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Ghana: Experts root for water, land, ecosystems researches

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Ghana: Experts root for water, land, ecosystems researches

Ghana’s savannah ecology zone is well endowed with a large expanse of land, which under normal circumstances should have better served the people. But the harsh environmental conditions including the dryness of some areas, threats of desertification, water scarcity, land degradation, soil erosion and climate change impacts, have hampered development in the area and entrenched poverty among majority of the people. The area covers Northern, Upper East and Upper West regions.

Women in Ghana engaged in dry season rice farming through irrigation
Women in Ghana engaged in dry season rice farming through irrigation

Research institutions and development organisations working within the savannah zone, are seeking evidence-based solutions built on actual understanding of these issues to create awareness among local stakeholders and implement appropriate development projects in the zone. The Consultative Group of International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) Research Programme on Water, Land and Ecosystems (WLE) is spearheading the process.

CGIAR WLE in collaboration with the Savannah Accelerated Development Authority (SADA), as well as USAID’s sponsored projects in the zone, among other organisations, have begun discussing ways of tailoring research to meet the needs of the people. They want to ensure that agriculture and natural resources oriented research provide sustainable solutions to poverty and underdevelopment in the area.

Under the auspices of the SADA, the concerned bodies as well as others have held a two-day Knowledge Sharing Fair in Tamale, Ghana. The Fair provided a platform for discussing issues pertaining to how research can inform policy, planning and practice. It was also an occasion for exhibiting over 10 research for development projects on-going in the SADA zone.

It was the right timing for development organizations and donors to deliberate on research for development related issues. It enabled the WLE program to show case its research contributions to the SADA objective of ensuring accelerated, integrated and comprehensive development of the Northern Savannah Ecological Zone.

The Fair facilitated the sharing of experiences and learning on current research and development projects across locations and subjects; and set the pace for better coordination and networking of actors across projects.

The main discussions focused on the means of promoting the expansion of improved land and water management technologies and practices in the SADA zone; positioning SADA to effectively monitor all development efforts to ensure synergy and desired impacts; and how to strengthen the alignment between research, policy and practice within the SADA zone.

The Chief Executive Officer of SADA, Charles Abugre, said the research on water, land and ecosystems was very timely and paramount to the aspirations of SADA. He acknowledged that unique opportunities exist in harnessing the water in the Volta basin, its values and ecological goods and services to provide livelihoods and transform the economy of the SADA zone.

The Upper East Region Commissioner of the National Development Planning Commission (NDPC), Ambassador Donald Adabre called for the pooling of efforts to narrow the poverty gap between the SADA zone and the rest of the country. He said, “This can be done by translating research and incorporating it into policy, planning and implementation of activities within the zone.”

The representative of the Vice-Chancellor of the University for Development Studies (UDS) and board member of the Northern Rural Growth Programme (NRGP), Professor George Nyarko, told the participants that UDS has the potential to assist in accelerating the development of the SADA zone with quality research. He therefore urged SADA to support the university’s research activities.

The Chief of Party for the USAID/ATT project, Dr. Micheal Dockery said in the SADA zone, his organisation was implementing projects such as “Secure Water” aimed at ensuring water availability for dry season farming and increase yields. He said most of the USAID related projects were geared towards nutritional outcomes, improved seed development and water for irrigation.

The Head of Office of IWMI West Africa, Dr. Olufunke Cofie said in order to deliver its core mandate of providing a Water Secure World, IWMI works with several partners from academia, research institutions, NGOs and Development Partners. She noted that Research by the CGIAR centres such as IWMI, “aims to achieve the four strategic outcomes of reducing rural poverty, increasing food security, improving nutrition and health, and ensuring enhanced sustainable management of natural resources.”

In a presentation on “Informing the Development of Innovative Agricultural and Water Management Solutions,” Dr. Cofie highlighted the priority WLE projects in the SADA zone. “These projects,” she said “are focused on intensifying sustainable agricultural production through: improving smallholder irrigation, flood recession farming and enhancing rain fed production systems and related ecosystems services.”

Additionally, there is another set of projects focused on “managing water variability &climate change at catchment scale through enhancing adaptation to climate variability; enhancing public and private investment in agricultural water infrastructure.” A third category of projects are aimed at recovering useful resources from waste materials; while the last group of projects are centred on integrating ecosystems solutions into policy processes.

All of these projects as well as the others are geared to improving agricultural production through integrated water and land management. The ultimate goal is to make farming in the SADA zone attractive, viable and sustainable. According to Dr. Cofie, within the sub-region, IWMI is working as a think tank that drives innovative research and solutions.

By Ama Kudom-Agyemang

Papua New Guinea submits first NDCs

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Papua New Guinea submits first NDCs

Papua New Guinea has emerged the first nation to submit its nationally determined contributions (NDCs) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

Peter O'Neill, Prime Minister of Papua New Guinea
Peter O’Neill, Prime Minister of Papua New Guinea

The UNFCCC secretariat has thus created a new page on its website to capture the NDCs, which are countries’ formal climate action plans under the Paris Climate Change Agreement.

According to the UN body, NDCs set out publicly the climate actions that each country will take under the Paris Agreement to contribute to the global community’s determined effort to secure a sustainable future for all nations by keeping the global temperature rise since pre-industrial times well below two degrees Celsius.

