Day becomes night as solar eclipse engulfs US
Day turned to night for two minutes on Monday, August 21, 2017 as the first solar eclipse in the US in nearly a century unfolded from the Pacific coast to the Atlantic coast.
Millions of Americans, armed with protective glasses, marvelled at the manifestation, which was visible in a 70-mile-wide (113-km-wide), 2,500-mile-long (4,000-km-long) zone in the country. It drew one of the largest audiences in human history.
The last time such a spectacle unfolded from the Pacific to the Atlantic coast was in 1918. The last total eclipse seen anywhere in the United States took place in 1979.
The “Great American Eclipse”, as it is frequently referred to, captivated millions around the world – it is said to be the most-observed and most-photographed eclipse in history. In other countries it was only visible as a partial eclipse.
According to scientists, the next eclipse takes place on July 2, 2019, stretching over a wide swath of the Southern Pacific before passing across Chile and Argentina They add that Americans won’t have to wait long for the next US eclipse – an event that many scientists believe will be even more impressive than Monday’s natural wonder.
As millions across America witnessed the once-in-a-lifetime full solar eclipse, UK sky watchers were left disappointed by what they were able to see.
Weather experts had promised a partial solar eclipse in the UK, with the moon appearing to take a “bite” out of the sun in a phenomenon lasting roughly 40 minutes.
However, many were left underwhelmed and unable to see anything at all due to the cloud cover blocking their view.
Why ‘Liveable Cities’ rankings are wrong
Joel Kotkin, presidential fellow in urban futures at Chapman University and executive editor of newgeography.com, in this article published in Forbes.com says that the ranking criteria adopted by the Economist Intelligence Unit may not be the best standards for judging a city
Few topics stir more controversy between urbanists and civic boosters than city rankings. What truly makes a city “great,” or even “liveable”? The answers, and how these surveys determine them, are often subjective, narrow or even misguided. What makes a “great” city on one list can serve as a detriment on another.
Recent rankings of the “best” cities around the world by the Economist Intelligence Unit, Monocle magazine and the Mercer quality of life surveys settled on a remarkably similar list. For the most part, the top ranks are dominated by well-manicured older European cities such as Zurich, Geneva, Vienna, Copenhagen, Helsinki and Munich, as well as New World metropolises like Vancouver and Toronto; Auckland, New Zealand; and Perth and Melbourne in Australia.
Only Monocle put a truly cosmopolitan world city – Tokyo – near the top of its list.
The Economist rankings largely snubbed American cities – only Pittsburgh made it anywhere near the top, at No. 29 out of 140. The best we can say is most American cities did better than Harare, Zimbabwe, which ran at the bottom. Honolulu got a decent No. 11 on the Monocle list and broke into the top 30 on Mercer’s, as did No. 29 San Francisco. But regarding American urban boosters, that’s all, folks.
To understand these rather head-scratching results, one must look at the criteria these surveys used. Cultural institutions, public safety, mass transit, “green” policies and other measures of what is called “liveability” were weighted heavily, so results skewed heavily toward compact cities in fairly prosperous regions. Most of these regions suffer only a limited underclass and support a relatively small population of children. In fact, most of the cities are in countries with low birthrates – Switzerland’s median fertility rate, for example, is about 1.4, one of the lowest on the planet and a full 50% below that of the U.S.
These places make ideal locales for groups like traveling corporate executives, academics and researchers targeted by such surveys. With their often lovely facades, ample parks and good infrastructure, they constitute, for the most part, a list of what Wharton’s Joe Gyourko calls “productive resorts,” a sort of business-oriented version of an Aspen or Vail in Colorado or Palm Beach, Fla. Honolulu is an exception, more a vacation destination than a bustling business hub.
