The Government of Uganda has issued a flood risk alert, warning the public to take caution as the rain season in the east African country enters peak levels.
A flooded street in Uganda
The Ministry of Disaster Preparedness in a statement said people are strongly advised not to walk or allow a driver to take them through a flooded road or bridge even when the floods appear below the knee or the rim of the car.
The statement comes days after heavy rains caused flooding, cutting off road access to some parts of the capital Kampala on Friday, April 27, 2018.
The weather department in its outlook for the months of March, April and May warned that parts of the country may face sporadic flash floods, leading to loss of lives and destruction of property.
The Uganda National Meteorological Authority warned that some mountainous parts of the country may experience landslides.
NAN reports that, in August 2017, severe flooding was reported in northern Uganda, leaving 2,000 people displaced and 15 people dead.
Heavy rain in Northern Region caused a river to overflow on Aug. 22, 2o17, flooding the town of Elegu in Amuru district, a trading post close to the border with South Sudan.
As many as 3,000 people have been affected and 2,000 have been displaced.
Uganda Red Cross says that crops in the area have suffered damage and transport has been severely disrupted in the area. Several bridges have been destroyed or damaged.
Martin Owor, Commissioner, Ministry of Disaster Preparedness, told local TV that the town of Elegu, its market, bank and customs post have all been damaged in the floods.
He added that relief supplies have been dispatched and those displaced are receiving assistance.
Owor said that northern Uganda normally sees heavy rain during August and September and more rainfall can be expected.
Hiribae Mame stood waist-deep in water outside her wrecked house in eastern Kenya, one of around 200,000 people forced to flee by weeks of floods, landslides and heavy rains.
A passenger is rescued from a submerging Matatu along Grogon area, near Kirinyaga Road following heavy downpour witnessed in Nairobi and its outskirts on March 15, 2018. Photo credit: Enos Teche
Kenya’s Red Cross estimates at least 100 have also died in the downpours since early April, a humanitarian disaster that it says needs emergency funding.
“I have lost 12 chicken and four goats. We were not able to save all of them and I can’t access the house because the door can’t open,” said the mother-of-four in the town of Tana River in lower Coast region.
Her youngest daughter clung to her neck, the girl’s feet just touching the water. Mattresses and wreckage floated by as handmade boats ferried people, animals and goods to safer ground.
Floods have blocked major roads across central and northern Kenya and coastal areas – the route from the capital Nairobi to the main port Mombasa was under water as at Friday, April 27, 2018.
Eight people were killed when mudslides destroyed their homes as they slept in the hilly central region of Murang’a on Friday night, said Kenya Red Cross Secretary-General, Abbas Gullet.
Gullet said the military and police had deployed helicopters for rescue missions but more efforts were needed.
He said outbreaks of water-borne diseases were another concern across Kenya.
“We would urge the national government to declare this a national disaster, so that deliberate effort can be made and resources mobilised to help the affected people,” Gullet told reporters in the capital on Sunday.
“We need a national disaster management fund set up.”
As another round of interim climate change negotiations starts on Monday, April 30, 2018 in Bonn, Germany, ACT Alliance has reiterated its call for urgent action to address climate change and its impacts.
Rudelmar Bueno de Faria, ACT Alliance’s General Secretary
“The international community must now take bold action to address climate change and to adequately respond to its impacts. We cannot afford any delays or to waste any time,” said Rudelmar Bueno de Faria, ACT Alliance’s General Secretary.
At the top of the agenda for the Bonn Session is the Talanoa Dialogue that will encourage sharing between parties and stakeholders on progress made towards their climate commitments, the Paris Rulebook that will outline the modalities, procedures and guidelines for the implementation of the Paris Agreement, and the Suva Expert Dialogue on support for climate induced loss and damage.
“There is now every indication that we have just a few years before surpassing the 1.5 degree global warming target, which means that our policies and actions towards a more volatile climate must be ambitious and unequivocal. The Talanoa Dialogue must quickly translate into building resilience, supporting the most vulnerable and ensuring a higher mitigation ambition,” said Bueno de Faria.
The Suva Expert Dialogue on loss and damage support is expected to advance the discussions on climate finance and other means necessary to respond to the adverse impacts of climate change that go beyond the ability of communities to adapt. Recently, ACT Alliance made a Submission to the UNFCCC in which it called for clarity and a greater allocation of financial, capacity, and technological support towards the protection of vulnerable people, communities, and countries from loss and damage.