Head of UNFCCC, Christiana Figueres, said: “I congratulate Papua New Guinea on this first NDC. Before the UN climate change conference in Paris, the international community had already envisioned an unprecedented response with almost every nation on Earth setting out their preliminary action plans to address climate change. These provide the foundation upon which the world will over time strengthen their ability to keep a global temperature rise well under 2 degrees C if not 1.5 degrees C, and build resilient societies. Much more remains to be done but NDCs under the Paris Agreement represent one of the next key steps alongside the opening for signature of the Agreement in New York on April 22 en-route to it swiftly coming into force.”

The Agreement has also encompassed the ways and means to provide increasingly robust financial, and technology support to developing countries to achieve their nationally determined climate objectives, she added.

A total of 195 countries under the UNFCCC set a clear path towards this goal at the UN climate change conference in Paris, last December.

This, stressed the UNFCCC, means peaking global emissions soon – stopping their current annual rise – and then reversing them very rapidly to a point as soon as possible later this century when remaining greenhouse gas emissions are absorbed back from the atmosphere by nature or technology.

Before Paris, almost all these countries had submitted what were called intended nationally determined contributions (INDCs). The Paris Agreement now provides a legal foundation for these previously communicated INDCs, in the form of NDCs.

The UNFCCC believes that the impact of the INDCS, fully implemented, would already keep the world within around a 3 degree rise – not yet near enough but a huge advance from the 4 or 5 degrees or more we would otherwise be headed towards, with each extra degree adding exponentially larger losses to life, livelihoods and investments.

The UNFCCC secretariat is preparing to launch a new and formal registry of NDCs in about one month.

Senegal ratifies Nagoya Protocol, SA issues compliance certificate

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Senegal ratifies Nagoya Protocol, SA issues compliance certificate

Senegal has ratified the Nagoya Protocol on Access to Genetic Resources and the Fair and Equitable Sharing of Benefits Arising from their Utilisation, making it the 32nd African nation to do so, and the 73rd country in the world.

President Macky Sall of Senegal
President Macky Sall of Senegal

The Nagoya Protocol on Access to Genetic Resources and the Fair and Equitable Sharing of Benefits Arising from their Utilisation to the Convention on Biological Diversity was adopted at the 10th meeting
of the Conference of the Parties (COP10) in 2010, in Nagoya, Japan, and entered into force on 12 October 2014.

The Government of Senegal deposited its instrument of ratification with the Secretary-General of the United Nations on 3 March 2016.

Though she signed it in February 2012, Nigeria is yet to ratify the Protocol.

Besides Senegal, African nations that have ratified the Protocol include: Benin, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cote d’Ivoire, Congo, DR Congo, Djibouti, Egypt, Ethiopia, Gabon, The Gambia, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Kenya, Lesotho, Liberia and Madagascar.

Others are: Malawi, Mauritiius, Mauritania, Mozambique, Namabia, Niger, Rwanda, Seychelles, South Africa, Sudan, Togo and Uganda.

Ratification by September 2016 will enable countries to participate in decision-making at the second meeting of the Parties to the Nagoya Protocol to be held in December 2016, and to further advance the treaty’s global implementation.

Similarly, South Africa issued the second internationally recognised certificate of compliance on 23 March 2016, following a permit made available to the Access and Benefit-sharing (ABS) Clearing-House.

“With the ratification by Senegal, 32 African countries have now ratified the Nagoya Protocol, sending a strong and clear signal of the region’s commitment to the implementation of the Protocol,” said Braulio Ferreira de Souza Dias, Executive Secretary of the Convention on Biological Diversity. “The issuance of the second certificate by South Africa is also an excellent advance towards making the Nagoya Protocol operational. I congratulate the Government of South Africa, and look forward to seeing others follow this example.”

Following the issuance of a permit by South Africa, the second internationally recognised certificate of compliance (IRCC) was constituted through the ABS Clearing-House. The permit was made available by South Africa’s Department of Environmental Affairs, the competent national authority under the Nagoya Protocol, and grants access to Sceletium tortuosum (Kanna plant) and associated traditional knowledge for commercial use.

Under the Nagoya Protocol, issuance at the time of access of a permit or its equivalent serve as evidence that access to genetic resources was based on prior informed consent and that mutually agreed terms were established. Parties are required by the Nagoya Protocol to make information on issuance of permits, or their equivalent, available to the ABS Clearing-House. Once the information on the permit is published by the country in the ABS Clearing-House, it automatically becomes the IRCC. The first IRCC was constituted in October 2015 following a permit made available by the Government of India.

Shell intensifies gas production in Niger Delta

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Shell intensifies gas production in Niger Delta

The Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria Ltd (SPDC) Joint Venture is producing more gas from Agbada field in the Eastern Niger Delta in support of government’s aspiration of increasing domestic gas production for manufacturing and power generation, the firm has disclosed.

ShellIt said in a statement released on Sunday and endorsed by spokesperson Precious Okolobo that some 10 million standard cubic feet of non-associated gas per day (MMscf/d) was produced from the Agbada Early Gas Production Facility (EGPF), into the eastern domestic gas network on March 8, 2016 and has already ramped up to 20MMscf/d of gas, with 1,500 barrels per day of oil.

