Today Norway and Lithuania signed agreements concerning the allocation of approximately NOK 660 million under the EEA and Norwegian Financial Mechanisms. “The EEA and Norway Grants help to reduce social and economic disparities in Europe, and this is also to Norway’s benefit,” said Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr St¸re.

In connection with President Dalia Grybauskaitë’s state visit to Norway, Lithuanian Minister of Finance Ingrida Ðimonytë and Norwegian Minister of Justice Knut Storberget signed memorandums of understanding today on the allocation of the funds for the EEA and Norway Grants for Lithuania in the period leading up to 2014.

“We can look back on many years of good neighbourly relations with Lithuania. The country has made great economic and political progress since it gained independence in 1991. With these agreements, we are stepping up cooperation between our two countries in areas of mutual interest,” said Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr St¸re.

Environmental protection and efforts to combat climate change have been given top priority in the new agreements on the EEA and Norway Grants. About NOK 154 million has been earmarked for programmes focused on green industry innovation, integrated marine and inland water management, and biological diversity and ecosystem services.

Justice and home affairs is the other main sector that will receive funding in this period. Norway will provide nearly NOK 150 million for work in three key areas: cross-border and organised crime, judicial capacity-building, and correctional services, including non-custodial sanctions.

In addition, there will be new programmes with a focus on NGOs, decent work, public health initiatives, conservation and revitalisation of cultural heritage, scholarships, and children and young people at risk. A number of Norwegian institutions will be involved in the implementation of the programmes in cooperation with their Lithuanian counterparts.

“We are very pleased to have signed the agreements, particularly because this year we are celebrating that it is 20 years since diplomatic relations were re-established between Lithuania and Norway,” said Mr St¸re.

By the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Norway
Duty Press Officer: Date:   April 5 2011

NAMIBIA: Floods cause an emergency

Photo: Jaspreet Kindra/IRIN

Flooding in January 2010

JOHANNESBURG, 1 April 2011 (IRIN) – Namibia has declared a state of emergency in response to widescale flooding in the north that has claimed 62 lives since January 2011.

“The most severe flooding is occurring in the regions of Oshana, Ohangwena, Omusati and Oshikoto, which form the Cuvelai Basin,” said a situation report by the Office of the UN Resident Coordinator on 30 March 2011.

The Cuvelai Basin, in northern Namibia, is one of the country’s most densely populated regions, as well as one of its poorest.

“However, surrounding areas are also being affected, specifically Caprivi and Kavango. An estimated 62 people have died. In Oshakati town, in Oshana region, an estimated 5,000 people are already being housed in relocation sites, and this number is increasing,” the report noted.

“Following weeks of heavy rain, water levels in northern Namibia are already 30cm to 40cm higher than they were in 2009, when a flood emergency was also declared.”

The Namibia Meteorological Service has forecast more rain for the central and northern parts of the country next week, and the situation is expected to be compounded by “a new flood wave” approaching the Cuvelai Basin, beginning on 1 April.

The government has set aside about US$4.4 million for its response to the floods, but allocation of the funds has not yet been decided.

The International Federation of the Red Cross (IFRC) has sourced US$328,000 from its Disaster Relief Emergency Fund (DREF) to support the local Red Cross in providing “assistance to 2,000 families in the northern regions of Caprivi, Kavango, Ohangwena, Omusati and Oshana, as well as in the southern region of Karas, which was affected by flooding earlier in the season,” the report said.

Preliminary assessments showed that the priority requirements were food, shelter, transport and education. Over 100,000 learners in 324 schools were affected by flooding, of which 163 were closed, and 22 health clinics were either submerged or completely surrounded by water.

Southern Africa

In the past few months many countries in the region have been afflicted by flooding. The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) noted in its Southern Africa flood and cyclone update on 30 March 2011 that according to media reports, the Cunene provincial government, in southern Angola, was airlifting medical supplies to areas cut off by floodwater.

“The government has also started building dykes and hydraulic systems around Ondjiva [capital of Cunene Province] to ensure that the flooding that has affected the city for three successive rainfall seasons does not recur,” the OCHA update said.

Flooding in Angola has caused the deaths of 113 people in 2011, displaced about 35,000 people and destroyed nearly 5,000 homes, OCHA said.

Recent floods in South Africa killed 91 people, and 34 died in Madagascar, mainly in the flooding caused by Cyclone Bingiza, which struck the Indian Ocean island on 14 February 2011.

In contrast, parts of Zimbabwe have suffered an unseasonal dry spell that is expected to have a severe impact on the food insecure country’s main harvest, which starts in April.

go/he

source http://www.irinnews.org

SOUTH AFRICA: De-stressing the water

Photo: Bonile Bam/IRIN

Dube hostel in Soweto

DU NOON, 1 April 2011 (IRIN) – More than 40 percent of South Africa’s dams suffer eutrophication, when the water becomes nutrient-rich and algae multiply, releasing cyanobacterial toxins harmful to the liver and nervous systems of humans, domestic animals and wildlife.