Yet are those the best standards for judging a city? It seems to me what makes for great cities in history are not measurements of safety, sanitation or homogeneity but economic growth, cultural diversity and social dynamism. A great city, as Rene Descartes wrote of 17th century Amsterdam, should be “an inventory of the possible,” a place of imagination that attracts ambitious migrants, families and entrepreneurs.
Such places are aspirational – they draw people not for a restful visit or elegant repast but to achieve some sort of upward mobility. By nature these places are chaotic and often difficult to navigate. Ambitious people tend to be pushy and competitive. Just think about the great cities of history – ancient Rome, Islamic Baghdad, 19th century London, 20th century New York – or contemporary Los Angeles, Houston, Shanghai and Mumbai.
These represent a far different urbanism than what one finds in well-organised and groomed Zurich, Vienna and Copenhagen. You would not call these cities and their ilk with metropolitan populations generally less than two million, “bustling.” Perhaps more fitting words would be “staid” and “controlled.”
Peace and quiet is very nice, but it doesn’t really encourage global culture or commerce. Growth and change come about when newcomers jostle with locals not just as tourists, or orbiting executives, but as migrants. Great cities in their peaks are all about this kind of yeasty confrontation.
Alas, comfort takes precedence over dynamism in these new cities. Take the immigration issue: Unlike Amsterdam in its heyday or London or New York today, most northern European countries have turned hostile to immigration and many have powerful nativist parties. These are directed not against elite corporate executives or academics, but newcomers from developing countries. In some cases, resentment is stoked by immigrants taking advantage of well-developed welfare systems that worked far better in a homogeneous country with shared attitudes of social rights and obligations.
Of course, these cities aren’t total deadweights. After all, Switzerland has its banks, Helsinki boasts Nokia and Denmark remains a key center of advanced and green manufacturing technology. For its part, Vancouver gets Americans to shoot cheap movie and TV shows with massive tax breaks and will host the Winter Olympics. But none can be considered major shapers of the modern world economy.
The one American city favored by The Economist, Pittsburgh, represents a pale – and less attractive – version of these top-ranked European, Canadian or Australian cities. Its formerly impressive array of headquarters has shrunk to a handful. Once the capital of steel, it now pretty much depends on nonprofits, hospitals and universities.
You will be hearing a lot more about Pittsburgh – the city has a prodigious PR machine funded largely by nonprofit foundations and universities – as it gets ready to host the G-20 meeting next month. Fans claim that the former steel town has developed a stable – if hardly dynamic – economy. Its torpidity is being sold a strength; boom-resistant in the best of times, it’s also proved relatively recession-proof as well.
In this sense, Pittsburgh represents the American model of the slow-growth European city. This may appeal to those doing quality-of-life rankings, but not to those who have been fleeing the Steel City for other places for generations. Immigrants are hardly coming in droves either – Pittsburgh ranks near last among major metropolitan areas in percentage of foreign-born residents. As longtime local columnist and resident Bill Steigerwald notes, since 1990 more Pittsburghers have been dying than being born. If this represents America’s urban future, perhaps it’s one that takes its inspiration from Alan Weisman’s “A world without us.”
Yet the future of urbanism, here and abroad, will not be Pittsburgh. Based on current preferences, something like 20 million – or more – people will have moved to U.S. cities by 2050. Most will likely settle in more dynamic places like New York, Los Angeles, Houston, Phoenix, Dallas, Chicago and Miami. These cities have become magnets for restless populations, both domestic and foreign-born. They also contain all the clutter, constant change, discomfort and even grime that characterise great cities through history.
But it’s economics that drives migrants to these dirtier, busier metropolitan centres. Many of the cities at the top of the livability lists, by contrast, are also among the world’s most expensive. They generally also have high taxes and relatively stagnant job markets.
Many U.S. cities, however, offer far more materially to their average residents than their elite European counterparts do. American cities, when assessed by purchasing-power parity, notes demographer Wendell Cox, do very well indeed. Viewed this way, the U.S. boasts eight of the top 10 – and 37 of the top 50 – metropolitan regions in terms of per capita income.
