Water crisis in the former oasis of Tunisia

Even after the Arab Spring stormed thru the little country of Tunisia, people there are still having trouble getting access to basic services.  This summer the people of Tunisia had to suffer thru mandated water cuts. The government says the official reason is because of short supply, but the people blame the Phosphate industry. Residents say that the industry uses most off the water, and contaminates whatever is left over. This is one of the reasons why experts say there may soon be a war caused by water scarcity in Africa.

From the Inter Press Service, writer Ihsan Bouabid looks into the water management issue.

Local people say the water issue has been an everyday reality for decades, ever since the creation of the Compagnie des Phosphates de Gafsa (CPG) in 1897.

“Tap water is contaminated by chemicals produced by the phosphate plants,” Hayat Benrejeb, who lost her husband to lung cancer three years ago and lives in Gafsa’s old quarters, tells IPS.

Benrejeb says the problem is a “time bomb waiting to explode” because school children are suffering increasingly from asthma and pneumonia, illnesses that could only be explained by the presence of sulfuric fumes.

CPG’s mining operations are mainly based around the deposits in the Gafsa basin located in the south of the country, north of Chott el Jerid. The company produces eight million metric tons of merchant-grade phosphate annually.

This production is also vital for the domestic industry for phosphoric acid and fertiliser production through the Groupe Chimique Tunisien (GCT) headquartered in the Mediterranean port Sfax, 190 km from Gafsa city.

“Water supply and pollution issues alike have deepened over the years after high volumes of water started being pumped for the local chemical industries,” says Benrejeb. “Our region did not benefit from any profit made by these companies. We only inherited the ills left behind.”

Now, most people have to buy mineral bottled water for daily consumption, she says.

Ban Ki-Moon asks for more aid dollars, again

Once again the pleading for more development assistance from rich contires is being heard, this time U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon. Rich nations have over and over again failed to live up to their promises of more development dollars to poor nations. The recent global recession only made matters worse, as rich nations were forced to cut back on the money they give.

At the U.N. general assembly meetings, Moon says that the aid cuts could prevent some of the Millenium Development Goals from being reached. With the target year for the goals being 2015, aid dollars need to increase by almost double to make sure they are all met in time.

From the Washington Post, we hear more about the shortfalls in aid.  

The report said official development assistance in 2011 fell to $133 billion, less than half the $300 billion needed annually to meet the goals set by world leaders in 2000.

The secretary-general urged donor nations to step up their international aid and fill the $167 billion gap.

“It is clear that we need a stronger global partnership to achieve the MDGs by the 2015 deadline,” he said. “Do not place the burden of fiscal austerity on the backs of the poor — either in your own countries or abroad.”

The report said 16 key donors reduced their aid in 2011, mainly in response to the global economic crisis. The economic downturn also led governments to adopt protectionist trade policies that hurt developing nations, the report said.

The U.N. chief said essential medicines are much too expensive and only half of public health facilities in developing countries are able to provide them. He said Internet access is also prohibitively expensive for the poor, especially in Africa.

New report finds little political will to fight child malnutrition

You will often see reports released at the same time that important international meetings take place. With the U.N. General assembly going on now in New York, we can expect to see quite a few of them in the upcoming days. The groups issuing the reports hope to sway some of the discussion at the meeting.

We often link to the reports focusing on development aid, and a very important one was released today. The charities Save the Children and World Vision have issued a report on the rates of child malnutrition across the globe.

According to the report titled "Nutrition Barometer" 36 countries contain 90 percent of the world's malnourished children. The report finds that there is often very little political or legal commitment to improving the health of children in those 36 countries.

The "Nutrition Barometer" can be downloaded from here at the Save The Children website. From Reuters Alert Net, writer Thin Lei Win gives us this summary.

India, despite experiencing strong economic growth in the past few years, shares the bottom rank – countries defined by the study as having low levels of political, legal and financial commitment and little changes to the high rates of malnutrition – with Democratic Republic of Congo and Yemen.

These three countries, together with Afghanistan, Pakistan, Niger, Ethiopia and Madagascar, also have the worst nutrition and child survival outcomes, the report said.

While malnutrition itself may not kill children, it is the underlying cause of the deaths of 2.3 million children under five years in 2011 – more than a third of the total, the report said.