A peak production of 40MMscf/d is expected to be achieved, in addition to oil production of about 2,500 barrels per day. The milestone comes as SPDC JV’s Afam VI – with 650MW capacity – continues to deliver power to the national grid.

“We’re pleased to support efforts towards increasing gas supply for manufacturers and power plants,” said Toyin Olagunju, General Manager Projects, SPDC. “We’re also pleased that the project was delivered in record time – 14 months from initiation to first gas – within budget and, most importantly, safely. We acknowledge the support of NAPIMS and other JV partners, without which the milestone would not have been possible.”

The additional gas will further boost gas availability on the eastern domestic gas network and will be available to enhance power generation by over 150MW. The early gas project was initiated in January 2015 pending the completion of the main Agbada non-associated gas plant.

SPDC pioneered the production and delivery of gas to domestic consumers and export markets. Early this year, SPDC signed a gas sale agreement with the Bayelsa State Government under which it will sell gas to the Bayelsa Development and Investment Corporation (BDIC) for the purpose of power supply to the Kolo Creek Gas Turbine.

According to Okolobo, Shell is the only international oil and gas company to have set up a gas distribution business in the country, Shell Nigeria Gas (SNG).

New intersection design may eliminate traffic signals

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New intersection design may eliminate traffic signals

A group of researchers has developed a conceptual traffic system that would enable driverless vehicles to whizz through intersections without colliding, eliminating the need for signals

Each car enters a designated slot
Each car enters a designated slot

Researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the USA, the Swiss Institute of Technology and the Italian National Research Council have come up with the idea for a new type of intersection called Light Traffic.

Their system would use sensors to keep driverless cars at a safe distance from each other and allocate each car with a crossing slot as it arrives at a junction.

Vehicles go to an intersection when there is a slot available for them
Vehicles go to an intersection when there is a slot available for them

Speeds would be automatically adjusted on approach to ensure the vehicles take it in turns to pass across without having to stop.

“Traffic intersections are particularly complex spaces, because you have two flows of traffic competing for the same piece of real estate,” said Italian architect Carlo Ratti, director of the MIT Senseable City Lab.

“But a slot-based system moves the focus from the traffic flow level to the vehicle level,” he continued. “Ultimately, it’s a much more efficient system, because vehicles will get to an intersection exactly when there is a slot available to them.”

The team believes that this system could dramatically reduce the amount of pollution emitted by waiting vehicles, which would be burning fuel unnecessarily.

It also claims that twice as many cars would be able to pass through crossings in the same amount of time as at intersections controlled by traffic lights.

MIT claims that twice as many cars would be able to pass through crossings in the same amount of time as at intersections controlled by traffic lights
MIT claims that twice as many cars would be able to pass through crossings in the same amount of time as at intersections controlled by traffic lights

This would help alleviate congestion, extend the lifespan of current infrastructure and reduce the need for new roads.

“It is important that we start looking into the impact of self-driving vehicles at the city level as soon as possible,” Ratti said. “The lifetime of today’s road infrastructure is many decades and it will certainly be impacted by the mobility disruptions brought in by new technologies.”

MIT described the project as heralding the “death of the traffic light”.

Companies ranging from Bentley to Google are working on plans for driverless cars. Goodyear recently unveiled a design for a spherical tyremade for smart vehicles.

At this year’s Geneva Motor Show, Nissan and Foster + Partners unveiled a vision for a connected network that would enable autonomous vehicles to power homes.

Courtesy: Dezeen Magazine

Groups oppose Monsanto’s GM maize, cotton proposal

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Groups oppose Monsanto’s GM maize, cotton proposal

About 100 groups representing some five million Nigerians, comprising farmers, faith-based organisations, civil society groups, students and local community groups, have lodged an opposition to Monsanto’s attempts to introduce genetically modified (GM) cotton and maize into Nigeria’s food and farming systems. In written objections submitted to the biosafety regulators, the groups have cited numerous health and environmental concerns and alleged failure of these crops, especially GM cotton, in Africa.

Nnimmo Bassey, Director, Health of Mother Earth Foundation (HOMEF)
Nnimmo Bassey, Director, Health of Mother Earth Foundation (HOMEF)

Monsanto Agricultural Nigeria Limited has applied to the National Biosafety Management Agency (NBMA) for the environmental release and placing in the market in Zaria and surrounding towns of GM cotton (Bt cotton, event MON 15985). A further application is for the confined field trial (CFT) of two GM maize varieties (NK603 and stacked event MON 89034 x NK603) in multiple locations in Nigeria.

In their objection to the commercial release of Bt cotton into Nigeria, the groups are particularly alarmed that the application has come so close after reported failures of Bt cotton in Burkina Faso.

Nnimmo Bassey, Director, Health of Mother Earth Foundation (HOMEF) – one of the groups in the frontline of the resistance – stated: “We are totally shocked that it should come so soon after peer reviewed studies have showed thatthe technology has failed dismally in Burkina Faso. It has brought nothing but economic misery to the cotton sector there and is being phased out in that country where compensation is being sought from Monsanto.”

Then he demanded: “Since our Biosafety Act has only recently entered into force, what biosafety legislation was used to authorise and regulate the field trials in the past in accordance with international law and best biosafety practice?”

