Over 18,000 people have been affected and 200 children have reportedly died as a result of lead poisoning in northern Nigeria, says a new UN report. Written by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), the report calls on Nigerian authorities to prevent further lead poisoning in the area. It recommends taking greater measures to limit ore processing activities at sensitive sites, such as drinking water sources.
The report also calls for cleaning up polluted villages as soon as possible to ensure that children suffering from lead poisoning can return to their villages for recovery and follow-up care after receiving treatment.
Abnormally high rates of death and illness among children have been recorded since the beginning of 2010 in the areas of Bukkuyum and Anka in Zamfara State in northern Nigeria. Investigations by the Joint UNEP/OCHA Environment Unit revealed that the cause is acute lead poisoning from the processing of lead-rich ore for gold extraction taking place inside houses and compounds. Over 18,000 people have been affected and 200 children have reportedly died as a result of the poisoning.
The new report is based on the findings of a sampling and analysis mission requested by the Federal Ministry of Health of Nigeria in September 2010.
The mission tested for lead in water, soil and in the air.
The mission found that drinking water from wells did not meet World Health Organisation (WHO) and Nigerian standards (10 micrograms per liter) for lead limits, and in at least one case exceeded this limit more than tenfold. Water in ponds was often highly contaminated. However, no boreholes were found to have been contaminated, indicating that lead pollution most likely remains confined to areas where processing has taken place, and has not yet spread throughout the groundwater.
A Dutch court has said it has jurisdiction over a case of alleged oil spills brought against Royal Dutch Shell’s subsidiary in Nigeria by four Nigerian farmers and Friends of the Earth, a court spokeswoman told ANP-Reuters.
“The court has decided that it is competent, so we will be handling the case,” said the spokeswoman.
“The facts are connected and for reasons of efficiency the cases against Shell and Shell Nigeria will be handled jointly.”
This case, brought by four Nigerian victims of Shell oil spills from three Nigerian villages, in conjunction with Friends of the Earth Netherlands, began on December 3, 2009, in the court at The Hague.
This is the first time in history that a Dutch company has been brought to trial before a Dutch court for damages abroad.
The four farmers and fishermen who lost their livelihoods after oil leaking from Shell pipelines spilled over their fields and fishing ponds, are claiming compensation.
Reports contained in “remember saro-wiwa” website indicate that the victims subpoenaed both Shell’s subsidiary in Nigeria and Shell’s Dutch headquarters, alleging that as “the result of the company’s negligence, agricultural lands have been devastated, drinking water polluted, fish ponds made unusable and the environment and health of local people harmed”.
Shell denied all responsibility and insisted that the Dutch court has no jurisdiction over its Nigerian subsidiary.
At a hearing at The Hague earlier this month, Shell disputed the court’s jurisdiction to entertain the case and argued that such a case should be handled by a Nigerian court.
The oil major also said it could not be held accountable for the oil leaks as they were caused by sabotage.
At Shell’s request, the court had to address the issue of jurisdiction first by ruling on whether Shell Nigeria can be called to account before the Dutch court, before considering whether Shell parent company is liable for the pollution in Nigeria.
However, with yesterday’s court ruling that it has jurisdiction, the issue of whether Shell Nigeria can be called to account before the Dutch court has been laid to rest.
The court said that in order to handle the case properly, both Shell and its Nigerian unit should be heard.
It also said that “it is not unusual” in the Dutch jurisprudence to rule on events that happened outside the Netherlands.
Shell said it was disappointed with the court’s ruling.
“We are disappointed by the court ruling,” a Shell spokesman told Dow Jones Newswires.
“There are good arguments on which the court could have concluded it lacks jurisdiction. This [case] is a pure Nigerian matter,” he added.
The trial will continue in February 2010.
According to the court spokeswoman, Shell will be able to enter a statement of reply to the claims on February 10.
But Friends of the Earth Netherlands expressed delight at the ruling.
“Now we can start the real lawsuit about whether Shell is responsible and how much they have to do to compensate the damage,” a spokeswoman for the environmental group said.
Speaking on behalf of the victims in Nigeria, Chima Williams, Counsel of Enviro-nmental Rights Action (ERA), was quoted by “remember saro-wiwa” website as saying that: “These people have tried in many ways to get Shell to clean up the mess, but they have got nowhere. Now, as a last resort, they are trying to obtain justice in the Netherlands.”
