offer in the region. "Often the emphasis is on rebuilding buildings, roads and infrastructure in countries like these, while the importance of 're-building people' and their fragile mental health is overlooked and dismissed," Behrendt said.

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Source is here.

Girls being "raped for grades", says aid agency

A horrific problem of sexual exploitation and abuse facing millions of youth in the world today!

Girls being "raped for grades", says aid agency

10 Oct 2008

Written by: Emma Batha

Photo by REUTERS/Parth Sanyal

Girls as young as 10 are being forced to have sex by their teachers to pass exams, and threatened with poor grades if they refuse, according to a report on school violence published by aid agency Plan. The report says sexual violence is institutionalised in many schools throughout Africa but also happens in Latin America and Asia. In the worst cases abuse can spell death, says Plan's head of global advocacy, Nadya Kassam. Girls may contract HIV/AIDS or become pregnant and die in childbirth because their bodies are not developed enough. Most victims of sexual violence are too scared, ashamed or traumatised to speak out and school authorities are often unwilling to investigate accusations, Plan says. The report comes as Plan launches a three-year campaign called Learn Without Fear aimed at ending all forms of violence against children in schools, including bullying and torture. The World Health Organisation has previously estimated that 150 million girls and 73 million boys have been raped or suffered other forms of sexual violence. It's impossible to say how much of this abuse takes place in or around schools but here are some figures from studies quoted in Plan's report:

• In Uganda, researchers found 8 percent of 16 and 17 year-old boys and girls questioned had had sex with their teachers and 12 percent with ancillary staff
• In South Africa, teachers were found guilty of one-third of chid rapes
• In Ecuador, a study of female adolescent victims of sexual violence found that 37 percent named teachers as perpetrators
• In Zambia, one-third of students aged 13 to 15 said they had been physically forced to have sex in the previous month

The Plan report says studies in Africa and Latin America show some male teachers offer girls good grades in exchange for sexual acts and threaten poor grades if they refuse. But Plan says the abuse is often seen as an inevitable part of school life. (See Rosemary's story below.) Plan's chief executive Tom Miller says the agency's campaign aims to challenge the complacency surrounding all forms of violence at school. "We often hear from parents, 'There's nothing we can do.' They know that their daughter is having to have sex with the teacher but they say, 'If she doesn't, she can't go to school. I'm too poor to send her to school.' "In some ways, that is the worst, when they know that it is wrong, but say they can't do anything about it." Plan says the problem is often compounded by cultural attitudes towards women. Girls in societies where women have a lower status are more likely to suffer sexual violence at school. In Latin America, South Asia and Islamic South East Asia, sexual violence against girls tends to remain a silent crime because of the importance attached to girls' sexual purity. In some parts of South Asia, rape is seen as an offence against the honour of male members of the family. In some African countries, there is a belief that a man can cure himself of AIDS by having sex with a virgin, which has led to the abuse of students with disabilities who are seen as easy targets. Aside from the risk of injury and disease, victims of sexual violence suffer psychological trauma and stigmatisation. Many are forced to leave school. Plan says sexual violence forms a major barrier to girls' access to education. Abuse, or the fear of abuse, may cause girls to avoid class or stop parents sending them to school in the first place. Sexual abuse of children in schools is outlawed in all but one of the 66 countries where Plan operates, the exception being Pakistan. But even where there are laws, few perpetrators are held accountable. However, Plan has been encouraged by a recent landmark ruling in Zambia where the High Court awarded a 15-year-old rape victim $13,000 and ordered criminal proceedings against her teacher. Initiatives under the Plan campaign include encouraging anti-violence regulations; systematic reporting of offences and holding perpetrators accountable; training teachers to prevent and respond to sexual violence; empowering children to stand up to and report violence; training healthcare personnel to recognise warning signs of abuse and training police officers to deal with crimes of sexual violence. "This is really a grassroots up campaign which is what's going to make it so powerful and practical," Kassam said. Rosemary's story Rosemary, a head girl at a school in Tanzania, says she was repeatedly abused by her teacher. She fled to her aunt's home in fear but was kicked out when it became apparent she was pregnant. The case was reported to local authorities but the teacher continues to work at the school, which has washed its hands of the problem. Rosemary says the abuse started when the teacher asked her to his office. "He asked me to read something that was written on his cell phone. It was written I want you to be my lover. I refused," she says. Meanwhile another teacher had punished Rosemary for not attending extra classes that she could not afford. She says the teacher who abused her coerced her into sex after sending money to pay for her tuition. "She has been completely traumatised and has missed school for a year," Kassam says. "If she goes back she still has a child to support. The chances are she may not go back and the impact on her education and future potential is absolutely diminished." Rosemary should have taken her final exams last month. Instead, she spent the morning at home in tears. "I cannot see my future, life is so difficult," she says.

Reuters AlertNet is not responsible for the content of external websites.

Source is here.

Corruption, poverty, discontent, feeds into the hands of Taliban

In Pakistan, an ancient feudal system is coming under pressure from militant groups touting religious fanaticism and striking at the very root of civil law and order.

Excerpts:

"In Swat, accounts from those who have fled now make clear that the Taliban seized control by pushing out about four dozen landlords who held the most power.

To do so, the militants organized peasants into armed gangs that became their shock troops, the residents, government officials and analysts said...

"The Taliban's ability to exploit class divisions adds a new dimension to the insurgency and is raising alarm about the risks to Pakistan, which remains largely feudal..

"Unlike India after independence in 1947, Pakistan maintained a narrow landed upper class that kept its vast holdings while its workers remained subservient, the officials and analysts said. Successive Pakistani governments have since failed to provide land reform and even the most basic forms of education and health care. Avenues to advancement for the vast majority of rural poor do not exist...

"In many areas of Swat the Taliban have demanded that each family give up one son for training as a Taliban fighter..."

April 17, 2009

Taliban Exploit Class Rifts in Pakistan

By JANE PERLEZ and PIR ZUBAIR SHAH

PESHAWAR, Pakistan — The Taliban have advanced deeper into Pakistan by engineering a class revolt that exploits profound fissures between a small group of wealthy landlords and their landless tenants, according to government officials and analysts here.

The strategy cleared a path to power for the Taliban in the Swat Valley, where the government allowed Islamic law to be imposed this week, and it carries broad dangers for the rest of Pakistan, particularly the militants' main goal, the populous heartland of Punjab Province.

In Swat, accounts from those who have fled now make clear that the Taliban seized control by pushing out about four dozen landlords who held the most power.

To do so, the militants organized peasants into armed gangs that became their shock troops, the residents, government officials and analysts said.