Director-General of the National Biosafety Management Agency (NBMA), Mr. Rufus Ebegba
Director-General of the National Biosafety Management Agency (NBMA), Mr. Rufus Ebegba

According to the groups, former president, Goodluck Jonathan, “hastily” signed the National Biosafety Management Bill into law, in the twilight days of his tenure in office. Further worrying, they added, is the apparent conflict of interests displayed by the Nigerian regulatory agencies, “who are publically supporting the introduction of GMOs into Nigeria whereas these regulators (the NMBA) are legally bound to remain impartial and regulate in the public interest.”

Bassey stresses that Monsanto’s GM maize application is in respect of a stacked event, including the herbicide tolerant trait intended to confer tolerance to the use of the herbicide, glyphosate. In 20 March 2015, the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), the specialised cancer agency of the World Health Organization (WHO), assessed the carcinogenicity of glysophate and concluded that glyphosate is “probably carcinogenic to humans.” There is also increasing scientific evidence that glyphosate poses serious risks to the environment, added the activist.

According to Mariann Orovwuje, Friends of the Earth International’s Food Sovereignty co-coordinator, “Should commercialisation of Monsanto’s GM maize be allowed pursuant to field trials, this will result in increased use of glyphosate in Nigeria, a chemical that is linked to causing cancer in humans. Recent studies have linked glyphosate to health effects such as degeneration of the liver and kidney, and non-Hodgkin lymphoma. That NBMA is even considering this application is indeed unfortunate and deeply regrettable, knowing full well about the uncontrolled exposure that our rural farmers and communities living close to farms will be exposed to.

“Monsanto’s application deceitfully provides no discussion on the potential risks of glysophate use to human and animal health and the environment. Apart from the potential of contaminating local varieties, the health risk of the introduction of genetically modified maize into Nigeria is enormous considering the fact that maize is a staple that all of 170 million Nigerians depend on.”

The groups are urging the Nigerian government to reject Monsanto’s applications out of hand. They note with disquiet that there is a serious lack of capacity within Nigeria to adequately control and monitor the human and environmental risks of GM crops and glyphosate. Further, they added, there is virtually no testing of any food material and products in Nigeria for glyphosate or other pesticide residues, or the monitoring of their impact on the environment including water resources.

Groups endorsing the objection to Monsanto’s applications include:

  1. All Nigeria Consumers Movement Union (ANCOMU)
  2. Committee on Vital Environmental Resources (COVER)
  3. Community Research and Development Centre (CRDC)
  4. Ijaw Mothers of Warri
  5. Rice Farmers Association of Nigeria (RIFAN)
  6. Host Communities Network of Nigeria (HoCoN)
  7. Oilwatch Nigeria
  8. Green Alliance, Nigeria
  9. African Centre for Leadership, Strategy & Development
  10. Institute of Human Rights and Humanitarian Law (IHRHL)
  11. Women Environmental Programme (WEP)
  12. Persons with Disabilities Action Network (PEDANET)
  13. Students Environmental Assembly of Nigeria (SEAN)
  14. Centre for Environment, Human Rights and Development (CEHRD)
  15. Ogoni Solidarity Forum (OSF)
  16. KebetKache Women Development and Resource Centre
  17. Federation of Urban Poor (FEDUP)
  18. Community Forest Watch (CFW)
  19. The Young Environmentalist Network (TYEN)
  20. Women’s Rights to Education Program (WREP)
  21. Community Action for Public Action (CAPA)
  22. Peoples Advancement Centre (ADC) Bori
  23. Social Action
  24. SPEAK Nigeria
  25. Host Communities Network
  26. Urban Rural Environmental Defenders (U-RED)
  27. Gender and Environmental Risk Reduction Initiative (GERI)
  28. Women’s Right to Education Programme (WREP)
  29. Foundation for Rural/Urban Integration (FRUIT)
  30. Community Action for Popular Participation
  31. Torjir-Agber Foundation (TAF)
  32. Civil Society on Poverty Eradication (CISCOPE),
  33. Jireh Doo foundation
  34. Advocate for Community Vision and Development (ACOVID)
  35. Initiative for empowerment for vulnerable(IEV)
  36. Kwaswdoo Foundation Initiative (KFI)
  37. Environment and Climate Change Amelioration Initiative) ECCAI
  38. Manna Love and care Foundation (MLC)
  39. Okaha Women and children development Organisation(OWCDO)
  40. JODEF-F
  41. Glorious things ministry(GTM)
  42. Daughters of Love Foundation
  43. Medical Women Association of Nigeria (MWAN)
  44. Community Links and Empowerment Initiative(CLHEI)
  45. Nigerian Women in Agriculture (NAWIA)
  46. Osa foundation
  47. Initiative for Improved Health and Wealth Creation (IIHWC)
  48. Peace Health Care Initiative (PHCI)
  49. Ochilla Daughters Foundation (ODF)
  50. African Health Project (AHP)
  51. Artists in Development
  52. Ramberg Child Survival Initiative (RACSI)
  53. Global Health and Development initiative
  54. First Step Initiative (FIP)
  55. Ruhujukan Environment Development  Initiative (REDI)
  56. The Centre for Environment, Human Rights and Development (CEHRD), Nigeria
  57. Center for Children’s Health Education, Orientation Protection (CEE Hope) and CEEHOPE Nigeria
  58. Next Generation Youth Initiative (NGI)
  59. Akwa Ibom Information and Research Organisation (AIORG)
  60. Rural Action for Green Environment (RAGE)
  61. United Action for Democracy
  62. Campaign for Democracy
  63. Yasuni Association
  64. Egi Joint Action Congress
  65. Green Concern for Development (Greencode)
  66. Kebetkache Ahoada Women Farmers Cooperative
  67. Ahoada Uzutam Women Farmers Cooperative
  68. Ogboaku Ahoada Farmers Cooperative
  69. Gbobia Feefeelo women
  70. Ovelle Nyakovia Women Cooperative
  71. Rumuekpe Women Prayer Warriors
  72. League of Queens
  73. Emem Iban Oku Iboku
  74. Uchio Mpani Ibeno
  75. Rural Health and Women Development
  76. Women Initiative on Climate Change
  77. Peoples’ Centre
  78. Citizens Trust Advocacy and Development Centre (CITADEC)
  79. Centre for Environment Media and Development Communications
  80. Centre for Dignity
  81. Peace and Development Project
  82. Triumphant Foundation
  83. Earthcare Foundation
  84. Lokiakia Centre
  85. Community Development and Advocacy Foundation (CODAF)
  86. Citizens Centre
  87. Development Strategies
  88. Rainforest Research and Development Center
  89. Center for Environmental Education and Development (CEED)
  90. Initiative for the Elimination of Violence Against Women & Children (IEVAWC)
  91. Charles and Doosurgh Abaagu Foundation
  92. Community Emergency Response Initiative
  93. Society for Water and Sanitation (NEWSAN)
  94. Shacks and Slum Dwellers Association of Nigeria
  95. Atan Justice, Development and Peace Centre
  96. Sisters of Saint Louis Nigeria
  97. Life Lift Nigeria
  98. Community Research and Development Foundation (CDLF)
  99. Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria (ERA/ FoEN)
  100. Health of Mother Earth Foundation (HOMEF)