The ruling which could set a legal precedent for multinationals in the Netherlands, is “an initial victory for all Nigerians that have been fighting for years for a cleaner habitat and justice”, Friends of the Earth Netherlands said in a statement.
The case was also a matter of principle for Friends of the Earth Netherlands.
“In many countries, including Nigeria, the legal system is inadequate, and it is thus crucial that a company can also be brought to trial elsewhere,” the environmentalist group said.
Read a related story about the case in the Guardian.
South Africa faces chronic water shortages, yet billions of litres are flushed away every year. Being one of the driest countries in the world, the conservation of water resources and managing wastewater should be a top priority for government. [According to] the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) [...] water shortage is a genuine threat as 98 percent of the country’s water resources are already fully utilised. [...] WWF estimates that by the year 2025 South Africa will have a water deficit of 1.7 percent.
[...] One of the ways to protect and conserve water is to focus on the recycling of waste water, according to water experts gathered in Cape Town for a water seminar in May [2009]. The event was attended by water experts from Europe and South Africa and formed part of an economic and political mission of the Dutch governmental delegation comprising of minister of Development Cooperation Bert Koenders and deputy minister of Foreign Trade Frank Heemskerk.
“We should change our mindsets about wastewater,” said Brendon Meulman, project manager at Landustrie, a Dutch company that specialises in wastewater management. “We should stop seeing it as waste and a burden, but rather as a resource”.
“Toilet water for instance, is rich in organic material,” he explained. “If the concentration of this so-called black water is high enough, you can create energy out of this organic material. You can also turn it into compost and fertiliser.”
[...] Apart from reducing the amount of wastewater and waste, the system does not require water to flush excrement. Similar systems are already in operation in South Africa, for instance in Durban were thousands of dry toilets have been installed. “We work with so-called vacuum toilets that are already used on cruise ships,” he told IPS. “”According to our calculations, a vacuum toilet saves 36 litres of water per person per day,” said Meulman. “That is over 25 percent of your daily total water consumption.”
According to Meulman, this technology is not applicable only in high-income countries. “We have developed a low tech version which is specifically meant to service informal settlements and squatter camps,” he explained. “It is a self-contained system that is not dependent on energy sources. It basically comprises of a container that is equipped with toilets and urinals, which are vandalism proof, hygienic and clean.”
[...] The chances of the vacuum toilet system solving South Africa’s water problems are slim, as government figures show that domestic consumption accounts for just 12 percent of all water used in South Africa. Industry, mining, and power generation together consume another 12.5 percent and agricultural irrigation accounts for around 52 percent the country’s water use.
[...] Koenders emphasised that it is not only toilet water that needs to be looked at. “The country’s water problems are further impacted by the fact that mines are contaminating rivers and other water bodies,” he told IPS.
[...] The problems mentioned by Koenders were key focal points of a 2008 report presented by South Africa’s National Nuclear Regulator. The publication predicted serious problems with the country’s water supply, including radioactive pollution and waste dumping. It also suggested that wastewater from mines was seeping into the country’s groundwater.
The water and forestry department however, denied a looming water crisis. In a statement, forestry and water affairs minister Lindiwe Hendricks said that South Africa’s drinking water quality was rated among the best in the world. [...] “Indeed, due to mining and other human activities, the water quality is affected in some parts of the country,” Marius Keet, Director of Water Quality Management of Forestry and Water Affairs of the Gauteng province, said. “But it is not a crisis. It is a challenge, that needs to be addressed.”
Every day 300 million litres of water laced with sulphuric acid and heavy metals, known as acid mine drainage (AMD), bubbles to the surface around South Africa’s biggest city, Johannesburg.
New legislation, along with improved treatment plants to be built, aims to partly address the decades-old problem by incorporating new thinking on both AMD and mining, but environmental activists say the government needs to implement better land management and stricter regulation if water and food security are to be properly protected.
In July [2009] the government is to introduce a Regional Mine Closure Strategy that will manage mining districts rather than individual mines, said Stephinah Madau, Acting Chief Director of Mineral Policy at the National Department of Mining. Madau made the announcement on 8 June at a public hearing by the South African Human Rights Commission to review progress on the Millennium Development Goals and water security.
Historically, mine management and environmental impact assessments (EIAs) have been done on a mine-by-mine basis, neglecting the multiplier effects that a heavily mined area can have on the environment, said Prof Terrance McCarthy, of the Witwatersrand University’s School of Geosciences. The new framework is an attempt to manage entire mining regions and control ADM pollution at its source.