The top city on Cox’s list, San Jose, Calif., epitomises both the strengths and weaknesses of the American city. The heartland of Silicon Valley, the San Jose region has generated one of the world’s most innovative – and well-paid – economies. On the other hand, its mass transit usage is minuscule, its cultural attributes measly and its downtown hardly a tourist destination.
Meanwhile, pricey and scenic Zurich, No. 2 on the Mercer list and No. 10 on The Economist rankings, comes in 74th when considering adjusted per capita income. Economist favorite Vancouver, one of the most expensive second-tier cities on the planet, ranks 71st. For the average person seeking to make money and improve his or her economic status, it usually pays not to settle in one of the world’s “most liveable” cities.
This is not to say that rambunctious urban centres like Los Angeles, New York or London could learn from their more “liveable” counterparts. Anyone who has braved the maddening crowds in Venice Beach, Times Square or London’s Piccadily knows a city can have too much of a good thing. Los Angeles could use a more efficient bus system. Better-maintained subways and commuter trains in New York would be welcome by millions as they would in Greater London.
Ultimately great cities remain, almost by necessity, raw (and at times unpleasant) places. They are filled with the sights and smells of diverse cultures, elbowing streetwise entrepreneurs and the inevitable mafiosi. They all suffer the social tensions that come with rapid change and massive migration. New York, Los Angeles, London, Shanghai, Mumbai or Dubai may not shoot to the top of more elite, refined rankings, but they contain the most likely blueprint of our urban future.
Groups seek to clarify World Bank’s role in Lagos water sector
The Our Water Our Right Coalition has written to the World Bank, asking it to explain its role in plans by the Lagos State Government to press ahead with Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) in the water sector despite popular opposition in the state.
The letter, written to the World Bank Managing Director and Chief Financial Officer, Mr. Joaquim Levy, specifically asked three questions. First is, what water infrastructure initiatives the Bank and its institutions like the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD), International Development Association (IDA), Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA) and the International Finance Corporation (IFC) are supporting, planning to support, or considering supporting in Lagos.
Two others are: What are the World Bank plans to seek meaningful input from civil society on any meaningful initiative that will solve the Lagos water crisis? And how is the Bank planning to institute and maintain meaningful transparency policies to ensure all Lagosians can understand its efforts in the state?
Signatories to the letter include the Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria (ERA/FoEN), Corporate Accountability International, Child Health Organisation, Citizen’s Trust Advocacy and Development Centre, Health of Mother Earth Foundation, Peace and Development Project (PEDEP), Women Environmental Programme (WEP), Climate Aid Initiative, and Public Services International.
The Coalition expressed concern that the Lagos government is moving forward with a pro-PPP agenda in the water sector, disregarding the people of the state, who have spoken out strongly against this plan.
In the letter, the Coalition drew attention to issues raised last December by UN Special Rapporteur, Léo Heller, on a lack of transparency in the Lagos water policy, quoting his letter in December 2016 which noted thus:
“For more than a decade, the Government has adopted a hard-line policy according to which the solution would seem to [be] only [to] attract private capital, notably via public-private partnerships (PPPs). Numerous civil society groups have urged the Government to guarantee their right to participate in these processes.”
Heller had pointed out that, “….the alternatives proposed by civil society are not given meaningful consideration, while negotiations to initiate PPPs between public authorities and private investors have reportedly occurred in secret.”
The groups explained that it knew that the World Bank has promoted water privatisation, including PPPs, in Lagos over the period referred to by Heller, and that Levy’s recent visit to the State Deputy Governor and other indicators suggest that the World Bank Group may once again be supporting an unpopular water infrastructure PPPs and other privatisation plans in Lagos.
The letter was delivered to the World Bank Washington office on Thursday, July 27, 2017 and was acknowledged as received by its representative.