“Because there are already serious and exponential climate induced losses and damages, particularly affecting vulnerable people in developing countries, we would like to see a constructive Suva Expert Dialogue. It must lead to concrete outcomes including the reaffirmation of solidarity. Loss and damage must not be sidelined,” said Bueno de Faria.
On the modalities of the implementation of the Paris Agreement, ACT Alliance expressed concern about the slow progress of the Paris Rulebook. “By the end of this year, we need a robust Paris Rulebook with a strong inclusion of transparency and accountability at all levels,” said Martin Vogel, Chair of the ACT Alliance Climate Change Group, and head of ACT’s delegation to the Bonn Session.
“Transparency and accountability in climate action and support are keys for building trust and confidence among countries and must be seen as the hallmark of the guidelines for the implementation of the Paris Agreement,” said Vogel.
It is imperative that climate action is transparent in all aspects related to the provision and use of financial support and in emissions reductions. Every country must make an effort. The Paris Rulebook must be a win-win for all, and the Bonn Session will play a significant role in setting the foundation for this.
The UN climate change negotiations holding from April 30 to May 10, 2018 in Bonn, Germany come at a critical time as countries work to finalise the rules and processes to operationalise the Paris Agreement, even as the impacts of climate change continue to intensify.
Chair of the Least Developed Countries (LDC) group, Gebru Jember Endalew
The Least Developed Countries (LDC) group believes that delegates need to leave Bonn with a strong basis to begin textual negotiations and greater clarity around the Talanoa Dialogue process and outcome.
Chair of the Least Developed Countries (LDC) group, Gebru Jember Endalew, said: “Climate change is a critical issue and an urgent, global response is required. Lives and livelihoods across the world are on the line, particularly in the LDCs. We have a very small window of time left to develop a set of clear, comprehensive, and robust rules to enable full and ambitious implementation of the Paris Agreement before the December 2018 deadline. At this Bonn negotiation, and as a matter of urgency, countries need to build on the foundations laid in Paris and agree on a strong architecture to implement the Paris Agreement that catalyses fair and ambitious action to steer the world away from dangerous climate change.
“Keeping global temperature increase below 1.5 degrees Celsius is a matter of survival. The LDCs look forward to the Talanoa Dialogue resulting in more ambitious action and support, as science tells us that even full implementation of current commitments under the Paris Agreement will not be enough to reach the 1.5 degree temperature goal. Countries must take immediate action to rapidly reduce emissions in line with their respective capacities and responsibilities for causing climate change and prepare for a sustainable future.
“As LDCs, we are particularly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change, and we also face the new challenge of developing to lift our people out of poverty sustainably by leapfrogging to renewables rather than relying on fossil fuels. LDCs and other developing countries cannot adequately protect our communities from the impacts of climate change or reduce our emissions without the appropriate tools and resources. There remains a vast gap between the support needed and support received. The LDCs call on developed countries to finally deliver on their longstanding promise to mobilise at least $100 billion a year and bridge the ever-widening finance gap before the distance becomes too great.
“The international community must act now to ensure our Paris goals do not slip out of reach. The world cannot afford to sit idle until the Paris Agreement’s 2020 implementation period kicks off. Action needs to be taken, support provided, and ambition increased without delay. The more countries do now, the less severe the impacts of climate change will be.
“The international community needs to face up to the increasing loss and damage caused by climate change. Climate impacts are already all around us. The severity and frequency of floods, storms, droughts, sea level rise and other impacts is only increasing and hundreds of millions of people are at risk of being displaced. The LDCs look forward to sharing their experiences in the upcoming Suva Expert Dialogue, continuing to work towards a concrete finance plan for loss and damage, and establishing a permanent place for discussions around this important issue.
“The LDC group was pleased to see the Gender Action Plan adopted at COP23 last year. We now need to see gender considerations incorporated into all elements of the Paris Agreement rulebook. Women and children are often the worst impacted by climate change, but despite this continue to be key agents of change, leading their communities and nations to a prosperous and sustainable future.”
The current climate talks in Bonn, Germany must pave the way for key outcomes at the COP24 at the end of the year, civil society operatives have said.
Mark Lutes, Senior Global Climate Policy Advisor, Climate and Energy, WWF
This, according to them, includes significant progress on the implementation guidelines for the Paris Agreement, the Talanoa Dialogue, and on finance for climate action. They underlined the need for countries to step up in 2018 with commitments to enhance ambition and to limit the huge gap in emissions between current pledges and what the science indicates is necessary to limit warming to 1.5 degrees C.