Peru, Guatemala and Malawi were applauded for topping the list, with political will and committed resources to fight child malnutrition achieving results.  

Despite the overall positive trend of child survival, including nearly halving the number of children dying before their fifth birthday between 1990 and 2011, “progress in reducing childhood under nutrition has been slow,” the report said.

“Rates of stunting are falling too slowly, and the proportion of wasted children (suffering acute weight loss) actually rose during the last decade,” it added.

“Malnutrition remains a critical problem and it’s a very complex problem,” Michel Anglade, Save the Children’s director for campaigns and advocacy in Asia, told AlertNet.

The new U.S. Census Bureau poverty and income data

Just in time for the U.S. Presidential Election, the Census Bureau has released new data on the income and poverty levels throughout the nation. CNN Money has great interactive map where you can scroll over each state to see their data.

Again this year, Mississippi is the state with the highest poverty level and lowest median income. On the bright side, the highest median income belongs to Maryland, while the lowest poverty level belongs to New Hampshire.

Ugandan children "haunted" by hunger

 A disease caused by malnutrition has parents in Uganda keeping a constant watch on their children. It is called "nodding" syndrome; a strange condition similar to epilepsy that has children going into convulsions whenever they attempt to eat food. Because of a lack of medical support, some of the parents are abandoning their children or decide that they simply "haunted"

From the Inter Press Service, writer Henry Wasswa describes the condition further. 

On a wet earth littered with fresh fruit from a large mango tree in Tumangu village in northern Uganda, Betty Olana (42) sits on a papyrus mat watching over four emaciated children infected by the mysterious nodding syndrome that leaves victims mentally challenged and nodding repeatedly when they see food or cold water.

One of them is her daughter, Joyce Laram (15), who sits with her mouth agape, and saliva running down her chin. The sick children rarely speak and even when the do, they utter unintelligible words only understood by their parents.

“It is mostly at night, when the moon is up that she gets delirious. She hardly gets sleep at night. She cries out suddenly and we have to tie her up. She is now saying: ‘I am seeing ghosts. The ghosts are there. I am seeing them with my eyes. Please protect me,’” Olana told IPS of her daughter who was completely normal until the age of 10.

Victims of the unexplained neurological condition experience numerous symptoms, including continuous nodding, mental retardation, epilepsy, rashes and trembling hands. Many of the infected also suffer from malnutrition as their seizures are triggered by food.

“At the beginning, she started nodding. She has been on medication (for epilepsy) for a long time. The medical people say it is epilepsy, but I do not think so. I think this child, like the rest in this village, is haunted by the spirits of the dead,” Olana said.

Health experts say that the disease is non-communicable. But scientists remain in the dark about the fatal disease that has no known cure, and which first appeared in Tanzania in the 1960s. The Ugandan government estimates that as of January, 200 children have died from the disease.

The children have to be watched constantly as some have fallen into fires and rivers, while wild animals have eaten others. Some parents tie their children to trees or lock them up when they go to farm or to the market. But many have been abandoned.

Now, parents and relief workers in northern Uganda, where nodding syndrome is prevalent, are angry that the government is not doing enough to combat the disease.

The region has been left devastated by the country’s war with the rebel Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), headed by Joseph Kony. It was one of Africa’s longest-running conflicts, which began in 1978 and has since moved to neighbouring South Sudan and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

The LRA has been accused of human rights abuses, including the abduction of 20,000 children, the murder of almost 100,000 civilians, mutilation, slavery, torture and rape.

Video: a profile of U.N. Energy Director Kandeh Yumkella

From the CNN program African Voices, a profile on U.N. Energy Director Kandeh Yumkella. In this piece, Yunkella talks about his belief that the world needs an energy revolution. If those in poverty had access to energy, Yumkella believes that all of the other obstacles would begin to fall.

Rethinking Zimbabwe's ban on genetically modified food

Zimbabwe has imported food constantly over the last 15 years. Successive droughts and land seizures have contributed to the lack of food.

During this time of food shortages, the country has had a ban on growing genetically modified food. The only GMO food sold within Zimbabwe has been imported from elsewhere. Many are calling on the government to rethink this ban. Citing some of the drought resistant attributes of GMO seeds that could help Zimbabwe become food sufficient again.

From Reuters Alert net, writer Madalitso Mwando looks into the debate.