The approach allowed the Taliban to offer economic spoils to people frustrated with lax and corrupt government even as the militants imposed a strict form of Islam through terror and intimidation.

"This was a bloody revolution in Swat," said a senior Pakistani official who oversees Swat, speaking on the condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation by the Taliban. "I wouldn't be surprised if it sweeps the established order of Pakistan."

The Taliban's ability to exploit class divisions adds a new dimension to the insurgency and is raising alarm about the risks to Pakistan, which remains largely feudal.

Unlike India after independence in 1947, Pakistan maintained a narrow landed upper class that kept its vast holdings while its workers remained subservient, the officials and analysts said. Successive Pakistani governments have since failed to provide land reform and even the most basic forms of education and health care. Avenues to advancement for the vast majority of rural poor do not exist.

Analysts and other government officials warn that the strategy executed in Swat is easily transferable to Punjab, saying that the province, where militant groups are already showing strength, is ripe for the same social upheavals that have convulsed Swat and the tribal areas.

Mahboob Mahmood, a Pakistani-American lawyer and former classmate of President Obama's, said, "The people of Pakistan are psychologically ready for a revolution."

Sunni militancy is taking advantage of deep class divisions that have long festered in Pakistan, he said. "The militants, for their part, are promising more than just proscriptions on music and schooling," he said. "They are also promising Islamic justice, effective government and economic redistribution."

The Taliban strategy in Swat, an area of 1.3 million people with fertile orchards, vast plots of timber and valuable emerald mines, unfolded in stages over five years, analysts said.

The momentum of the insurgency built in the past two years, when the Taliban, reinforced by seasoned fighters from the tribal areas with links to Al Qaeda, fought the Pakistani Army to a standstill, said a Pakistani intelligence agent who works in the Swat region.

The insurgents struck at any competing point of power: landlords and elected leaders — who were usually the same people — and an underpaid and unmotivated police force, said Khadim Hussain, a linguistics and communications professor at Bahria University in Islamabad, the capital.

At the same time, the Taliban exploited the resentments of the landless tenants, particularly the fact that they had many unresolved cases against their bosses in a slow-moving and corrupt justice system, Mr. Hussain and residents who fled the area said.

Their grievances were stoked by a young militant, Maulana Fazlullah, who set up an FM radio station in 2004 to appeal to the disenfranchised. The broadcasts featured easy-to-understand examples using goats, cows, milk and grass. By 2006, Mr. Fazlullah had formed a ragtag force of landless peasants armed by the Taliban, said Mr. Hussain and former residents of Swat.

At first, the pressure on the landlords was subtle. One landowner was pressed to take his son out of an English-speaking school offensive to the Taliban. Others were forced to make donations to the Taliban.

Then, in late 2007, Shujaat Ali Khan, the richest of the landowners, his brothers and his son, Jamal Nasir, the mayor of Swat, became targets.

After Shujaat Ali Khan, a senior politician in the Pakistan Muslim League-Q, narrowly missed being killed by a roadside bomb, he fled to London. A brother, Fateh Ali Mohammed, a former senator, left, too, and now lives in Islamabad. Mr. Nasir also fled.

Later, the Taliban published a "most wanted" list of 43 prominent names, said Muhammad Sher Khan, a landlord who is a politician with the Pakistan Peoples Party, and whose name was on the list. All those named were ordered to present themselves to the Taliban courts or risk being killed, he said. "When you know that they will hang and kill you, how will you dare go back there?" Mr. Khan, hiding in Punjab, said in a telephone interview. "Being on the list meant 'Don't come back to Swat.' "

One of the main enforcers of the new order was Ibn-e-Amin, a Taliban commander from the same area as the landowners, called Matta. The fact that Mr. Amin came from Matta, and knew who was who there, put even more pressure on the landowners, Mr. Hussain said.

According to Pakistani news reports, Mr. Amin was arrested in August 2004 on suspicion of having links to Al Qaeda and was released in November 2006. Another Pakistani intelligence agent said Mr. Amin often visited a madrasa in North Waziristan, the stronghold of Al Qaeda in the tribal areas, where he apparently received guidance.

Each time the landlords fled, their tenants were rewarded. They were encouraged to cut down the orchard trees and sell the wood for their own profit, the former residents said. Or they were told to pay the rent to the Taliban instead of their now absentee bosses.

Two dormant emerald mines have reopened under Taliban control. The militants have announced that they will receive one-third of the revenues.

Since the Taliban fought the military to a truce in Swat in February, the militants have deepened their approach and made clear who is in charge.

When provincial bureaucrats visit Mingora, Swat's capital, they must now follow the Taliban's orders and sit on the floor, surrounded by Taliban bearing weapons, and in some cases wearing suicide bomber vests, the senior provincial official said.

In many areas of Swat the Taliban have demanded that each family give up one son for training as a Taliban fighter, said Mohammad Amad, executive director of a nongovernmental group, the Initiative for Development and Empowerment Axis.

A landlord who fled with his family last year said he received a chilling message last week. His tenants called him in Peshawar, the capital of North-West Frontier Province, which includes Swat, to tell him his huge house was being demolished, he said in an interview here.

The most crushing news was about his finances. He had sold his fruit crop in advance, though at a quarter of last year's price. But even that smaller yield would not be his, his tenants said, relaying the Taliban message. The buyer had been ordered to give the money to the Taliban instead.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/17/world/asia/17pstan.html?_r=1&ref=world

ECONOMY: U.N. Summit Seeks Collective Response to Crisis

A world-embracing vision is beginning to take root at the highest level of policy.

Excerpts:

"The most democratic way to discuss issues that affect all of us is by doing so at the United Nations...
"There is widespread consensus among world leaders that the current crisis has its roots in ethical failure...
"To be meaningful and worthwhile, it is essential that the Assembly is seized on a regular basis with the issues which are of primary and ongoing concern to the citizens of the world," he said.


ECONOMY: U.N. Summit Seeks Collective Response to Crisis
By Thalif Deen

UNITED NATIONS, Apr 13 (IPS) - The president of the 192-member U.N. General Assembly, Miguel d'Escoto Brockmann, dismisses the G20 bloc of economically advanced countries as unrepresentative of the international community.

"Despite their good intentions," he scoffs, "the Group is still a minority on an international level" because it shuts out more than two-thirds of the membership of the world body.

"The most democratic way to discuss issues that affect all of us is by doing so at the United Nations," he argues.

And so, with the unanimous support of the General Assembly, he is planning to hold a high-level meeting of all 192 U.N. member states to discuss the global financial crisis.