Mark Lutes, Senior Global Climate Policy Advisor, Climate and Energy, WWF, stressed the importance of these talks to bring the Paris Agreement to life in 2018.
“By the end of COP24 in December, we need decisions in a number of areas, including agreed elements of the nationally determined contributions to ensure consistency and comparability across national commitments. Among other issues, we need to know how the ongoing ambition cycle – the global stocktakes – will work. We need to know how implementation will be transparent and accountable through the transparency framework. We need to know how scaled up finance and technology support will be mobilised,” he stressed.
At the intersessional meeting in Bonn, Li Shuo, Senior Global Policy Advisor, Greenpeace, said countries would need to accelerate progress on a range of technical issues, from the national climate targets to adaptation to compliance. By the end of the session, he expected no less than a “clear legal text with options and strong ownership from parties.”
“Countries need to sort out certain tasks under the transparency framework, namely whether – and how – flexibility should be granted to developing countries that need that. The other dimension (of the politics) is ambition. A lot of the Paris rules are about gradually enhancing ambition. I want to highlight that the ambition part of the politics is also very important and has been rather neglected at the expense of differentiation and flexibility.
Finance is a cornerstone to achieving the goals of the Paris Agreement, said Lucile Dufour, International Policy and Development Adviser, Climate Action Network-France. “If in 2018 countries really want to make a change and are committed to making the Paris Agreement robust, sustainable and fair finance cannot be left behind,” stated Dafour.
The growing impacts of climate change around the world were clearly seen throughout 2017, but there has been insufficient progress on finance to come to terms with these growing needs.
“The first reason why finance needs to be central in these discussions is that it can help enhance trust and confidence between developed and developing countries. Finance can help create the conditions for success at COP24 and secure smooth progress on the Talanoa dialogue, the Paris rulebook and discussion on pre-2020 ambition.”
Conversely, a lack of progress on finance could become a bone of contention, she added.
Youth climate change delegates from around the world have been gathering in Bonn to share ideas, coordinate their efforts and urge negotiators meeting in Bonn, Germany over the next two weeks to take strong climate action in order to safeguard their future.
A session during the ACE Youth Forum
At a the first ever ACE (Action for Climate Empowerment) Youth Forum at the week-end, just before the start of the 2018 UN Climate Change Conference in Bonn, youth delegates from 70 countries came up with a wide range of suggestions“Youth are an essential part of the climate change solution, so the youth must be active and heard in the international negotiations,” said United Nations Climate Change Executive Secretary, Patricia Espinosa, at the forum. “The role of the youth constituency is growing, and this is good for the international negotiating process and for the planet.”
Break-out groups at the forum brainstormed on ways to increase the effectiveness of ACE activities. Suggestions included linking youth ACE activities internationally, supporting ACE national focal points, pushing for more funding for ACE activities and holding ACE festivals to create interest and awareness about the need for climate action.
These and other points will be combined, refined and put before government negotiators at a workshop from where they could find their way into negotiating text and a possible draft decision on ACE destined for consideration when nations meet in Katowice, Poland, in December of this year.
The ACE Youth Forum was an idea of Fiji, which holds the presidency Conference of the Parties (COP), since the 23rd COP, held in Bonn in November 2017. Mr. Inia Seruiratu, High-level Climate Champion and Fiji’s Minister for Agriculture, Rural and Maritime Development and National Disaster Management and Meteorological Services, told delegates: “Our young people the world over are powerful agents for change. The stakes couldn’t be higher.”
“Fiji is urging the global community to commit itself to achieving the most ambitious goal of the Paris Agreement, which is to limit the average global temperature increase to 1.5 degrees Celsius above that of the pre-industrial age.
“To achieve this, young people the world over must demand action. To raise their voices and force their politicians to take the tough decisions that are necessary. And also point out the wonderful opportunities that are out there if we make the shift from fossil fuels to renewable energy, and fast-track the development of the emerging technologies,” he added.
Under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, countries recognised the critical importance of education, training, public awareness, public participation, public access to information and international cooperation to the success in tackling climate change. The youth constituency is central to the work.
“This forum is unprecedented in the way it brought together non-State actors, youths – more than half from the global South – UN Climate Change and the presidency of the Conference of the Parties to help shape matters under negotiation,” said Yugratna Srivastava, a youth co-organiser of the ACE Youth Forum. “The process is moving in the right direction.”