Court judgment on local govt election academic, says A’Ibom AG
The Akwa Ibom State Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, Uwemedimo Nwoko, has described as academic the judgment of the state High Court that ordered Governor Udom Emmanuel to conduct elections into the 31 local government councils in the state.
Following legal action instituted by a private legal practitioner, one Nsikak Akai, challenging the legality of the present ad hoc arrangement where unelected persons are manning local government administration in the 31 local government councils in the state, Justice Ezekiel Enang of the Akwa Ibom State High Court, Abak division, had ordered the governor, who was the 1st respondent in the matter, to conduct elections to facilitate democracy at the local government level in the state.
In a phone-in interview session on Planet FM, a private radio station in Akwa Ibom, monitored in Uyo, the state capital by our correspondent, Nwoko advanced that the order of the court on the governor was academic in that “before (the) judgment came, the state government had already started the procedures” for the conduct of elections into the 31 local government councils in the state.
Prompted by the anchor of the programme, Ini Ememobong, who is also a lawyer, to expatiate on legal meaning of academic for the understanding of the general public, the Akwa Ibom State chief law officer said what the judgment contemplated had already started.
“Being academic means that what you seek to heal, the mischief you want to cure by an order of court, when that problem has already been solved by the time the order was made, it is no more a live issue to be addressed,” he said.
Nwoko said the court dissolved none of the 31 Transition Committees.
The judgment had stated, in part that “If the Transition Committee chairmen and members were made parties (in the matter), there would have been a consequential order restraining them from parading themselves as such.”
The judge added: “I hereby order the 1st respondent to without further delay conduct elections and usher in democratically elected local government councils in the 31 local government areas in Akwa Ibom State.”
Nwoko also explained that the word, “forthwith”, used by the trial judge in ordering the governor to conduct local government elections in the state, does not connote conducting the elections immediately after the judgment, but that it means that the process for conducting the elections must commence.
His words: “Democratically elected local government election cannot be bought in the super market and it cannot be manufactured by engineers; it is a procedural thing and the court does not make an order in vain neither does the law command the impossible.
“So when the court says ‘to forthwith’, what the court is saying is (for the government to) set the machinery in process (for the elections) to go ahead and arrive at that point (of elections and inauguration of democratically elected government at the 31 local government councils in the state)”.
Notwithstanding, Nwoko also said that the state government has already appealed, and filed for stay of execution of the judgment at the Court of Appeal.
By Chinyere Obia
Lagos lawyer, Adegboruwa, describes presidential broadcast as ‘buck passing’
Lagos-lawyer, Ebun-Olu Adegboruwa, has condemned the Presidential broadcast, describing it as an act of buck passing rather than addressing the issues of restructuring, true federalism and devolution of power in the right perspective.
The lawyer said it was in such premise that the main campaign slogans of the president, as encapsulated in the All Progressives Congress (APC) manifesto were based.
He also described the President’s speech as disappointing given the fact that he had left the country for over 100 days and regretted that he described the citizens as ‘irresponsible elements’.
“Reading through the presidential broadcast however, one cannot but express a sense of utter disappointment. This is a president who virtually sneaked out of Nigeria, who breached his own self declaration of transparency, by keeping Nigerians in the dark for over 100 days, and in that process grinding the wheel of progress of the nation,” he stated.
He also condemned the incessant visits by some government officials to the President while he was away, saying: “What was it that the president was discussing with the senate president and the speaker of the House of Representatives when they all visited him in London?”
He wondered if they did not tell the president that members of his ruling APC party killed the demand for restructuring, devolution of powers, true federalism, state police, etc, while he was away.
“Did they not tell him that Nigerians are hungry? Did they not tell him that infrastructure has virtually collapsed all over the nation? Did they not tell him that Boko Haram has resurrected? Did they not tell the president of the latest report that corruption is festering under his regime?