Last month, the Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries (CZI) announced it was asking the government to allow farmers to plant GMO crops to boost agricultural production after a succession of poor harvests.

 “We will continue pushing for the embracing of GMO production, using GMO technology,” the CZI said in a statement, noting that exporting such food would be a starting point.

Zimbabwe has long opposed the production of genetically modified crops, even though imported GMO products have flooded supermarkets since the easing of stringent import regulations in 2009, when the country suspended the local currency.

Agriculture minister Joseph Made has said previously that the country will not allow farmers to produce GMOs, claiming they contain toxic substances that are harmful to consumers’ health and that they are less nutritious than organic foods.

The minister’s position has been criticised as flawed since Zimbabwean farmers use pesticides and fertiliser, so locally produced food, while non-GMO, is not necessarily organic.

However, there remain policy differences within the troubled coalition government on this issue, as with others. Science and technology minister Heneri Dzinotyiwei said last month that the government was reviewing its anti-GMO policy.

According to Dzinotywei, the safety of GMOs has been confirmed by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization and the World Health Organisation, as well as the International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology, a non-profit research organisation.

The struggle for Canadian single parents

New census data for Canada shows that the number of single parents jumped eight percent over the last five years.  Evidence suggests that many of them live just above the poverty level for the country. Despite earning an honest wage, many single parents are finding it hard to climb the income ladder due to the increasing gap between rich and poor.

From Metro News Canada, writer Micheal Tutton meets a few of the single parents living in a homeless shelter in New Brunswick.

At the First Steps Housing Project in Saint John, N.B., Amy Young cuddles her 15-month-old son Striker, weeping as she reflects on a troubled past of addictions and a broken relationship — and a future she’s determined to ensure means a better life for her baby.

“It’s not about you any more,” Young said, Striker happily playing nearby. “It’s all about your child and the good decisions you have to make for them.”

First Steps, a centre for homeless, single mothers, is a safe haven, a daycare and and a provider of in-house high school education to the dozen women currently living there.

For Young, the converted convent next to a city hospital seems like “a mansion” compared to the squalor of her old neighbourhood, where many of Saint John’s lone-parent families continue to live.

“There were stabbings,” she recalled. “You would find syringes in the street, crack pipes and stuff like that.”

Lone-parent families represented 16.3 per cent of all census families in 2011, nearly twice the percentage of 1961, before the advent of 1968′s Divorce Act and a steadily growing proportion of parents who never got married in the first place.

In 1961, roughly two-thirds of lone parents were widowed, and the rest were either divorced or separated, with a small percentage never having been married. Since then, the proportions have changed dramatically: half are either divorced or separated, while the ranks of those going it alone from the outset have grown tenfold.

EU caps bio-fuel use, but is it enough?

The European Commission usage of bio-fuels has had quite a few unintended consequences. Their policy of mandating some usage of bio-fuels has increased food prices, led to more hunger and destroyed rain forests. The EU now admits to at least the last point, and is now changing policy to stop it. But some hunger advocates say it is still not enough.

From the Inter Press Service, writer Daan Bauwns has this analysis. 

According to the existing European rules at least 10 percent of the EU’s transport energy must come from renewable sources by 2020, primarily through biofuels derived from wheat, soy or rapeseed. But in an unprecedented move, EU Energy Commissioner Günther Oettinger and Climate Commissioner Connie Hedegaard announced Monday that the European Commission (EC) is planning to limit the use of crop-based biofuel to five percent in the total share of renewables in transport fuel.

Just ahead of the meeting, international NGO Oxfam released a new report which demonstrates that Europe’s hunger for biofuels is pushing up global food prices and driving people off their land, resulting in deeper hunger and malnutrition in poor countries.

According to the NGO, despite soy and maize prices being at all-time highs in July and prices of cereals and oil remaining at peak levels in August, the Commission and most governments seemed to turn a blind eye to the devastating impacts that EU biofuels mandates have on food prices and land rights.

....

“I’m happy the EC is finally recognising the fact that the use of food-crops for fuel is problematic,” says Ruth Kelly, Oxfam’s economic policy advisor and writer of Oxfam’s new report, “but putting a cap of 5 percent on biofuel consumption is ridiculous. At this moment the biofuel use in the EU is only at 4.5 percent. So the new cap of 5 percent is actually an increase of what we’re using at the moment.