In Paris in 2015, countries committed to limiting global temperature rise to 2 degrees Celsius and to work towards the safer target of 1.5 degrees Celsius. Countries are now negotiating the Paris Agreement Work Programme, which they plan to adopt in Katowice.
The YOUNGO (youth NGO) constituency took the lead in organising the ACE Youth Forum, which was co-organised by UN Climate Change and United Nations Development Programme and supported financially by the Government of Canada.
A Professor of Animal Production at the University of Ilorin, Moshood Belewu, has developed new cattle feed pellets that are capable of increasing the quantity and quality of milk produced by lactating cows.
Cattle
The University of Ilorin Bulletin, which was issued on Monday, April 30, 2018, stated that Prof Belewu of the Department of Animal Production, Faculty of Agriculture, disclosed the innovation in a report he sent to the Vice-Chancellor of the university, Prof. Sulyman Abdulkareem.
The publication said that the new feed was the outcome of Belewu’s research visit to Uka Tarsadia University, India, on the platform of the N. G. Patel Fellowship grant which was recently won by the Professor of Animal Production.
It stated that, on arrival at the Uka Tarsadia University, Prof Belewu obtained the needed materials for the research work and the animal feed was consequently formulated.
“A dairy farm with enough dairy animals was identified (Sumul Vanskul Animal Breeding) at Bardoli, Maliba area of Gujurat,” he said.
Belewu noted that the dairy farm, which was nearly 10km from Uka Tarsadia University, housed more than 40 cows and buffaloes, adding that lactating Gir cows were used for the study.
The professor said that the tested novel feed was modelled into pellets and used to nourish the lactating cows, adding that three feed pellet samples were developed, when compared with the popular conventional cow pellet.
He said that the three designed cow feed pellet samples would boost the income of livestock farmers, as their price per kilogramme was found to be quite cheaper, if compared with the conventional feed pellet samples.
He said that the research feat was well-received by the management of Uka Tarsadia University, adding that the university authorities were even proposing to patent the product.
Belewu urged the management of the University of Ilorin to consider the patenting and commercialisation of the developed feed pellet samples.
He said that the fellowship grant had helped him in forming new relationship and partnership with academics in Uka Tarsadia University and other persons.
He also said that the grant had also stimulated the formation of a bilateral research group, involving academics from University of Ilorin and Uka Tarsadia University, so as to boost cross-fertilisation of ideas and innovation.
He said that the breakthrough in animal production had the potential of increasing the income of livestock farmers in Nigeria, if well-utilised.
Thirty-three out of Nigeria’s 36 states are contesting for slots earmarked for only three states under the Reducing emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+) Programme of the Forest Carbon Partnership Facility (FCPF).
A group of participants at the High Level Stakeholders Sensitisation Workshop on National Forest Inventory in lafia, Nasarawa State
Cross River, Ondo and Nasarawa states, being beneficiaries of a FCPF $3.8 million facility, are already implementing a REDD+ Readiness Programme, and it has been the desire of the Nigeria REDD+ Programme to expand the project to more states.
The Programme’s dream became a reality following the approval recently of an additional $4.9 million grant by the FCPF, an initiative of the World Bank, to extend the REDD+ Programme to more states.
Consequently, Environment Minister of State, Ibrahim Usman Jibril, wrote to the 33 states, requesting them to formally express their interest to participate in the programme. Deadline for expression of interest for participation by states to the Ministry of Environment and the Nigeria REDD+ Programme has been fixed for this week.
States that appear to have the best prospects will be selected from the lot, who will them be subjected to a scoping process to enable the project promoters select the target three.
National Coordinator, Nigeria REDD+ Programme, Dr Moses Ama, disclosed on Thursday, April 26, 2018 in Lafia, Nasarawa State, during the High Level Stakeholders Sensitisation Workshop on National Forest Inventory: “In a month or two, we will be signing the agreement for the receipt of the $4.9 million from the FCPF.
“However, as soon as the identity of the states that expressed interest in the project is established we will, around the first week of June, embark on a scoping mission to the states to enable us decide on the three states for the project.”
According to Ama, some of the criteria to be used to select the three REDD+ participatory states include:
Expressing of interest in the project
Having the political will
Operating community forest management approaches
Operating functional forest reserves/estates
Having in place stakeholder engagement strategies
He pointed out that, apart from expanding the project to three more states, the $4.9 million World Bank grant would likewise be utilised to:
Develop a National Forestry Monitoring System
Put in place a Safeguard Information Systems (SIS)
Support policy reforms that will address REDD+
Update the nation’s Carbon Inventory
Build capacity
The entire project is billed to be executed by 2020, when the FCPF is expected to officially come to a close.