“Notwithstanding that the president took Nigerians for granted, he was not impeached, but rather Nigerians were offering prayers for his recovery, daily, only for him to return with a language of combat and insult, describing his own citizens as ‘irresponsible elements.
“There must just be something about the APC ruling government that detests truth and consistency. Whist the president was away, his Vice President translated our freedom of expression into hate speeches and terrorism and here is the president, few days thereafter, piling up hatred and animosity upon Nigerians, who are simply demanding restructuring, true federalism and dialogue, asking the president and his party, to fulfill their campaign promises,” Adegboruwa said.
Adegboruwa stated further that this should not be the language of a president that has benefited from the “goodwill and magnanimity of his people. This, he said, cannot be the message of gratitude that Nigerians deserve from the president, who has been absent from duty.
“The president has not addressed the questions on the lips of all Nigerians, as to make full and frank disclosures, on the nature of his ailment, that took him out of Nigeria for 103 days, the state of his health presently, and the nature of his treatment, so as to engender hope in this regime and bring certainty to governance,” he added.
By Chinyere Obia
GCF, EBRD, others bankroll Egypt’s $1bn renewable energy project
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and the Green Climate Fund (GCF) are teaming up to make a major contribution to a $1 billion renewable energy project in Egypt.
The funding supports the Egyptian Government’s Sustainable Energy Strategy, which aims to source 20 percent of Egypt’s energy from low emission renewable sources by 2022. The financing will allow independent power producers to invest in the first wave of private renewable energy producers in Egypt.
Funding for this initiative, the largest contribution by GCF since it began full-scale operations, is expected to start flowing in September 2017. This follows the signing of a Funded Activity Agreement (FAA) between GCF and EBRD on Thursday, August 17, 2017.
FAAs mark the last phase of legal arrangements to implement projects between GCF and its Accredited Entities, such as the EBRD. GCF currently has 54 Accredited Entities, which propose climate finance projects and implement those that are approved by the GCF Board.
The EBRD is providing $352.3 million while GCF is making a contribution of $154.7 million. Additional financing from sponsors and other co-financiers will bring the total investment in new private renewable energy generation in Egypt to $1 billion.
GCF Executive Director, Howard Bamsey, said the FAA signing marks a benchmark in the way GCF can work with its partners to pool financial resources to boost countries’ mitigation and adaptation capacities. “This FAA is just the beginning of the potential GCF and EBRD have in combining their financial forces to drive climate action across various parts of the planet,” said Mr Bamsey.
The GCF Executive Director added the GCF Board has already approved three diverse projects proposed by EBRD in addition to the Egypt initiative. These include a hydropower project in Tajikistan; a water conservation project in Morocco; and a sustainable energy project crossing 10 countries.
EBRD President, Sir Suma Chakrabarti, said this initiative, the nearest to implementation of the GCF-approved EBRD projects, underscores the very productive cooperation between the two organisations. “Climate finance is crucial to the EBRD’s strategy. We are aiming to dedicate 40 percent of our annual investments to the green economy by 2020,” he said, referring to the EBRD’s Green Economy Transition policy, launched in 2015.
Sir Suma heralded the rising prominence of the private sector as a major driving force in the current creation of a global green economy, including climate finance. “There are various financial instruments that are now coming into play,” he said. “These are making the private sector become increasingly interested in climate finance.”
The GCF was established in 2010 to finance climate change projects and programmes that help developing countries adapt to climate impacts and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. It is the largest global fund with the ability to leverage the private sector in tackling climate change.
The EBRD was created in 1991 initially to support Eastern European countries make the transition to open market economies. It has been investing in the southern and eastern Mediterranean region, which includes Egypt, since 2012.
Its financial support is primarily focused on the private sector, in particular on micro, small and medium-sised enterprises. It uses a range of financing instruments, mainly loans, equity investments and guarantees.
World Orangutan Day: Conservationists seek end to habitat destruction
The world on Saturday, August 19, 2017 observed the International Orangutan Day with events organised globally to raise awareness about the plight of the now critically endangered primate, whose DNA is said to be 97% the same as humans.