Madau said several studies that would give the department of mining a better idea of the extent of the AMD problem – and who was to blame – would be undertaken before the end of the current financial year in February 2010.
A much larger, and so far unsolved problem, was presented by mines that had closed, where AMD had seeped into the water table, McCarthy said. Researchers have proposed using either natural or artificial reed-dominated wetlands to filter the water and remove the heavy metals found in most AMD, but McCarthy said it was hard to know which was the best way forward.
Dr Koos Pretorius, director of the Federation for a Sustainable Environment, a grouping of concerned NGOs, told the public hearing that an effective response to AMD would have to incorporate both legislation and proper land management. [He said that] it takes just 5 to 10 years for the shafts or pits to fill up, eventually decanting like an overflowing bath at the surface and placing land, drinking-water and people at risk. He said the government should devise a comprehensive land-use plan demarcating major water catchment and agricultural areas as mine-free.
[...] A 2007 report by South Africa’s National Nuclear Regulator identified at least 100 communities in mining areas that were located on radioactive soil due to AMD, 36 of which needed immediate attention.
Many Liberians in areas recently infested by crop-eating caterpillars are scrambling to find safe water as some wells contaminated by the insects have yet to be cleaned up.
“The wells and the hand-pumps most of us used to drink from are still infected with faeces,” said Nowai Kollie, one of the residents in Shankpalla, the first town invaded by caterpillars in Zota District, 170km north of the capital Monrovia.
“There is a serious problem with having clean water right now in this town.”
In January [2009] thousands of residents were forced to flee their homes in Zota and other districts in Bong County, as well as Lofa and Gbarpolu counties, when millions of caterpillars invaded towns and villages, devouring crops and contaminating water sources.
[...] President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf visited the affected towns in the first week of March and expressed dissatisfaction over the slow response to the water contamination, Presidential Press Secretary Cyrus Badio told reporters in Monrovia. The president named the LWSC [Liberia Water and Sewage Corporation] to spearhead the chlorination process.
[The caterpillars were first thought to be African armyworms (Spodoptera sp) but] a preliminary identification report by IITA [International Institute of Tropical Agriculture] indicated that the insect is from the genus Achaea, most probably of the species Achaea catocaloides. Achaea and Spodoptera are two closely related moths but behave and feed differently.
Concerned with a cholera threat from its northern neighbour, Zimbabwe, South Africa could be overlooking a creeping water crisis of its own, as ageing infrastructure and rising demand spew potentially deadly bacteria into its water systems.
[Although] access to water has increased dramatically [since the end of apartheid in 1994], backlogs persist: in 2008, about 5 million people were still in need of adequate supplies, while three times more – 15 million people – lacked basic sanitation.
[...] South Africa’s tap water is among the best in the world, according to [Department of Water Affairs and Forestry (DWAF] spokesperson Linda Page. But with millions still lacking access to flush toilets and piped water, the threat of waterborne diseases cannot be ignored, she said.
In 2008, half of the municipal water supplies surveyed in Western Cape Province, on the country’s south coast, had high levels of the potentially deadly E. coli bacteria, according to a study released by the provincial DWAF.
[...] Municipalities across the country have blamed poor water quality on a lack of resources and capacity that has put far too much strain on ageing water treatment plants. In 2004 South Africa had just 15,000 civil engineers, with the bulk in the private sector and only 11 percent working for local government.
[...] Every year thousands of tourists flock to the towns that dot the banks of the Vaal [River] [...] but in December [2008], when the extent of the [water] pollution became known, the town lost about US$180,000 a week in cancellations.
Local wildlife is also struggling to cope with the environmental impact. Recently, court-ordered contractors removed 20 tonnes of dead fish after a local NGO, Save the Vaal River Environment (SAVE), took the local Emfuleni municipality to court for leaking millions of litres of raw sewage into the river.
[...] In its defence, Emfuleni municipality – well aware of its failing pumps and ageing infrastructure – argues that it lacks the finances and capacity to correct the situation.
While [admitting] there are backlogs in the provision of drinking water and sanitation, and that mistakes have been made, [Dr Roman Tandlich, a lecturer at the Faculty of Pharmacy at Rhodes University] stresses the complex environment in which post-apartheid service provision operates.
For instance, standard sanitation systems are problematic in townships, and systems based on ventilated pit latrines, where an additional ventilation shaft is dug alongside the main hole to reduce odour and the presence of flies and mosquitoes, are being explored.