The Lafia sensitisation workshop was supported by the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO) and the FCPF.
The FCPF, which became operational in June 2008, is a global partnership focused on reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation, forest carbon stock conservation, sustainable management of forests, and enhancement of forest carbon stocks (REDD+).
In line with the campus-green initiative of the Vice-Chancellor, Professor Chinedum Nwajiuba, to make the Alex Ekwueme Federal University Ndufu-Alike (AE-FUNAI) in Ebonyi State the most beautiful and eco-friendly institution in Nigeria, the wife of the first President of Nigeria, Professor Uche Azikiwe, on Wednesday, April 25, 2018 joined other well-meaning Nigerians to plant a tree in the university, in support of the initiative.
The VC, Professor Chinedum Nwajiuba (second left), handing a Pride of Barbados tree to the wife of the first president of Nigeria, Professor Uche Azikiwe, during the event
Azikiwe, a Professor of Sociology of Education, was at the university recently for the first Annual International Conference, hosted by the Faculty of Education of the university, where she also spared some time to support the campus-green initiative of the Vice-Chancellor.
Meanwhile, the Vice-Chancellor of Imo State University, Owerri, Professor Victoria Obasi, was also part of the tree planting campaign. The professor of Curriculum Studies chaired the First Annual International Conference held recently at the university. She prayed that the tree, just like the university, would grow to provide shades, fruits and serene environment for generations to come.
With a policy termed “Campus-Green Initiative”, the Vice-Chancellor, Professor Nwajiuba, had on assumption of office about two years ago embarked on aggressive tree planting campaign in the university to ensure eco-friendliness, aesthetics and serene environment within the campus. This led to the inauguration of the University Pioneer Garden and a yearly tree planting campaign where staff and students donate and plant trees around the university campus.
The Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria (ERA/FoEN) has commended the Federal Government for declaring a state of emergency in the water sector, but disagreed with the government position that private sector participation will reverse the sector’s woes.
Suleiman Adamu, Nigeria’s Minister of Water Resources
Minister for Water Resources, Suleiman Adamu, announced recently that the declaration of emergency in the water sector was an effort to address the current crisis and re-prioritise the water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) sector for investment and revitalisation.
Unveiling a 13-year revitalisation strategy for the WASH sector, Adamu said there would be an 18 months emergency phase and five years recovery plan that would compel concrete actions to be taken by both Federal and State Governments under five components comprising governance, sustainability, funding, financing and monitoring and evaluation.
Global Water Intelligence, the private water industry trade journal, noted that Adamu declared he “wants to see much greater private sector participation to improve performance going forward.”
But ERA/FoEN, in a statement issued by its Head, Media & Campaigns, Philip Jakpor, said that proposals that put the private sector in the driver’s seat in fashioning solutions to water shortages across the country are built on “debunked theories” promoted by the World Bank and international organisations that see water only as a commodity and not as a human right.
ERA/FoEN Deputy Executive Director, Akinbode Oluwafemi, said: “We are in total agreement that the water sector in Nigeria is in dire need of critical intervention. We however differ on the way forward because the crisis in the sector is as a result of faulty policies promoted by the World Bank Group and international agencies that were adopted by the government.
“Countries that experimented water privatisation in the Public Private Partnership (PPP) or other forms have started taking back their water from the privatisers. It is a story documented in Buenos Aires and Paris, and it is happening across Africa from Tanzania to Cameroon, Ghana and more recently, Gabon. It is Tsunami of remunicipalisation. It is therefore worrisome that Nigeria is not learning from these lessons of corporate water failures.”
He insisted that the pressure on the Nigerian government to finacilaise the water sector is coming from international finance institutions that continually create false narratives about so-called solutions that will only rake in more profits for multinationals at the expense of the larger population who will be presented with options of paying huge costs or getting cut off for not being able to.
On the way forward, the ERA/FoEN boss urged the government to shun all contracts designed by, involving, or influenced by corporate interests – including by the World Banks private arm, International Finance Corporation (IFC) which operates to maximise private profit – while integrating broad public participation in developing plans to achieve universal access to clean water.
“Parliament should also pass a resolution declaring water as a human right with the obligation on the state to ensure access to all citizens irrespective of their ability to pay or not,” Oluwafemi insisted.