Fatma Samoura takes up position as new UN boss in Nigeria

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Fatma Samoura takes up position as new UN boss in Nigeria

Newly appointed Resident Representative for UNDP in Nigeria (who will also serve as UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator) has taken up her position in Abuja. Before coming to Nigeria, Ms. Fatma Samoura, a Senegalese national, served as Resident Representative for UNDP Madagascar and as head of the UN System in the country from October 2010.

Fatma Samoura (middle) at a recent engagement in Abuja. Mr Muyiwa Odele of the UNDP is on her left
Fatma Samoura (middle) at a recent engagement in Abuja. Mr Muyiwa Odele of the UNDP is on her left

Ms. Samoura began her career in the UN 21 years ago when she joined the World Food Programme (WFP) in Rome, Italy.

Ms. Samoura has served in different capacities including as WFP Country Director in Guinea (2009-2010), Cameroun (2005-2007) and Djibouti (2000-2005). In addition to serving at the WFP headquarters in Rome, Ms . Samoura has covered numerous complex emergencies including in Kosovo, Liberia, Nicaragua, Afghanistan, Côte d’Ivoire, Sierra Leone and East Timor. She once consecutively served as Deputy Humanitarian Coordinator for the UN Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in Eastern Chad (2007-2009) and Niger (2010).

Following her arrival at her new duty station, Abuja, Ms. Samoura has held a series of meetings with UNDP Nigeria Country Office staff and management as well as the UN Country Team. She used these opportunities to gain first-hand information from Staff and Heads of Agencies on how the UN is responding to and supporting the government of Nigeria in addressing the numerous challenges faced by Africa’s largest economy.

Ms. Samoura will continue engaging with all partners in the country in order to galvanise the much needed support for effective delivery of development solutions that will strengthen gains Nigeria has made in the recent past.

In a recent statement, she disclosed that the UN’s focus in Nigeria in 2016 is to enhance transparency in the public sector, conflict prevention and peace-building.

“For the country to succeed in preventing corruption from taking place, the present political will needs to be supported by strong institutions,” Samoura said.

According to her, the UNDP would continue to provide the support to the Federal Government to ensure the country’s success in the fight against corruption.

“We will continue working closely with the media, civil society organisations and strengthen our partnership with the Presidential Advisory Committee on Corruption.

“We will also work with the National Assembly and other anti-corruption agencies in order to achieve a culture of integrity in the country.

“The role of the media in shaping public opinion and advocating transparent and accountable leadership cannot be over-emphasised,” Samoura stated.

On the humanitarian situation in the North-East, Samoura stated that the challenges faced by people in the region were enormous and required urgent attention.

She said UNDP’s support toward the situation in the region had been channeled through provision of training opportunities that empowered victims of insurgency with vocational skills.

Samoura added that UNDP had commenced the implementation of a project that focused and addressed issues related to de-radicalisation, counter-terrorism and migration beyond livelihood-related interventions.

She said the UNDP was a co-lead institution in the Early Recovery and Livelihoods Sector Working Group in Nigeria.

“The working group had identified four key areas of integrated programming in Nigeria which include; Mine Action; Debris & Waste Management; Emergency Livelihoods and Recovery Shelter,” she said.