Studies from Ghana have shown that extremely high levels of government subsidy are needed to fund conventional sewage systems, while ventilated pit latrines have proven to be a cost-effective alternative.
[...] DWAF’s Page said funds have been put aside to address problems in infrastructure, as well as the issues of budget management and skills shortages.
Swarm of African Armyworms. Photo Credit: Wilfred Mushobozi, BBSRC.
Millions of invading caterpillars [known as African armyworms - Spodoptera exempta (Walker)] have forced thousands [of Liberians] to flee their homes and the situation is “getting worse”. The caterpillars [...] have destroyed crops, entered houses and contaminated water sources with their faeces, local authorities say.
“The situation is getting worse,” [Bong county superintendent Rennie] Jackson told IRIN. “Most drinking water sources, including creeks and wells, have been polluted with the faeces of the worms. The number of affected people is in the thousands.”
[...] Army worms are caterpillars that eventually develop into nocturnal moths. In their larval stage they can be very destructive, attacking cereals and grazing land. This is the first major invasion of the insects in Liberia, according to an 18 January statement by the Agriculture Ministry.
On 26 January, IRIN reported that army worms had struck 65 towns across Liberia, leaving in their wake wells contaminated by faeces, fields empty of crops and markets devoid of food.
The worms, which invaded Bong country in central Liberia on 15 January, [had] spread to Gbarpolu County in the northwest and to Lofa County, which borders Guinea and Sierra Leone.
[...] Officials with the ministries of agriculture, health and internal affairs and the Environmental Protection Agency have been spraying affected areas with insecticide, forcing most of the worms into the forest, according to Joseph Queliboh Subah, who manages the government effort to contain the insects.
[...] Subah said only aerial spraying can stem the spread, as insects climb trees to fertilise their eggs. “Liberia cannot contain the invasion so the international community has to come in to help with more advanced spraying,” he told IRIN.
He said NGOs have not yet responded to appeals for assistance.
Experts from the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) were expected to arrive in the capital Monrovia on 26 January to assess the extent of the damage and decide how to fight the worms, according to FAO’s Liberia emergency coordinator Tim Vaesen.
On 29 January, the FAO reported that some 100 villages in northern and central Liberia were now affected and that six communities in neighbouring Guinea had also been struck. [...] According to Liberian authorities, the emergency involves about 500 000 villagers.
Much worse could be in store [as] many of the Armyworms had now bored into the ground, out of reach of pesticides, and formed protective cocoons around themselves. When they re-emerge, after a week to 12 days, it will be as moths. “Each moth can fly up to 1 000 kilometers – and lay 1 000 eggs,” [FAO Permanent Representative in Liberia Winfred] Hammond, an entomologist explained. “Potentially, that’s a recipe for disaster.”
[...] Liberian President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf [...] declared a state of national emergency on Monday [26 January 2009] and appealed to the country’s international partners for help.
Source: IRIN, 20 Jan 2009 ; IRIN, 26 Jan 2009 ; FAO, 29 Jan 2009
The Federation for a Sustainable Environment has handed over a petition to the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) demanding the reinstatement of suspended water research scientist, Dr Anthony Turton. The petition was signed by 1,463 national and international scientists, academics, representatives of non-governmental organisations and various political parties from 27 countries.
Anthony Turton, a fellow of CSIR, was suspended after criticising both the council and the government for failing to address the impending water crisis in the country. The petitioners have called his suspension an “attempted silencing of the truth about South Africa’s water crisis” and a “major attack on the constitutional right to freedom of expression”.
CSIR withdrew a paper [1] that Turton was to present as the keynote address at the council’s Science Real and Relevant conference in Pretoria in November 2008. [...] His suspension occurred a few days later, after he talked to the media about the withdrawal of his paper.
The paper argued that the country had already run out of surplus water and that because most rivers and dams were highly polluted, they had lost the ability to dilute effluents. He predicted that the country was headed for a crisis that could not only affect its economic growth and its development but also lead to social unrest. He also warned about increased levels anti-retroviral load in the rivers as a result of South Africa’s high prevalence of HIV and Aids. “These complex chemical compounds will be entering the human population over time, either through drinking water or via produce that has been irrigated with contaminated water,” he wrote.
CSIR has stressed that Turton was not suspended for his views but for bringing the council into disrepute.