One in Three Hispanic Children at Risk for Hunger in the United States

Bread For The World released a new report yesterday on hunger within the Latino population of the United States. The report shows that one in three Hispanic children are at risk for hunger within our borders.

Bread for the World has made the entire report available on their website; "Hunger and Poverty in the Hispanic Community." From Bread for The World's press release we find more figures from the report.

Thirty-four percent of Latino households with children struggle to put food on the table, according to “Hunger and Poverty in the Hispanic Community,” compared to about 22 percent of U.S. households with children overall.  And a shocking 36 percent of all Hispanic children live in poverty, compared to 25 percent of U.S. children overall. 

These figures could be much worse if it were not for government safety net programs. Federal nutrition programs like SNAP (the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, formerly food stamps), WIC (the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children), and school meal programs have helped keep more people from going hungry, despite the nation's soaring poverty and unemployment rates. Thirty-five percent of Latinos are eligible for SNAP benefits, but only 21.4 percent actually participate in the program.

“Congress has a responsibility to communities with the greatest need, and we are urging policy makers to create a circle of protection around funding for programs that are vital to hungry and poor people,” added Moreno.

The biggest health threat from climate change? Hunger.

Farmers in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia are largely unprepared for climate change. Droughts and flooding have already taken a toll on crops and experts say to expect more in the future. With climate change destroying the food, that means there could be less to feed the people in the effected areas.

From Reuters Alert Net, writer Laurie Goering attended a World Health Organization briefing on the subject.

“No one will ever die with a death certificate saying they died of climate change,” so assessing the number of climate-linked deaths will be difficult, epidemiologist Kris Ebi warned during a recent World Health Organization (WHO) briefing on adapting health systems to climate shifts.

But malnutrition is already an underlying cause of about half of 9 million annual child deaths. And with 85 percent of the health impacts of climate change estimated to hit children, they will be “highly vulnerable”, said Ebi, a lead author of the human health section of the 2007 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Fourth Assessment Report.

 ....
The two areas of the world likely to suffer the greatest health risks linked with climate change are sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, IPCC studies suggest. Both are already grappling with malnutrition, in particular, and could see agriculture suffer from climate extremes, health experts say.

But governments and health services in these regions are not the only ones who need to act. “Every country is going to be affected,” Ebi said. “There is no country that is not going to see some health impacts from climate change.”

Solomon Nzioka, a doctor in the WHO’s Kenya office, cited last year’s drought in East Africa, which led to tens of thousands of deaths in southern Somalia before aid arrived, as an example of the health and malnutrition challenges ahead.

Kenya’s health service also is struggling to cope with new disease challenges, such as dengue fever, he said.

After this year’s long rains, from March to May, doctors saw a rise in what they thought were malaria cases. But the initial diagnoses proved wrong, and blood tests showed the outbreak was dengue, a surprise for health workers, Nzioka said.

Tropical Storm Issac brings heavy wind and rain to Haiti

Another tropical storm as blown through Haiti. The vulnerable island nation still hasn't fully recovered from the earthquake of two years ago. Because of the that disaster, over 400,000 people are still living in tents. From Reuters Alert Net, Plan International tells us about their plans to bring emergency aid to Haiti. 

"Tents in the camps for displaced people have blown away and roofs have blown off houses," says Maka Barry, Acting Country Director for Plan International in Haiti.
"In Port-au-Prince and the West and South-East of the country, we are dealing with flooding and uprooted trees blocking roads - as well as fallen electricity poles which means long power outages are expected."
"Although the storm is moving away people living in mountainous areas are still exposed to the danger of landslides."
Plan International has emergency provisions at ready, as taskforces assess the extent of the damage.
“Young people are particularly vulnerable during disasters such as these - and we have been working to ensure their safety and welfare as far as possible,” added Mr Barry.

Anti-NGO legislation increases across the globe

Civil Society Squeezed On All Sides

Non-Government Development Aid organizations are seeing more and more restrictions put against them by governments across the globe. Often the restrictions come from countries that claim to be democracies. Carey Biron of the Inter Press Service attended a panel discussion in Washington that focused on the issue.