The meeting, scheduled to take place Jun. 1-3, is expected to be attended by most world leaders, including heads of state and heads of government.

D'Escoto said: "There is widespread consensus among world leaders that the current crisis has its roots in ethical failure."

The meeting, which will cost over 860,000 dollars - equitably shared by member states depending on their financial status - will adopt a final declaration on how to cope with the crisis.

"We now have the opportunity and the responsibility to search for solutions that take into account the interests of all nations, the rich and the poor, the large and the small," he declared.

Whether the three-day summit will be another talk-fest or a landmark conference will depend on the final outcome document which will be drafted over the next seven weeks by member states.

Ambassador Anwarul Chowdhury, former permanent representative of Bangladesh to the United Nations and a former U.N. under-secretary-general, told IPS it is heartening that the General Assembly, the world's most universal intergovernmental body, would be discussing the ongoing global economic meltdown.

"To be meaningful and worthwhile, it is essential that the Assembly is seized on a regular basis with the issues which are of primary and ongoing concern to the citizens of the world," he said.

But it is unfortunate, he pointed out, that the Assembly is loaded with agenda items that point to its irrelevance.

"Its present engagement in deliberating on the global economic crisis is, therefore, very welcome," he added.

At one time the global economy was shaped and dictated to by the G6: the world's six major industrialised nations, namely the United States, Britain, France, Germany, Italy, and Japan. With the exception of Japan, the rest were from the Western world.

Canada joined later to transform the group into the G7. But there were still no developing nations, although the decisions of the G7 also impacted heavily on the developing world.

When Russia was admitted, the group became the G8, as it existed last year.

The G20 that met in London recently also included some of the world's major developing nations, such as China, India, Brazil, Indonesia, Argentina, Mexico, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Turkey, along with Australia, South Korea and the 27-member European Union (which also includes the former East European states).

The General Assembly meeting in June also follows a call for the creation of a Global Economic Coordination Council by a U.N. Commission of Experts chaired by Nobel Laureate Joseph Stiglitz last month.

Roberto Bissio, executive director of the Third World Institute, told IPS the upcoming meeting is obviously an opportunity both for G20 countries and for the other 172 countries, not represented by the G20, to have their say.

But the G20 members will also have a major opportunity to legitimise their role through the proposed Economic Coordination Council to be created within the United Nations, if the suggestion of the Stiglitz Commission is endorsed, said Bissio, who is also the Coordinator of Social Watch, a network of civil society organisations in over 50 countries.

In fact, he said, the proposed Council could have "permanent members" (without veto powers) selected from among the present G20 members and other members elected.

"Yet, the Council as a whole would be transparent and accountable to all countries, thus overcoming the accusations of illegitimacy and unrepresentativeness presently made, with justification, with regard to the G20," he added.

On the upcoming meeting, Chowdhury said the main concern, however, is what would be the outcome and whether it would have any impact on the countries from whom the action would be asked for.

"Most significantly, one wonders whether the Assembly would be able to go beyond the London G20 Summit outcome," he said.

He said universalising the G20 outcome without the benefit of participation and giving it a seal of endorsement would be meaningless on the part of the Assembly's 192 members and its leadership.

"As I have often reiterated, the credibility of the U.N. would be enhanced if it could focus on some concrete action for the benefit of 800 million of the Least Developed Countries (LDCs) - the poorest and weakest segment of the international community - which are the innocent, and the worst, victims of the ongoing global crisis," said Chowdhury, a former U.N. high representative of LDCs.

However, he added, given its inherent inadequacy in dealing with global financial issues, "I believe the Assembly should at least ask for a specific share of resources to be set aside for the LDCs in the context of the G20 Summit decided on the role of Multilateral Development Banks (MDB) in the global recovery from the current crisis."

The LDCs, which number 49, are described as the poorest of the world's poor, most of them in sub-Saharan Africa.

Also, Chowdhury noted, the G20 Summit's call on the U.N., working with other global institutions, to establish an effective mechanism to monitor the impact of the crisis on the poorest and most vulnerable should be reflected in the Assembly outcome mentioning specifically the needs of the LDCs as well as the Landlocked Developing Countries and the Small Island Developing States.

Bissio said other suggestions included in the Stiglitz Commission report deserve careful consideration. And while it might be unrealistic to have them all approved in June, the U.N. summit is the opportunity to place them on the agenda.

In particular, and contrary to the G20 communique, the Stiglitz Commission clearly identifies the origins of the crisis and pinpoints structural solutions, not just emergency measures, he noted.

The emergency measures suggested by the Commission, he said, do not imply strengthening the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank, but reforming them.

And the long term solutions, he said, include the creation of a world reserve currency, not based on the U.S. dollar, and the adoption of carbon tax and a financial transaction tax.

These, he pointed out, would not only generate genuine resources for development but also help control unwanted global warming and financial speculation and volatility.

Source: http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=46479

Deforestation - a central world concern

Creating awareness about the interconnectedness of all life, combined with economic and social policies that are rooted in respect for the environment are essential to the protection of this vital element of the biological chain.

Excerpts:

"Although nongovernmental organisations (NGOs) have worked for years to protect forests from clearcutting, sustainable forestry is now seen as another way to protect forests. If only mature trees are felled, and on a selective basis, a forest and its productivity can be maintained in perpetuity.

"...a global reforestation effort cannot succeed unless it is accompanied by the stabilisation of population. With such an integrated plan, coordinated country by country, the earth's forests can be restored."

ENVIRONMENT: Paper and Fuel Wood Biggest Stresses on Forests
Analysis by Lester R. Brown*

WASHINGTON, Apr 14 (IPS) - Protecting the earth's nearly 4 billion hectares of remaining forests and replanting those already lost are both essential for restoring the earth's health, an important foundation for the new economy.

Reducing rainfall runoff and the associated flooding and soil erosion, recycling rainfall inland, and restoring aquifer recharge depend on simultaneously reducing pressure on forests and on reforestation.

There is a vast unrealised potential in all countries to lessen the demands that are shrinking the earth's forest cover. In industrial nations the greatest opportunity lies in reducing the quantity of wood used to make paper, and in developing countries it depends on reducing fuel wood use.

The rates of paper recycling in the top 10 paper-producing countries range widely, from China and Finland on the low end, recycling 33 and 38 percent of the paper they use, to South Korea and Germany on the high end, at 77 and 66 percent. The United States, the world's largest paper consumer, is far behind South Korea, but it has raised the share of paper recycled from roughly one fourth in the early 1980s to 50 percent in 2005.

If every country recycled as much of its paper as South Korea does, the amount of wood pulp used to produce paper worldwide would drop by one third.