In the meantime, Turton has started a new project, the Dream Team, to tackle the country’s water supply problems. Comprising of foreign venture capitalists, engineers and scientists, the project is developing a strategy to assist science councils, government and municipalities manage the country’s water supply.
[1] Read Turton’s paper “Three Strategic Water Quality Challenges that Decision-Makers Need to Know About and How the CSIR Should Respond” here.
Sources: Sharon Davis and Aisling Irwin, SciDev.Net, 05 Dec 2008 ; Jacques Breytenbach, Pretoria News / Independent Online, 14 Dec 2008 ; Arthi Sanpath, Daily News / Independent Online, 10 Dec 2008
Despite violence, corporate flower farms keep up assault on Lake Naivasha people and the environment in a rush to grow and export flowers for Valentine’s Day.
Washington DC – Public interest organizations in Canada, Europe, Kenya, and the United States today called on the international community to help the people suffering from violence in the Lake Naivasha region of Kenya, not the global industrial flower farms that exploit the lake and its people. The groups released a new report “Lake Naivasha: Withering Under the Assault of International Flower Vendors”, highlighting the destructive practices of the flower farms that dominate the region.
“The farms surround Lake Naivasha. They deplete its waters and poison them with pesticides,” said Maude Barlow, national chairperson of the Council of Canadians. “They are sowing the seeds of economic and environmental devastation that, unless stopped, inevitably will yield a harvest of poverty, water deprivation, and violence.”
The report was originally scheduled for release on Valentine’s Day but moved up due to the situation in Kenya and outrageous news coverage sympathetic to the flower industry.
WONDERFONTEINSPRUIT , 15 February 2008 (IRIN) – One legacy of South Africa’s extensive mineral deposits is the infrastructure and wealth of the country. But another more troubling legacy is emerging as an increasingly urgent problem: environmental contamination – heavy metals and radioactive elements – from over 100 years of mining that could severely pollute the country’s water, affecting the food chain and citizens’ health.
The epicentre of the problem lies southwest of Johannesburg in a valley ringed by mines – both active and closed – where a small river called the Wonderfonteinspruit runs southwest from the mining town of Randfontein to Carletonville and Khutsong, and into the Mooi River, which provides water for Potchefstroom, a large university town.
[IPS]Cape Town -Nokuzola Bulana has a problem with leaks. The water that drips from the pipes of the toilet outside her home in Khayelitsha, a large semi-informal township on the fringes of Cape Town, South Africa goes to waste and drives up her water bill.
[HRW]Maputo -Many of the 1,429 households resettled to make way for Vale and Rio Tinto’s international coal mining operations in Tete province, Mozambique have faced serious disruptions in their access to food, water, and work, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. The Mozambican government’s speed in approving mining licenses and inviting bill […]
[New Times]The Ministry of Infrastructure (Mininfra) plans to give water and sanitation priority if its Budget is approved, Prof. Silas Lwakabamba has said.
[New Vision]Mbarara -Residents of Mbarara town and Kaberebere in Isingiro district have been short of water since Saturday following a technical fault on the water pump at Ruharo main water station.
[Leadership]Maradun Local Government Council in Zamfara has earmarked N16 million for the drilling of bore holes in areas worst affected by water shortage.
[Times of Zambia]KAFUBU Water and Sewerage Company (KWSC) has signed a contract with NIRAS consultants of Denmark worth US$80 million for the provision of consulting and engineering services.
[ANGOP]Luanda -Bibala municipality, south-west Namibe province, will soon benefit from drinking water, as part of implementation of water supply plan worth 800 million Kwanzas, said the local administrator.
[Daily Trust]Bauchi -Bauchi is one of the states of the federation experiencing the problem of perennial water scarcity, In this interview, Alhaji Sani Mohammed Burra, Bauchi State Commissioner of Water Resources speaks on some of the strategies adopted by the government to end water scarcity in the state. Excerpts:
[MDC]Another Bulawayo Dam, Upper Ncema, has been decommissioned. The Bulawayo City Council revealed this yesterday raising concerns of the worsening plight of water shortages currently facing the city.
Nokuzola Bulana has a problem with leaks. The water that drips from the pipes of the toilet outside her home in Khayelitsha, a large semi-informal township on the fringes of Cape Town, South Africa goes to waste and drives up her water bill. Bulana, a water activist, says she fixed the leaks in January but [...]