The UN Official stated that early recovery interventions would address recovery needs that arose during the humanitarian phase of the situation in the North-East.

According to her, the interventions are being carried out using humanitarian mechanisms that aligned with development principles.

“These interventions will enable people to use the benefits of humanitarian action to seize development opportunities, build resilience and establish a sustainable process of recovery from crisis”.

Samoura also said that there were UN efforts directed at supporting and promoting peace-building, conflict prevention and social cohesion in ensuring that future conflicts were prevented.

The UN official said the efforts were all part of the framework of a National Infrastructure for Peace in Nigeria.

She added that the UN was using the framework to harness efforts at Federal, State and Local Governments by bringing together relevant stakeholders in addressing issues that would prevent future conflicts.

“We will keep providing support toward enhancing our early warning, response mechanisms and programmes, and expand channels for dialogue aimed at peaceful co-existence”.

Emerging vista in managing Africa’s faecal waste

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Emerging vista in managing Africa’s faecal waste

Wikipedia defines water as a transparent fluid, which covers 71 percent of the Earth’s surface‎ and is vital for all known forms of life. Wastewater, according to the online English dictionary, is any water that has been used by some human, domestic or industrial activity and, because of that, now contains waste products.

Suresh Rohilla, CSE's Programme Director
Suresh Rohilla, CSE’s Programme Director

The current paradigm on water is that the more water is supplied, the more waste water is generated. This results in more costs for treatment, which in turn, is not sustainable because of the growing population – even though more than 1.2 billion people lack access to clean drinking water.

The Second India-Africa Dialogue and Media Briefing Workshop, organised by the Media for Environment, Science, Health and Agriculture (MESHA) in conjunction with Ghana’s SaTCOG, was funded by the India-based Centre of Science and Environment (CSE). Jornalists from Burkina Faso, Benin Republic, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Tanzania and Uganda attended the forum.

The workshop, which was premised on Sewerage to Sanitation: Mainstreaming Septage (Faecal Waste) Management, understudied the African plan for cities’ water, which forgets the waste. The faecal waste plan is such that is dependent on the plan by the colonial administration.

According to Suresh Rohilla, CSE’s Programme Director in charge of Water Management, “80 percent of water leaves homes as sewage where the more water that is generated, the more is wasted. Cities have no clue how they will convey waste, treat it in order to have clean rivers.”

The CSE, which carried out a study on waste water management in 2015, found that the disposal system of faecal waste was based on the sewage systems built by the colonialists, without the involvement of the local people. The study discovered that “The colonial administration created systems and structures where the participation of local people in making decisions was completely eliminated while the systems also became more and more centralised.”

The water supply systems were not decentralised. They were controlled and relied on long transmission lines. More so, the transportation of water from distant locations and sewage disposal were centralised in most towns and cities. “As much as 20 to 50 per cent of water was wasted during the supply process.”

According to Indian National Urban Sanitation Policy 2008, 50 percent of the population lives in unhygienic situations where “only 102 million (equivalent to 29 percent of the urban population) are connected to septic tanks and 60 million (17 percent) use pit or vault latrines. Big cities still have 20-40 percent dependence on septic tanls and small/medium cities 80-100 percent ‎are on septic tanks.”

Against the conventional waste water treatment systems, which are expensive in maintenance, the workshop recommended the Duckweed based Waste Water Treatment (DWWT)‎, which have flexibility in design. ‎ “The DWWT are tolerant to inflow fluctuation and sewer networks are shorter in length and smaller in diameter,” Rohilla explained in his presentation, adding, “it uses a variety of simpler and natural treatment system with non or minimal energy. It promotes conservation of used water and nutrients.”

Of additional advantage is that the DWWT system uses no electricity or chemicals for the treatment process and semi or unskilled labour for operation and maintenance. “The reuse of water is local and safe.

While the DWWT could be used in rural and urban areas, it could also be applied in single houses, public toilets, residential areas, tourism facilities, craft villages, industrial parks as well as hospitals, markets and schools.

African governments must think of workable ways of managing waste water. This could be by adopting technologies ‎that are known to improve water treatment processes.

“These technologies, according to CSE, “are decentralised and designed to enhance the natural aerobic and anaerobic processes” and “create conditions in which wastewater can be treated with the least use of energy or mechanical equipment.”‎ On the whole, wastewater could be effectively recycled and reused locally at household, institutional or community level.

Patrick Appoya is of the Africa Sanitation Think Tank ‎and an Environmentalist. Presenting his paper, “Mainstreaming Sustainable Sanitation Solutions in Africa,” he observed that the sewage systems being used today in Africa “have proven not to be able to cover the population the way we want.”

He gave an example of Ghana, which in 1990 had 11 percent of the population only with access to improved sanitation. The country recorded a four percent difference (15%) in 2015. “It means that our strategy is not working if in 25 years, there was a difference of only four percent. We are showcasing today that other workable approaches are available to achieve our public health objectives. And that option is the decentralised waste treatment. Whatever it will cost to contain our faecal matter effectively, according to the principle of improved sanitation, we must do it.”

Appoya sees one of African government’s challenge in faecal waste management as not charting their own path. “For example, countries that inherited conventional sewage treatment systems still go that way. They don’t think of how best they could create their own suitable methods. The ability to organise authentic evidence ‎to be able to improve on the status quo is the major problem when it comes to sanitation,” he said.