The Rainforest Action Network (RAN), for instance, spoke up for orangutans and against forest destruction.
In a campaign focused on a major orangutan stronghold in Indonesia, the not-for-profit group claims that millions of acres of rainforest in the Southeast Asian nation are destroyed each year for the production of Conflict Palm Oil.
“Snack food giant PepsiCo uses an immense amount of Conflict Palm Oil and is driving this destruction. As more and more of its forest habitat are lost, the orangutan is being driven closer to extinction in the wild,” RAN insists, saying that stopping the destruction caused by PepsiCo will go a long in saving the orangutan.
The group adds: “We have convinced more than a dozen of the world’s biggest snack food corporations to adopt responsible palm oil sourcing policies that ensure the palm oil they use is not destroying the orangutan’s home. Today, we demand that PepsiCo cleans up its supply chain by putting an end to the use of Conflict Palm Oil in its products. When orangutans are gone, they’re gone forever. We must fight for the orangutan!”
In 2016, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) changed the classification of the Bornean orangutan (Pongo pygmaeus) from endangered to critically endangered, citing the main causes of its population decline as habitat loss and fragmentation, primarily for logging and oil palm plantations, along with illegal hunting and fires.
The Sumatran orangutan (Pongo abelii) is also listed as critically endangered. There are now only about 14,600 left in the wild.
These are estimated to be between 55,000 and 62,000 Bornean orangutans living in the wild, split into three distinct subspecies.
The IUCN says the population trend is a decrease for both species.
Orangutans’ solitary nature and slow reproductive rates leave them particularly vulnerable when there is forest loss. The rate of population decline is such that it is difficult for the populations to recover because of the lengthy birth intervals.
In findings published in Nature Research’s Scientific Reports in July 2017, a group of researchers concluded that Bornean orangutan populations had declined by 25 percent over the past decade.
The researchers estimated that the overall density of orangutans on the island of Borneo from 1997 to 2002 was about 15 individuals per 100 square kilometres. The density was reduced to 10 individuals per 100 square kilometres in 2009–2015.
“Survival rates of the species are lowest in areas with intermediate rainfall, where complex interrelations between soil fertility, agricultural productivity, and human settlement patterns influence persistence,” the researchers concluded.
The researchers said their study highlighted the urgency of determining specific management interventions needed in different locations to counter the trend of population decline.
The scientists point to the difficulty of accurately assessing the rate of population decline.
“Over the years, different estimates of population sizes have been proposed by various authors, leading to confusion about the conservation status of the species.”
The rate of decline and the drivers of the population change of orangutans are difficult to assess because of the species’ cryptic behaviour, and because surveys of orangutans are typically restricted to small geographic areas, are conducted over short time periods and employ different survey protocols, the researchers say.
The executive director of the UK-based charity, the Orangutan land Trust (OLT), Michelle Desilets, says she would prefer not to get caught up trying to give current population figures.
The OLT spearheads the PONGO (Palm Oil and NGO) Alliance, which was formed in 2015 and aims to protect orangutan habitat in an oil palm landscape.
Desilets points out that 10,000 orangutans are living in areas that have been identified for industrial oil palm cultivation in Borneo. “There is an urgent need for collaborative innovation to protect these animals in mixed-use landscapes.”
There is a genuine commitment from major growers in the PONGO Alliance, Desilets says. “And the alliance has brought together experts and orangutan conservation organisations, who are developing new strategies for the protection of orangutans in legally unprotected areas. All this is quite a positive shift.”
China completes, connects floating solar plant to power grid
China has announced that the largest floating photovoltaic (PV) facility on earth has finally been completed and connected to the local power grid. Long reviled for its carbon emission record, this is the Chinese government’s latest achievement in its ongoing effort to lead the world in renewable energy adoption.