Amid warnings that Kenya’s agricultural water use is surpassing sustainable levels and adversely affecting food security, biodiversity researchers say that agrobiodiversity should be considered as a vital tool to combat this. “In order to feed the nation, the country must explore agrobiodiversity, specifically (the growing of) vegetables and fruits, which ha […]
Fifty seven thousand people were displaced on the Zambian and Zimbabwean sides of the Zambezi River to make way for the construction of the Kariba hydroelectric dam. Almost six decade later, they are still to be compensated for being moved from their homes.
Lloyd Phiri, a fisherman from Senga Bay on Lake Malawi’s shores in Malawi’s central region, knows that the lake’s water levels are dropping. He can see it in his catch, which has shrunk by more than 80 percent in recent years. Years ago, it was the norm to catch about 5,000 fish a day, Phiri [...]
For the last 13 years, Trynos Mbweku, the headman of Mwenezi district in southeastern Zimbabwe, has had to use a cart to fetch water from the only remaining borehole in his area, which lies some 10 kilometres from his home. For villagers in this district, which is about 160 km southwest of Masvingo, the capital [...]
Mauritius may be one of the best-prepared countries in the world when it comes to cyclones, but recent heavy rains and flooding due to climate change have brought the country’s readiness for coping with increased rainfall into question. Ecologist Keshwar Beeharry-Panray tells IPS that he expects the island to be affected by more floods, landslides [...]
Photo: Samer Muscati/Human Rights Watch Maputo — Many of the 1,429 households resettled to make way for Vale and Rio Tinto’s international coal mining operations in Tete province, Mozambique have faced serious disruptions in their access to food, water, and work, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. The Mozambican government’s speed in [...] […]
The Ministry of Infrastructure (Mininfra) plans to give water and sanitation priority if its Budget is approved, Prof. Silas Lwakabamba has said. Prof. Lwakabamba was presenting the ministry’s 2013/2014 Budget Estimates and Medium Term Expenditure Plan (MTEF) to Parliament’s Budget and National Patrimony Standing Committee on Monday. Mininfra’s 2013/14 draft […]
Mbarara — Residents of Mbarara town and Kaberebere in Isingiro district have been short of water since Saturday following a technical fault on the water pump at Ruharo main water station. Now the over 3000 affected homes which do not have reserve tanks in place, and hotels in the area are collecting water from River [...]
Another Bulawayo Dam, Upper Ncema, has been decommissioned. The Bulawayo City Council revealed this yesterday raising concerns of the worsening plight of water shortages currently facing the city. According to city council minutes revealed yesterday the dam is only left with 2% capacity, a situation that has necessitated the move to immediately decommission […]
Make data and information flow The last two weeks of April 2013 I went working closely with IRC colleagues on the ground. Also I worked with ‘les rapporteur groupes thématique’ from the water ministries. The overarching theme was ‘flux d’info AEPHA’. I went to Burkina Faso, Francophone West Africa. AEPHA = ‘Approvisionnement en Eau Potable, Hygiène [...] […]
Water sanitation and hygiene (WASH) has been identified by government under pillar three of the “Agenda for Prosperity” as pivotal in promoting social growth and economic empowerment among Sierra Leoneans. In this regard, therefore, His Excellency Dr Ernest Bai Koroma has said at the official opening session of the two-day conference on Water Sanitation and […]
The Department of Water Affairs has made “good progress” with regard to the challenge of acid mine drainage (AMD) in the Witwatersrand area since the inception of an inter-Ministerial committee on AMD in 2010, Water and Environmental Affairs Minister Edna Molewa told Parliament on Tuesday. In December, the department awarded JSE-listed construction company G […]
A group of civil society organizations under the banner, “Liberia CSOs Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Network)” says it is deeply disappointed in the Government of Liberia for its alleged lackadaisical attitude in supporting the Country’s WASH sector. The WASH CSOs Network said it is also disappointing to note that President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf who is Afric […]
THE water situation in some parts of Harare’s western suburbs improved yesterday after council repaired one of the pumps at Morton Jaffray Water Works. Acting director for Harare Water Engineer Simon Muserere said the pump had been repaired though final touches were under way to restore supply to other areas. “We have worked hard the [...]
Washington, D.c. — Today, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) Administrator Rajiv Shah, joined members of Congress – Senator Richard Durbin, Senator Chris Coons, Congressman Earl Blumenauer and Congressman Ted Poe – to release the U.S. Government’s first Water and Development Strategy. This strategy recognizes the vital role water plays in […]