The use of paper, perhaps more than any other single product, reflects the throwaway mentality that evolved during the last century. There is an enormous possibility for reducing paper use simply by replacing facial tissues, paper napkins, disposable diapers, and paper shopping bags with reusable cloth alternatives.

The largest single demand on trees - the need for fuel - accounts for just over half of all wood removed from forests. Some international aid agencies, including the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), are sponsoring fuelwood efficiency projects.

One of USAID's more promising projects is the distribution of 780,000 highly efficient wood cook stoves in Kenya that not only use far less wood than a traditional stove but also pollute less. Kenya is also the site of a solar cooker project sponsored by Solar Cookers International. These inexpensive cookers, made from cardboard and aluminum foil and costing 10 dollars each, cook slowly, much like a crockpot.

Requiring less than two hours of sunshine to cook a complete meal, they can greatly reduce firewood use at little cost. They can also be used to pasteurise water, thus saving lives. Over the longer term, developing alternative energy sources is the key to reducing forest pressure in developing countries.

Despite the high value to society of intact forests, only about 290 million hectares of global forest area are legally protected from logging. Forests protected by national decree are often safeguarded not so much to preserve the long-term wood supply capacity as to ensure that they continue to provide invaluable services such as flood control. Countries that provide legal protection for forests often do so after they have suffered the consequences of extensive deforestation, such as in China and the Philippines.

Although nongovernmental organisations (NGOs) have worked for years to protect forests from clearcutting, sustainable forestry is now seen as another way to protect forests. If only mature trees are felled, and on a selective basis, a forest and its productivity can be maintained in perpetuity.

In 1997, the World Bank joined forces with the World Wide Fund for Nature to form the Alliance for Forest Conservation and Sustainable Use. By 2005 they had helped designate 55 million hectares of new forest protected areas and certify 22 million hectares of forest. In mid-2005, the Alliance announced a goal of reducing global net deforestation to zero by 2020.

There are several additional forest product certification programmes that inform environmentally conscious consumers about the sustainable management of the forest where wood products originate. The most rigorous international programme, certified by a group of NGOs, is the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC). Some 88 million hectares of forests in 76 countries are certified by FSC-accredited bodies as responsibly managed.

Forest plantations can reduce pressures on the earth's remaining forests as long as they do not replace old-growth forest. As of 2005, the world had 205 million hectares in forest plantations, an area equal to nearly one third of the 700 million hectares planted in grain. Tree plantations produce mostly wood for paper mills or for wood reconstitution mills. Increasingly, reconstituted wood is substituting for natural wood as the world lumber and construction industries adapt to a shrinking supply of large logs from natural forests.

Production of roundwood (logs) on plantations is estimated at 432 million cubic meters per year, accounting for 12 percent of world wood production. This means that the lion's share, some 88 percent of the world timber harvest, comes from natural forest stands. Projections of future growth show that plantations can sometimes be profitably established on already deforested, often degraded, land, but they can also come at the expense of existing forests. There is competition with agriculture as well, since land that is suitable for crops is also good for growing trees. Water scarcity is yet another constraint, as fast-growing plantations require abundant moisture.

Nonetheless, the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) projects that as plantation area expands and yields rise, the harvest could more than double during the next three decades. It is entirely conceivable that plantations could one day satisfy most of the world's demand for industrial wood, thus helping to protect the world's remaining forests.

South Korea is in many ways a reforestation model for the rest of the world. When the Korean War ended, half a century ago, the mountainous country was largely deforested. Beginning around 1960, under the dedicated leadership of President Park Chung Hee, the South Korean government launched a national reforestation effort. Relying on the formation of village cooperatives, hundreds of thousands of people were mobilized to dig trenches and to create terraces for supporting trees on barren mountains. Today forests cover 65 percent of the country, an area of roughly 6 million hectares.

In Niger, farmers faced with severe drought and desertification in the 1980s began leaving some emerging acacia tree seedlings in their fields as they prepared the land for crops. As these trees matured they slowed wind speeds, thus reducing soil erosion.

The acacia, a legume, fixes nitrogen, enriching the soil and helping to raise crop yields. During the dry season the leaves and pods provide fodder for livestock. The trees also supply firewood. This approach of leaving 20 to 150 seedlings per hectare to mature on some 3 million hectares has revitalised farming communities in Niger.

Shifting subsidies from building logging roads to planting trees would help protect forest cover worldwide. The World Bank has the administrative capacity to lead an international programme that would emulate South Korea's success in blanketing mountains and hills with trees. In addition, FAO and the bilateral aid agencies can work with individual farmers in national agroforestry programmes to integrate trees wherever possible into agricultural operations.

Reducing wood use by developing more efficient wood stoves and alternative cooking fuels, systematically recycling paper, and banning the use of throwaway paper products all lighten pressure on the earth's forests. But a global reforestation effort cannot succeed unless it is accompanied by the stabilisation of population. With such an integrated plan, coordinated country by country, the earth's forests can be restored.

*Lester Brown is president of the Earth Policy Institute. This article is adapted from Chapter 8, "Restoring the Earth", of Brown's "Plan B 3.0: Mobilizing to Save Civilization" (New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2008), available for free downloading and purchase at www.earthpolicy.org/Books/PB3/index.htm. A slideshow summary of Plan B 3.0 is available at www.earthpolicy.org/Books/PB3/presentation.htm.

Source: http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=46494

Child mortality rate in India

The children of the world: The ineluctable responsibility of all the earth's inhabitants -

 

Focus quotation:

 

"...the time has come when each human being on earth must learn to accept responsibility for the welfare of the entire human family."

 

--The Universal House of Justice, 24 May 2001

 

 

Don't let India's children down, says Save the Children

7 April, World Health Day

 

6 April , New Delhi: This World Health Day, Save the Children reminds the government to keep its commitment to reduce child mortality by two-thirds by 2015.

Two million children die every year in India. Over 60 % die in the first 28 days of birth. The majority of these die of diseases we know how to stop - diarrhoea, pneumonia, malaria, measles and pre and post natal complications. Over half of these deaths could be be avoided if children were better nourished, a large segment of which could be reduced if anemia in women was tackled and immediate and exclusive breastfeeding was ensured.

India is faring worse than neighbouring Bangladesh that made enormous reductions in child mortality over the past few years. To deliver on its commitments, India must reduce the number of child deaths to 30/1000 from the current rate of 57/1000.