While Appoya sees that very little has changed on the toilet that was invented in 1840s, ‎he recommends the decentralised waste water management system for Africa.

“I will recommend the decentralised waste water management system. We need to also understand that the centralised system will not be able to service everybody.”

Sudhir Pillay, of South Africa’s Water Research Commission made a presentation on the “Opportunities and Challenges in Faecal System Management (FSM) while MESHA’s Secretary, Aghan Daniel presented a paper titled, “Challenges Facing Science Journalism.”

By Abdallah el-Kurebe

Fears over vulnerability of Belgium nuclear plants

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Fears over vulnerability of Belgium nuclear plants

As a dragnet aimed at Islamic State operatives spiraled across Brussels and into at least five European countries last Friday, the authorities were also focusing on a narrower but increasingly alarming threat: the vulnerability of Belgium’s nuclear installations.

The nuclear power plant in Doel, Belgium. The country has a troubled history of security lapses at its nuclear power facilities. Photo credit: Julien Warnand / European PRESSPHOTO AGENCY
The nuclear power plant in Doel, Belgium. The country has a troubled history of security lapses at its nuclear power facilities. Photo credit:
Julien Warnand / European PressPhoto Agency

The investigation into last week’s deadly attacks in Brussels has prompted worries that the Islamic State is seeking to attack, infiltrate or sabotage nuclear installations or obtain nuclear or radioactive material. This is especially worrying in a country with a history of security lapses at its nuclear facilities, a weak intelligence apparatus and a deeply rooted terrorist network.

On Friday, the authorities stripped security badges from several workers at one of two plants where all nonessential employees were sent home hours after the attacks at the Brussels airport and one of the city’s busiest subway stations three days earlier. Surveillance footage of a top official at another Belgian nuclear facility was discovered last year in the apartment of a suspected militant linked to the extremists who unleashed the horror in Paris in November.

Asked on Thursday at a London think tank whether there was a danger of the Islamic State’s obtaining a nuclear weapon, the British defense secretary, Michael Fallon, said that “was a new and emerging threat.”

While the prospect that terrorists can obtain enough highly enriched uranium and then turn it into a nuclear fission bomb seems far-fetched to many experts, they say the fabrication of some kind of dirty bomb from radioactive waste or byproducts is more conceivable. There are a variety of other risks involving Belgium’s facilities, including that terrorists somehow shut down the privately operated plants, which provide nearly half of Belgium’s power.

The fears at the nuclear power plants are of “an accident in which someone explodes a bomb inside the plant,” said Sébastien Berg, the spokesman for Belgium’s federal agency for nuclear control. “The other danger is that they fly something into the plant from outside.” That could stop the cooling process of the used fuel, Mr. Berg explained, and in turn shut down the plant.

The revelation of the surveillance footage was the first evidence that the Islamic State has a focused interest in nuclear material. But Belgium’s nuclear facilities have long had a worrying track record of breaches, prompting warnings from Washington and other foreign capitals.

Some of these are relatively minor: The Belgian nuclear agency’s computer system was hacked this year and shut down briefly. In 2013, two individuals managed to scale the fence at Belgium’s research reactor in the city of Mol, break into a laboratory and steal equipment.

Others are far more disconcerting. In 2012, two employees at the nuclear plant in Doel quit to join jihadists in Syria, and eventually transferred their allegiances to the Islamic State. Both men fought in a brigade that included dozens of Belgians, including Abdelhamid Abaaoud, considered the on-the-ground leader of the Paris attacks.

One of these men is believed to have died fighting in Syria, but the other was convicted of terror-related offenses in Belgium in 2014, and released from prison last year, according to Pieter Van Oestaeyen, a researcher who tracks Belgium’s jihadist networks. It is not known whether they communicated information about their former workplace to their Islamic State comrades.

At the same plant where these jihadists once worked, an individual who has yet to be identified walked into the reactor No. 4 in 2014, turned a valve and drained 65,000 liters of oil used to lubricate the turbines. The ensuing friction nearly overheated the machinery, forcing it to be shut down. The damage was so severe that the reactor was out of commission for five months.

Investigators are now looking into possible links between that case and terrorist groups, although they caution that it could also have been the work of an insider with a workplace grudge. What is clear is that the act was meant to sow dangerous havoc — and that the plant’s security systems can be breached.

“This was a deliberate act to take down the nuclear reactor, and a very good way to do it,” Mr. Berg, the nuclear agency spokesman, said of the episode in a recent interview.

These incidents are now all being seen in a new light, as information is mounting from investigators that the terrorist network that hit Paris and Brussels may have been in the planning stages of some kind of operation at a Belgian nuclear facility.

Three men linked to the surveillance video were involved in either the Paris or the Brussels attacks.

Ibrahim and Khalid el-Bakraoui, the brothers who the authorities say were suicide bombers at the Brussels airport and subway station, are believed to have driven to the surveilled scientist’s home and removed a camera that was hidden in nearby bushes. The authorities believe they then took it to a house connected to Mohammed Bakkali, who was arrested by the Belgian police after the Paris attacks and is accused of helping with logistics and planning. The police found the videocamera during a raid on the house.