 A year and a half after the international wake-up call of the Arab Spring uprisings, the room for civil society organisations is being increasingly constricted across the globe, experts in Washington warned on Tuesday.
“Unfortunately, the trends have been against democracy, against expansion of that space of civil society,” Maina Kiai, the United Nations special rapporteur on freedom of assembly, told a panel discussion here.
“With more and more restrictions coming up to take away these rights, we are at a point where we have begun the fight again. This time it’s much more subtle, much more ‘rule by law’ than ‘rule of law’, and it’s very scary.”
Kiai highlighted anti-NGO legislation currently pending or recently passed in Ethiopia, Rwanda, Russia and elsewhere.

....

Kiai says that international donors are not only failing to ensure that democratic gains are strengthened in several quasi-democracies but, in some cases, are actively exacerbating existing problems.
“Globally, donor countries are beginning to move towards accepting the Chinese model of development,” Kiai says. “Recently, the poster children for development have been Ethiopia and Rwanda – countries that do not have democracy but where the rates of development are going up.”
During the Arab Spring, he says, Tunisia showed that a country can have strong development figures but still have “an anger in society” that needs to be addressed.
“For some reason, the lessons of the Arab Spring are not moving across the world – the understanding that you cannot have sustainable development without democracy,” Kiai notes. “Everybody’s fawning over Ethiopia, but why are we doing this without trying to understand the sustainability of that assistance?”
While Ethiopia today is regularly touted for its sparkling new airport and highway system, the government under the two-decade-plus rule of Prime Minister Meles Zenawi has increasingly cracked down on civil rights, including the recent jailing of two dozen journalists and opposition figures under highly contested anti-terrorism laws.

War leaves Poverty in its Wake

Afghans are met by both poverty and the freezing cold of winter after over a decade since the start of the U.S.-led war in Afghanistan.

Afghans fight both cold winter, poverty

In the center of a city into which wealth has poured in the last decade, these people have been left behind. And while America's spending over $100 billion a year on this war, these Afghans say life has never been so bad.

UN Calls for End to Energy Poverty

The UN Secretary-General called for an end to energy poverty this past week, asking for a "global action to achieve sustainable energy for all by 2030."  There are two concepts I like to focus on when thinking about ending poverty - attaining true sustainable energy, and eliminating income inequality (and/or removing money control as form of slavery).

It's about time we focused on the important stuff.

Ban calls for end to energy poverty

“This is the right time for this initiative. Across the world we see momentum building for concrete action that reduces energy poverty, catalyses sustainable economic growth and mitigates the risks of climate change,” said the UN Secretary-General.

Disease in Poverty Declining

The part of this article which should be the most surprising, but doesn't actually surprise me, is that the developing nations of the world are doing more for their lower class than the wealthiest nations.  The report mentioned suggests that income inequality - regardless of amounts of wealth - leads to health consequences.

WHO Director: disease of poverty declining

Yesterday Margaret Chan, the Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO), opened the WHO board meeting with a challenge. “Few will disagree with my statement,” she said. “Our world is in very bad shape.”

The Trap of Poverty

The sad but unsurprising truth of poverty is that it traps people - children are the most likely to become victims of this.  If you are born into poverty, you are likely to remain poor...

Poverty trap set at birth - study

New Zealand researchers have put hard numbers to the adage that success breeds success - and failure breeds failure.

Success of Kenya's Democracy in Debate

This article takes a look at Kenya's economic development with respect to its democratic government, suggesting that the presence of a democracy could be hindering it's ability to grow.

Is democracy bad for Kenya's economic development?

As Kenya has entered another election year, debates on the achievements of its democracy are likely to increase. A functioning democracy needs more than elections, but even the management of elections has proven difficult for Kenya in the past, which partly explains why the economic performance has often been weak in election years and beyond.

More on Child Poverty in the UK

More from The Campaign to End Child Poverty...

Shocking report claims more than 50% of children are 'living in poverty' in UK's poorest areas

A 'child poverty map' exposed the UK's most stricken areas today, as campaigners warned that targeting Government cuts at families would lead to an 'economic and a social disaster'.

Child Poverty in the UK

This article takes a numbers look at children living in poverty in the UK.

Report shows scale of child poverty in Western Wards

The Campaign to End Child Poverty has published its poverty map of Great Britain which shows that the London Borough of Tower Hamlets is the worst area in the UK for child poverty with more than half its youngsters classed as being in poverty.