Located in the city of Huainan in the Anhui province, the 40-megawatt solar power plant facility was created by PV inverter manufacturer Sungrow Power Supply Co. Ironically, the floating grid itself was constructed over a flooded former coal-mining region.
“Introducing cutting-edge technologies to products is what we are always committed to. We continue to offer better products and solutions to customers all over the world,” said Professor Renxian Cao, president of Sungrow, in a press release announcing the project.
Floating solar farms are becoming increasingly popular around the world because their unique design addresses multiple efficiency and city planning issues. These floating apparatuses free up land in more populated areas and also reduce water evaporation. The cooler air at the surface also helps to minimise the risk of solar cell performance atrophy, which is often related to long-term exposure to warmer temperatures.
This is just the first of many solar energy operations popping up around China. In 2016, the country unveiled a similar 20MW floating facility in the same area. China is also home to the Longyangxia Dam Solar Park, a massive 10-square-mile, land-based facility touted as the largest solar power plant on earth.
This transition to solar is in large part due to the rapidly plummeting cost of the technology itself. By 2020, China could reduce prices offered to PV developers by more than a third with solar power plants projected to rival coal facilities. The nation has also announced plans to increase its use of non-fissile fuel energy sources by 20 percent.
That said, the U.S. is no slouch when it comes to power innovation. The University of Texas professor who pioneered the lithium-ion battery technology recently pushed the envelope on batteries again, and wireless chargers from California’s Energous beam electricity like a modern-day Tesla coil. (Their first home transmitter could be approved by the FCC within “weeks,” reps told Digital Trends in June.) Meanwhile, Immotor’s green “Super Battery” may be the smartest battery every released.
An annual report released by NASA and NOAA determined that 2016 was the warmest year on record globally, marking the third year in a row in which a new record was set for global average surface temperatures. That said, if we as a species hope to reverse this dire trend, initiatives like this and others will need to be adopted around the globe. And small changes at home may help: Solar chargers for your smartphone are just one way to reduce your dependence on fossil fuels.
Sierra Leone mudslides: UN moves to curb spread of diseases
The World Health Organisation (WHO) said on Monday, August 21, 2017 that it is working closely with the Government of Sierra Leone to prevent the spread of infectious diseases such as malaria and cholera in the wake of last week’s mudslides and flooding in Freetown.
The UN health body is also working with partners to ensure ongoing health care for the injured and displaced, and to provide psychological aid to those coping with trauma.
Around 500 people are known to have died as a result of the flooding and mudslides that devastated whole communities in and around Sierra Leone’s capital, Freetown, and hundreds more are still missing. With thousands displaced and local infrastructure destroyed, WHO has mobilised significant human, technical and financial resources to respond to the emergency.
“The mudslides have caused extreme suffering and loss of life, and we must do all we can to protect the population from additional health risks,” said Alexander Chimbaru, Officer in Charge of WHO Sierra Leone.
With damage to water and sanitation facilities, residents of affected areas are particularly vulnerable to outbreaks of pre-existing infectious diseases including malaria and diarrheal conditions such as typhoid and cholera. The most recent cholera outbreak in the country occurred in 2012.
WHO is working with health authorities in the country to maximise efforts to prevent and respond to disease outbreaks. Cholera response kits, including rapid testing tools, are being distributed to areas at risk; health and community workers are being trained to recognise the signs of priority diseases, and the organisation is sending additional cholera and emergency kits to the country.
“While the Government and WHO are working hard to strengthen health services in the affected areas, we also urge the population to take the following precautions to help avoid a possible outbreak: hand washing, drinking only water that has been properly boiled or treated, use of latrines for sanitation, and adherence to good food hygiene practices,” added Dr. Chimbaru.
WHO is also providing extensive support in the area of infection prevention and control at health facilities and at the mortuary located at the Connaught Hospital in Freetown, as well as community engagement and psychological first aid.