Belgium has both low-enriched uranium, which fuels its two power plants, and highly enriched uranium, which is used in its research reactor primarily to make medical isotopes, plus the byproducts of that process. The United States provides Belgium with highly enriched uranium — making it particularly concerned about radioactive materials landing in terrorist hands — and then buys isotopes.

Experts say the most remote of the potential nuclear-related risks is that Islamic State operatives would be able to obtain highly enriched uranium. Even the danger of a dirty bomb is limited, they said, because much radioactive waste is so toxic it would likely sicken or kill the people trying to steal it.

Cheryl Rofer, a retired nuclear scientist at the Los Alamos National Laboratory and editor of the blog Nuclear Diner, said Belgium’s Tihange nuclear plant has pressurised water reactors, inside a heavy steel vessel, reducing the danger that nuclear fuel could leak or spread. She said that the Brussels bombers’ explosive of choice, TATP, might be able to damage parts of the plant but that the damage would shut down the reactor, limiting the radiation damage.

And if terrorists did manage to shut down the reactor and reach the fuel rods, they would have to remove them with a crane to get the fuel out of them, Ms. Rofer said. And then the fuel would still be “too radioactive to go near — it would kill you quickly.”

While experts are doubtful that terrorists could steal the highly enriched uranium at the Mol reactor without alerting law enforcement, some nuclear scientists do believe that if they could obtain it, they could recruit people who know how to fashion a primitive nuclear device.

Matthew Bunn, a specialist in nuclear security at Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government, said another worry was the byproducts of the isotopes made at Mol, such as Cesium-137.

“It’s like talcum powder,” he said. “If you made a dirty bomb out of it, it’s going to provoke fear, you would have to evacuate and you have to spend a lot of money cleaning it up; the economic destruction cost could be very high.”

The discovery of the surveillance video in November set off alarm bells across the small nuclear-security community, with fresh worries that terror groups could kidnap, extort or otherwise coerce a nuclear scientist into helping them. The official whose family was watched works at Mol, one of five research reactors worldwide that produce 90 percent of the radio isotopes used for medical diagnosis and treatment.

Professor Bunn of Harvard noted that the Islamic State “has an apocalyptic ideology and believes there is going to be a final war with the United States,” expects to win that war and “would need very powerful weapons to do so.”

“And if they ever did turn to nuclear weapons,” he added, “they have more people, more money and more territory under their control and more ability to recruit experts globally than Al Qaeda at its best ever had.”

By Alissa J. Rubin (Brussels) and Milan Schreuer (Paris), New York Times

Australia to invest $1 billion in clean energy

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Australia to invest $1 billion in clean energy

The Australian Government is establishing a $1 billion Clean Energy Innovation Fund to support emerging technologies make the leap from demonstration to commercial deployment.

Australian Prime Minister, Malcolm Turnbull
Australian Prime Minister, Malcolm Turnbull

This will drive innovation and create the jobs of the future, while delivering a financial benefit from the investment of public money.

The $1 billion Clean Energy Innovation Fund will be jointly managed by the Clean Energy Finance Corporation (CEFC) and the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA), drawing on their complementary experience and expertise. It will provide both debt and equity for clean energy projects.

The government will retain and reinvigorate the Clean Energy Finance Corporation and the Australian Renewable Energy Agency as part of our strong commitment to supporting jobs and innovation through investment in clean and renewable energy in Australia.

The refocused agencies will work together to provide capital investment in Australian businesses and emerging clean energy technologies.

“We are promoting innovation and new economic opportunities, enhancing our productivity, protecting our environment and reducing emissions to tackle climate change,” the government said.

An example of a project could be a large scale solar facility with storage in Port Augusta.

By offering innovative equity and debt products, the Clean Energy Innovation Fund can accelerate the availability of new technologies to transform the energy market, and deliver better value for taxpayers.

“There is growing maturity in the clean energy market, but early stage clean energy projects can have trouble growing to the size and maturity needed to attract private equity. We will help plug this investment gap. The Clean Energy Innovation Fund will target projects such as large-scale solar with storage, off-shore energy, biofuels and smart grids.

“Clean energy is central to the Government’s strategy to address climate change and meet our emissions reduction targets. We are committed to supporting the development, demonstration and deployment of renewable technologies – which will help transition Australia’s energy sector to low emissions over the course of the century.”

ARENA will continue to manage its existing portfolio of grants and deliver the announced $100 million large-scale solar round, and will be given an expanded focus beyond renewable energy to enable energy efficiency and low emissions technology.

This will provide greater alignment with the CEFC and ensure that ARENA is able to support the full spectrum of emerging clean energy technology options.

Once the $100 million large-scale solar round is complete, ARENA will move from a grant based role to predominantly a debt and equity basis under the Clean Energy Innovation Fund.

The $1 billion Clean Energy Innovation Fund will be established from within the CEFC’s $10 billion allocation. This Fund will make available $100 million a year for 10 years.

The changes announced work hand in hand with the Emissions Reduction Fund, the Renewable Energy Target, the National Energy Productivity Plan and our broader support for clean energy to reduce emissions and drive productivity across the energy sector.

“Our strong suite of climate change policies will work to achieve our commitment to reduce emissions by 26 to 28 per cent by 2030. This target is ambitious but achievable,” officials disclosed.

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