"Already far past the mid point mark to the deadline for these goals, India is lagging dangerously behind its commitments. This is outrageous when these deaths can be easily averted," says Shireen Vakil Miller, Director Advocacy and Policy, Save the Children India Here are some of the shocking facts on India's health indicators:

�2 million children die under five in India each year. This accounts for 22% of all children dying around the world. �1 out of every four children in the world, who die under the age of one, is an Indian �One out of three malnourished children is in India. Almost half of all children in India are malnourished �More than 65% of the child deaths in India happen in just 5 states: Rajasthan. Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar and Orissa. �Over half of all pregnant mothers give birth without skilled birth attendants.

"Thanks to investment by the government in their National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) and Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS), we have the means to save millions of lives. In the run up to our elections, politicians must find the political will to make these well-meaning policies deliver effectively for children once and for all" adds Miller.

Miller continues: "Access to primary health care still remains a distant dream for millions of mothers and children who remain the underbelly of India's burgeoning growth.

"Our government has made promises to our children. Let's make sure they keep them."

To help save children's lives, please go to www.savethechildren.in/india/donate or SMS 'SAVE' to 55050 -ENDS -

For information and to arrange interview contact: Pragya Vats +91 9868424692

Notes to Editor: Save the Children is the world's leading, independent organisation for children that works in over 120 countries around the world. Save the Children India is a member of the International Save the Children Alliance. The organization is working on four core issues including Child protection, Child Survival, education and disaster risk reduction in 12 states and union territories and has reached over 3 million children across India.

[ Any views expressed in this article are those of the writer and not of Reuters. ]

 

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/fromthefield/saveindia/123970437339.htm

Source: Save the Children - India, http://www.savethechildren.in

 

 

Read another story on hunger in Kenya here: http://www.alertnet.org/db/blogs/55943/2009/03/12-101218-1.htm

Over 70 percent of community leaders in Chilean shanty towns are women

A touching statement by a movement of slum-dwellers!

Excerpt:

"Our life is extremely lonely. We have to struggle against the whole world to achieve our goals, we have a community that depends on us and we are massively disinformed" about the options that are open to the poor, Cecilia Castro, president of the "We Are Chileans Too" National Association of Campamento (as slums are known in Chile) Leaders.

CHILE: Portrait of Community Leaders in Slums
By Daniela Estrada

SANTIAGO, Apr 10 (IPS) - Over 70 percent of community leaders in Chilean shanty towns are women. Their average age is 42, and most of them do not identify with any political party. Forty-five percent believe that the prevailing economic system makes the rich get richer and the poor get poorer.

"Our life is extremely lonely. We have to struggle against the whole world to achieve our goals, we have a community that depends on us and we are massively disinformed" about the options that are open to the poor, Cecilia Castro, president of the "We Are Chileans Too" National Association of Campamento (as slums are known in Chile) Leaders, told IPS.

"We did not know that there were funds that could be applied for, or that there were subsidies available. That is why we decided to create the Association in 2006 and go out and look for information," said the 41-year-old slum-dweller.

Castro took part this week in the presentation of the results of the first National Survey of Campamento Leaders, carried out by the Social Research Centre (CIS) attached to the Fundación Un Techo para Chile (A Roof for Chile Foundation), a not-for-profit organisation funded by donations and operated by volunteer workers that was created in 1997 by Jesuit priest Felipe Berríos.

According to official figures, the poverty rate in this South American country of 16 million people declined from 38 percent in 1990 to 13 percent in 2006. But a survey by Un Techo para Chile in 2007 found there were still 533 shanty towns home to 29,000 families nationwide.

The Foundation launched a campaign to eradicate slums by 2010, the 200th anniversary of Chile's independent existence as a republic.

In order to find out more about the characteristics, concerns and hopes of the leaders of the shanty towns, which often lack basic services, the CIS interviewed 289 community leaders around the country in May and June 2007.

The results indicate that 76 percent of the leaders are women, the average age is 42, 55 percent are married, and 50 percent give their main occupation as head of household.

Approximately 90 percent of the respondents said they were religious believers, mainly Roman Catholics (60 percent), followed by Protestant denominations (34 percent).

Some 25 percent of the community leaders had finished primary school, nearly 16 percent had completed their secondary education and nearly five percent had completed studies at university or technical institutes.

Asked what had motivated them to become leaders, 64 percent replied that they "wanted change," whereas 42 percent said they "needed to express themselves."

When it came to politics, 79 percent said they were registered voters, but 62 percent did not identify with any political party - a higher proportion than the national average found by other polls.

Among those leaders who did identify with political parties, 67 percent supported the centre-left Coalition of Parties for Democracy that has governed the country since 1990.

The rightwing opposition Alliance for Chile came second, mentioned by 22 percent of those expressing a party preference, followed by Juntos Podemos Más, a coalition of the Communist Party and other small leftwing parties without parliamentary representation, with 11 percent.

Within the governing coalition, on an individual party basis, the Christian Democracy Party was the most popular, with 32 percent support, followed by the Socialist Party.

The authority who most listens to their opinions, the leaders said, is President Michelle Bachelet. Senators were regarded as those who listen least.

Asked about the factors that exclude or limit participation by poor people in national decision-making, nearly 22 percent of the respondents blamed discrimination by the institutions, more than 13 percent mentioned lack of resources and 13 percent said the fault lay in their own lack of education.

To the question "What does democracy mean, in your opinion?" 26 percent replied "the right to speak up and to vote," nearly 17 percent said "the right to have my views heard," and 13 percent said "equality."

Asked why poverty persists, 45 percent said "the economic system makes the rich get richer and the poor get poorer," 17 percent said "there is no real political will to overcome it (poverty)," and 16 percent said "people's capabilities differ widely."

Furthermore, 52 percent of the interviewees expressed the view that the best way to overcome poverty is to have "better jobs with fairer wages," 30 percent said education and training are needed, and nearly seven percent said "a change in the structures of society" is required.

Ninety-two percent of the community leaders believed that wealth distribution in Chile is unjust. They said the main problems in society today are drug consumption (41 percent), unemployment (15 percent), education (10 percent), and lastly, housing (seven percent).

The social exclusion suffered by families living in the slums is also reflected in their lack of access to technology and cultural recreation, the study says.

For example, 26 percent of the shanty town leaders have never been to a movie theatre, 49 percent have never seen a play, 80 percent have never used e-mail and 74 percent have never surfed the Internet.

Thorny issues in Chilean society were also addressed. Over 55 percent of those surveyed said that "women have no right to an abortion under any circumstances," and 53 percent said "the death penalty is applicable in certain circumstances."

"The expectations these leaders have about social mobility is one of the main conclusions of the study. Taking on leadership roles shows that they are seeking a change, trying to do something about their circumstances, and not just for themselves and their families, but also for their communities," Javiera Pizarro, the head of the CIS, told IPS.

"It has made them look at themselves and think that in five years' time they will be better off than they are now, that they will get decent houses and there will also be more social justice in Chile," the sociologist said.

The demands of shanty town community leaders are not limited to decent housing, Pizarro added, but include improvements in the quality of healthcare and education for their children, and getting wider access to cultural and technological services.

The conclusions of the study should help to include community leaders in the process of formulating public policies, she said.

Government officials should realise that "leaders do not only arise from the traditional circles of power, but also from the grassroots level, and the voices of community leaders should be heard because they speak of their own needs," Pizarro said.

"We are organising regional councils to develop concrete proposals in this election year. We want to tell the presidential candidates, 'Look, these are the proposals of the most vulnerable people in the country, what do you say to them?' We don't want them to offer us the same plans they have been offering for 20 years," Castro stated.

"This year we are going to be much more proactive, we are going to make many more demands. But we're not going to stand on street corners, shouting complaints against the Ministry of National Assets, unless we have a definite proposal to make," the leader concluded.

http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=46459

The situation remains horrid, intolerable for women in Afghanistan's provinces. From guardian.co.uk.
Read two related articles here and here.

Taliban shoot dead Afghan politician who championed women's rights

• Two gunmen behind killing in Kandahar
• Legislator's colleagues had warned her of attack

• Jon Boone in Kabul
• The Guardian, Monday 13 April 2009
• Article history

A leading female Afghan politician was shot dead yesterday after leaving a provincial council meeting in Kandahar, southern Afghanistan, which her colleagues had begged her not to attend.

Sitara Achakzai was attacked by two gunmen as she arrived at her home in a rickshaw - a vehicle colleagues said she deliberately chose to use to avoid attracting attention.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the murder. The two gunmen were apparently waiting for Achakzai, a 52-year-old women's rights activist who had lived for many years in Germany when the Taliban were in power in Afghanistan.

Officials said she returned in 2004 to her home in Kandahar, which is also the birthplace and spiritual home of the Taliban.

One of Achakzai's friends, speaking anonymously, said colleagues had begged her not to attend the meeting, which takes place twice a week.

"She knew the danger she was in. Just a couple of days ago she was joking about the fact that she had a 300,000 rupee price on her head," she said. "Like other women she would always travel in a rickshaw rather than a big armoured Humvee because it's less conspicuous, but it also made her easier prey."

Achakzai's life was in danger because she was not only a women's rights activist but also as a local politician. Taliban militants target anyone associated with the government of Afghanistan and last month launched an audacious assault with four suicide bombers on the provincial council building in Kandahar city, killing 17 people.

There have been many other attacks on women in the province, including the assassination in 2006 of Safia Amajan, the head of the province's women's affairs department.

Malalai Kakar, a top policewoman in the city, was killed last September, and schoolgirls have had acid thrown in their faces as punishment for attending school.

Achakzai had put herself at the forefront of the women's rights struggle in Kandahar, and last year organised a "prayer for peace" demonstration in one of the city's biggest mosques on International Women's Day.

About 1,500 women attended the event, although this year the women were banned from entering the building and instead held a meeting at the city's human rights commission.

Ahmed Wali Karzai, head of the Kandahar provincial council and brother of Afghanistan's president, Hamid Karzai, said he had seen Achakzai earlier in the day before she was murdered, and had granted her leave from her duties so she could visit a sick relative in Canada.

"I had just said goodbye and joked that it was a good time to leave because our offices have been totally destroyed and need to be rebuilt."

Karzai added that Achakzai had for the past two years held the post of secretary in the provincial council, which, until her death, had four female members of the 15-strong body. She was married to an academic who taught at Kandahar University.

Wenny Kusama, country director of the United Nations Development Fund for Women, said the murder of Achakzai was an attack "on all freedom".

Source is here.

With the rapid population increases occurring in metropolises across the globe, and deteriorating environmental conditions at the same time, we have a potentially explosive situation facing the health and well-being of their citizens; these urban jungles being artificial and out of tune with nature as they are!

From Time.com.

Dry Taps in Mexico City: A Water Crisis Gets Worse

By Ioan Grillo / Mexico City Saturday, Apr. 11, 2009

A child walks close to a measuring pile at the lake reservoir, in Villa Victoria, outside of Mexico City, on April 7, 2009. Authorities reported on Tuesday this will be one of the most serious water shortages in recent memory.

Luis Acosta / AFP / Getty

The reek of unwashed toilets spilled into the street in the neighborhood of unpainted cinder block houses. Out on the main road, hundreds of residents banged plastic buckets and blocked the path of irate drivers while children scoured the surrounding area for government trucks. Finally, the impatient crowd launched into a high-pitched chant, repeating one word at fever pitch: "Water, Water, Water!"

Related

Photos

World Water Crisis

About five million people, or a quarter of the population of Mexico City's urban sprawl, woke up Thursday with dry taps. The drought was caused by the biggest stoppage in the city's main reservoir system in recent years to ration its depleting supplies. Government officials hope this and four other stoppages will keep water flowing until the summer rainy season fills the basins back up. But they warn that the Mexican capital needs to seriously overhaul its water system to stop an unfathomable disaster in the future. (See pictures of the world water crisis.)

It is perhaps unsurprising that the biggest metropolis in the Western hemisphere is confronting problems with its water supply — and becoming an alarming cautionary tale for other megacities. Scientists have been talking for years about how humans are pumping up too much water while ripping apart too many forests, and warning that the vital liquid could become the next commodity nations are fighting over with tanks and bombers. But it is hard for most people to appreciate quite how valuable a simple thing like water is — until the taps turn off. (See pictures of the contentious politics of water in Central Asia.)

Housewife Graciela Martinez, 44, complains that the smell of her bathroom — used by her family of eight — had forced them all outside. "We have got no toilets, I can't wash my children, I can't cook, I can't clean the mess off the floor," Martinez says, trying to find shade from the sweltering sun. "And the worst thing is, we have got almost nothing to drink."

Paradoxically, the thirsty city was once a great lake, where the Aztecs founded their island citadel Tenochtitlan in 1325. When the Spanish conquerors took control they drained much of the water, laying the basis for the vast expansion of the metropolis across the entire Valley of Mexico. However, as the growing population continues to suck water out in wells, Mexico City is sinking down into the old lake bed at a rate of about three inches a year. This downward plunge puts extra pressure on water distribution pipes, which are now so leaky they lose about 40% of liquid before it even reaches homes.

With its own supplies evaporating, Mexico City relies on the Cutzamala system, a network of reservoirs and treatment plants that pump in water from hundreds of miles around. However, this year Cutzamala itself is running dry amid low levels of rainfall in the area. Its main basin is only 47% full, compared to an annual average of 70% for early April. "This could be caused by climate change and deforestation. These are difficult factors to understand and predict," says Felipe Arreguin, under director of the National Water Commission. "We had to have the stoppages now to make sure that some supply can continue until the rain in June." The first two partial stoppages in February and March cut off water to hundreds of thousands. In the April action, the entire Cutzamala system will be shut down for 36 hours, before gradually resuming water pumping over several days.

Martinez is particularly anxious because this means there will be no water in her taps this entire weekend. She is also enraged that the blight is mostly hitting poor neighborhoods like hers. "The rich are still swimming in their pools while we are dying of thirst," she says. Playing up to the class war theme, Mexican newspaper Reforma showed a photo of a woman using a public tap in a poor area next to another woman hosing down her lawn in a rich suburb. (See pictures of crime fighting in Mexico City.)

Ramon Aguirre, director of Mexico City's water department, says the government has tried to distribute supplies as fairly as possible but the Cutzamala system is hooked up to many of the unplanned communities on the city outskirts. The city has, however, sent out of fleets of water trucks, and Mayor Marcelo Ebrard — who built urban beaches and a winter ice rink for the poor — is personally handing out free bottled water. Aguirre says the long-term solution involves teaching people to ration their water much better. "We need to educate people from when they are children that water is valuable and needs to be used wisely," he says.

Few Mexico City residents currently heed such advice. Keen on long showers and washing their cars, homes and clothes well, the average Mexico City resident uses 300 liters of waters per day compared to 180 per day in some European cities, says Arreguin. Furthermore, on Easter Saturdays, residents traditionally have huge water fights, in which everyone from grandparents to young children join in hurling bucket loads over each other. Piet Klop, an investigator at the Washington-based environmental think tank World Resources Institute, says that people will not learn to ration water unless it hits their pockets. "We need to understand that it is a more valuable commodity than oil and prices must reflect that better," Klop says. "Cheap subsidized water is not helping people. It is giving them a bad service." However, radically hiking the prices of any basic commodity would be a tough sell for any politician, especially in a turbulent democracy such as Mexico.

NEPAL: Displaced Choose Urban Homelessness Over Rural Insecurity

 

Social unrest and oppression provokes displacement and consequent homelessness.

 

NEPAL: Displaced Choose Urban Homelessness Over Rural Insecurity

By Renu Kshetry

Bishnu Maya Dahal: "If only we could return home" Credit:Renu Kshetry/IPS

KATHMANDU, Apr 9 (IPS) - Bishnu Maya Dahal, 51, dreams of going back to her village in eastern Nepal.

The family fled to Kathmandu in 2001 after her husband, a member of the then ruling Nepali Congress was brutally beaten by Maoist rebels for daring to defy a ban and run in village-level elections in 2001.

Chailal was assaulted, his legs crushed under a giant stone rice crusher, and left for dead. He survived, but his 22-year-old son, who had climbed a tree to save himself from the Maoists, broke his back when a branch snapped under his weight.

Dahal says her son breathed his last as he was carried to the nearest hospital in the district headquarters, an arduous two-day mountain journey on a porter's back.

The three-member family lives in the premises of an early 19th century temple in Thapathali, the heart of Kathmandu. Dahal's 13-year-old son performs the puja (ritual prayers) in the Gopal mandir. The government pays temple priests a yearly honorarium of 300 Nepali rupees (roughly 3.5 USD). Apart from this, the priest is entitled to keep the fruits and rice offered by devotees.

No willingness on govt's part Behind Nepal's National IDP Policy of 2007 is the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC), an independent, humanitarian organisation. Since March 2007, the NRC has provided information, counseling and legal assistance to 21,000 IDPs, according to its latest figures. But that is soon going to stop. By August 2009, the NRC plans to wind up. The reason, according to country director Philippe Clerc, in an interview with IPS, is "we think that the Nepal government has to do the work related to IDPs, and NRC cannot substitute state services endlessly." He does not mask the NRC's frustration. "It is just a pity that the government has not taken the opportunity to implement the National IDP policy which was a major achievement in terms of broadening the IDPs definition in Nepal and (had) set rights and (a) system (in) dealing with IDPs." "There is no willingness on the government's part and no capacity to elaborating plans for implementing programmes as set in the policy to solve most of the issues notably when it comes to integration and education, health," he is candid. Clerc says in order to take the peace process to its logical end, the IDPs issue should not be ignored. The roots of conflicts have not been solved and those affected by the conflict have not received enough help and that might create anxiety among the people, he warns.

It is difficult to imagine how the family has survived for eight years. Occasionally, Dahl finds work as a domestic helper. With a husband who has been ailing since he was beaten up, she is unable to go to work every day. Things have been worse since she had a hysterectomy for suspected cancer of the uterus two months ago.

"I keep wishing if only we could return to our home," she says longingly.

In June 2008, Dahal did try to return to her home in Okhaldhunda district. She was given 5,000 rupees (about 60 dollars) from the Kathmandu district administration office for the journey back. But without any means of support or assurances from the government, she could not stay on. "I want help to rebuild my house … My cattle, my land have been taken by my neighbours," she says.

An armed uprising led by Maoist rebels that began in rural Nepal in 1996 and spread like wildfire uprooted thousands of families. In April 2006, a people's revolution toppled the traditional monarchy. The Maoists declared a ceasefire, and joined the interim government.

In elections in April 2008, the former rebels won the largest number of seats to the new Constituent Assembly but failed to achieve an outright majority. A month later, Nepal was declared a republic. Now, the coalition government led by the erstwhile Maoists has been tasked to draft a new constitution by August 2010.

Issues like the rehabilitation of internally displaced people (IDP) have been put on the back burner.

A National IDP Policy was announced in 2007 by the interim government. It was drafted by the Ministry of Peace and Reconciliation (MoPR) with support from the Norwegian Refugee Council, a non-governmental organisation, and other agencies such as Nepal's National Human Rights Commission, and the UN Office of the Commission of Human Rights in Nepal.

According to a MoPR task force to collect data of the conflict affected individual, family and infrastructure, the number of IDPs has gone from 9,000 families (a total of 25,000 individuals) in 2005 to 14,063 families (52,332 people) in 2008. The numbers swelled dramatically after the endorsement of the National IDP Policy.

Khem Bahadur Giri, a member of the task force, told IPS that data on a total 67,000 people has been collected till date but the new IDPs are yet to be registered in the official document. Roughly 50 percent of the displaced and documented are women, he said.

Like Dahal, Kusum Rawat is on the government's list of IDPs. She is from a village in remote Humla district.

Since her arrival in Kathmandu five years ago she has been the family's sole breadwinner. Her husband has retreated into himself since Maoists beat him in front of his family. Their five children - two girls and three boys between the ages of 4 and 14 – eat whenever Rawat can find work as a daily wager.

"I do everything - from carrying stones to washing dishes - but it (work) is not regular," she confides. "When there is no food, we go to bed on empty stomachs."

Unlike Dahal, Rawat who cannot be more than 40 years old, does not want to go back to her village. "I wake up praying I will get some work so I can feed my family. If the government can ensure (employment) what more can I ask?" she says simply.

The government introduced a return and reintegration package in October 2007 under the National IDP Policy, but has focussed only on sending IDPs home.

Durganidhi Sharma, joint secretary in MoPR, says the government does not have the money to integrate and resettle uprooted families.

Registered IDPs are offered travel fares, a daily travel allowance and a resettlement allowance of roughly 7,200 rupees for a four-month period, which works out to less than one dollar a day. According to Sharma, 27,000 of the 52,332 registered IDPs have taken the money to return home.

However, the moot point is: how many returnees will stay on in the absence of a government policy on rehabilitation and funds to implement it. Both Dahal and Rawat took the transportation money but opted to return to Kathmandu.

Sharma does not deny that most IDPs are likely to choose urban homelessness over rural insecurity. "If IDP regulation had been in place then it would have been more effective to keep track of the IDPs and their status and to support them," he says.

But he holds out hope for Dahal. "The MoPR has forwarded the IDP regulation draft to the prime minister's office and we are hoping it will be endorsed soon."

 

Source is here.

Religion and Poverty Force Girls into Early Marriages

Religion can be either constructive or destructive: Poverty helps perpetuate backward religious attitudes.

GENDER-ZIMBABWE: Religion and Poverty Force Girls into Early Marriages

By Phyllis Kachere

HARARE, Apr 9 (IPS) - While her peers get ready to go to school each morning, 14-year-old Matipedza (not her real name) of Marange district in Manicaland has to stay behind to prepare breakfast for her 67-year-old husband.

Although her marriage is not legally registered, it is customarily recognised, and the teenager is expected to live as a housewife and soon bear children.

"I can't go against [the will of] my elders and leave my husband in order to attend school. Besides, where would I go if I leave? My parents will not welcome me," said Matipedza.

Her case is not unique. In fact, the majority of school-going girls in Marange, some as young as ten, have been married to older men from their church, the Johanne Marange Apostolic sect, which is infamous for believing in polygamy. Most marriages are arranged between adult men and under-age girls.

Although it is criminal under the recently enacted Domestic Violence Act to marry off an under-age girl - the age of sexual consent in Zimbabwe is 16 years - it is difficult to stop these marriages, as members of the sect are complicit and secretive.

Recently released research by Harare-based non-governmental organisation Women and Law Southern Africa (WLSA) has shown that young girls in early marriages are likely to suffer birth complications, some of them resulting in death.

The WLSA study also revealed that those girls are prone to cervical cancer, suffer psychological trauma and encounter a host of problems, such as failing to deal with the social pressures that come with being a wife in a polygamous union.

The findings have forced Zimbabwean authorities to step up efforts to stop the practice that has forced thousands of girls in the Marange, Odzi and Buhera districts of Manicaland to drop out of school.

Although current data is not available, statistics from the Ministry of Education, Sport and Culture district office reveal that out of the 10,000 girls who enrolled in Form One in the Marange district in 2000, only about a third completed Form Four in 2003.

"Those who dropped out became wives, with a small number dropping out because they could not afford the fees," said a senior district education officer who did not want to be named.

School dropouts

Most girls stop schooling in July when the sect celebrates Passover, a religious festivity during which marriage ceremonies take place.

Gideon Mombeshora, a sect member, told IPS that most men in the church prefer to marry under-age girls because it is easier to control them. "Most men want to get married to docile women. The younger the bride the more chances for dominance for the man," he said.

He further explained the sect strongly believes in the practice of under-age brides: "Although it is not in our church's statutes that old men should marry under-age girls, the practice is deeply entrenched in our belief system."

Former senator Sheila Mahere said early marriages are a social ill that threatens to derail government's bid to fulfil its Millennium Development Goal (MDG) on increasing access to primary education as girls continue to drop out of the already constrained education system.

"Early marriages threaten national economic development, as bright and intelligent girls are forced out of school to become cheap labour and child bearers in their homesteads. Most of the girls become farm labourers on their husbands' farms," she said.

The Union for the Development of Apostolic Churches in Zimbabwe-Africa (UDA-CIZA), a coalition of 160 apostolic sects in Zimbabwe, said tries to raise awareness among apostolic sect leaders of the dangers of early marriages. But in most cases, it faces serious resistance.

"The police has been the biggest let down in early forced child marriages as they have continued to turn a blind eye to these crimes," explain UDA-CIZA programme manager Edson Tsvakai. "We sometimes report some of our members to the police for these crimes but there have been very few successful prosecutions, largely because police view these cases as not serious and because some of the sect leaders are highly networked with the authorities."

Serious resistance

In 2007, the Harare-based Girl Child Network, rescued an 11-year-old girl who had been married off to a 44-year-old man in Buhera. The man was successfully prosecuted and sentenced to six months in jail. However, shortly thereafter, the sentence was suspended and the girl had to live in a safe house because the unrepentant husband continued to claim her as his wife.

Caroline Nyamayemombe, gender officer at the United Nations Population and Development Agency (UNFPA) country office in Harare, says studies have confirmed that teenage pregnancy is on the increase in Zimbabwe and a leading cause of maternal mortality.

"Young girls are married off to men often older than their own fathers. This scenario has significantly contributed to pregnancy complications in teenage mothers. These harmful cultural practices are rampant in some districts in the country," she explained.

Nyamayemombe said apart from religious beliefs, poverty is one of the key reasons for early marriages, as UNFPA data have shown that about 80 percent of pregnant teenagers come from poor families.

"Single adolescent girls who become pregnant are more likely to drop out of school, thus compromising their future earning capacity and becoming more likely to end in poverty. Maternal mortality and mortality from HIV/AIDS related causes become a reality for these girls and often lead or exacerbate poverty," she added.

A pregnant teenager faces the risk of immature uterine muscles and mucous membranes that pose serious danger and a high risk of a ruptured uterus in cases of prolonged labour.

Source is here.