Failing water treatment plants that allow inadequately treated sewage back into the environment are being blamed for eutrophication, which is regarded as the most serious threat to the country’s already stressed water resources.

The 2009 Green Drop Report by the Department of Water Affairs found that over 55 percent of South Africa’s wastewater treatment plants were in need of “drastic improvement.” Its 2010 report found that only 32 of around 850 wastewater treatment plants – about three percent – were considered completely compliant with safe discharge standards.

Sector analysts agree the problem is aging water infrastructure, coupled with the rapid expansion of water services since the demise of apartheid in 1994, which have been hastened by a shortage of skills and the poor management of wastewater treatment plants.

The Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), a South African scientific and technology research unit, has said the country’s freshwater resource will be depleted by 2030 if current practices towards water remained unchanged.

The World Health Organization notes on its website that the effect of “cyanobacterial toxins varies according to the type of toxin and the type of water or water-related exposure (drinking, skin contact, etc). Humans are affected by a range of symptoms, including skin irritation, stomach cramps, vomiting, nausea, diarrhoea, fever, sore throat, headache, muscle and joint pain, blisters of the mouth and liver damage.”

The increase in eutrophication is being compounded by industrial effluents, soil erosion and agriculture – which accounts for about 60 percent of South Africa’s water consumption – through the use of fertilizers.

Low-tech solution

In a field on the outskirts of Du Noon, a poor township about 15km north of Cape Town, there is a 50-metre-long pool with two small reed-covered islands that mimic the mechanics of a wetland, removing nutrients, trace metals, and hazardous compounds from the storm water runoff of what has become an open toilet for nearby residents. The cleansed water then flows back into a nearby river where, perversely, inadequately treated sewage re-pollutes it.

This technology provides a proven, immediately implementable means of reducing a range of problem elements and compounds present in wastewater

The technology, developed in the United States, replicates freshwater islands composed of tightly-knit roots, peat, and detritus. In wetlands 80 percent of the biological action is performed by aggregates of micro-organisms attached to all submerged surfaces, called biofilm.

The matrix structure of the floating islands provides a greater surface area for biofilm to grow, so they are 150 times more efficient than those of a conventional wetland. One square metre of a bio-island is equivalent to 150 square metres of conventional wetland – a compact format suited to urban environments.

“The most important part of the islands is the organisms that grow on the matrix – the bacterial biofilm. In six weeks to three months it’s taking out nutrients, trace metals, pharmaceuticals like oestrogen, antibiotics, everything is going into the biofilm and being sequestered,” said Bill Harding, the aquatic ecologist who installed the system.

“This technology provides a proven, immediately implementable means of reducing a range of problem elements and compounds present in wastewater.”

Capacity issues in South Africa make the technology particularly suitable. “There’s no maintenance – you put it in, and it immediately starts operating. Basically, you’re restoring the skeleton for a biological engine,” Harding told IRIN.

“We’re not saying you can replace a wastewater treatment plant [with floating island technology],” he said. “But at the right scale, [this technology] can reduce the outflow of phosphates from wastewater treatments by about 30 percent.”

The start-up cost of the matrix material is about US$185 per square metre, and so far uptake in South Africa has been limited to the private sector – a proposed bus station in Du Noon, farms, and individuals – but widescale use could stimulate employment in the local production of matrix components.

More islands needed

“Bio-islands can definitely play a role in purifying the water. They give you the water fleas and plankton that play an important role in keeping [algae] blooms under control,” Paul Oberholster, a chief researcher at the CSIR, told IRIN. “But it’s still a short-term solution. We need to address the causes, look at managing erosion and the overuse of fertilizers in the agriculture sector.”

One of the authors of the 2010 CSIR report on water, Oberholster stressed the need to “put policy into practice” in the existing wastewater treatment system, and to create new policies that limit the amount of phosphates dumped into the system, especially the quantity of fertilizers in agricultural runoff, and the level of phosphates in detergents.

According to the CSIR, rehabilitating municipal water and sanitation infrastructure would cost about R83 billion (US$11 billion).

lm/go/he

source http://www.irinnews.org

NIGER: New approaches needed in tackling malnutrition

Photo: Claire Barrault/ECHO

Traditions around food often mean people do not eat the variety they need (file photo)

NIAMEY, 1 April 2011 (IRIN) – Having experienced a series of droughts and food security crises over the past 40 years, Niger is now looking to move beyond simply countering emergencies, investing instead in development and recovery strategies – and changing gear in its efforts to feed a rapidly expanding, highly vulnerable population.

The need for new approaches in tackling malnutrition and chronic food insecurity has been one of the main themes of the Conférence Internationale sur la Sécurité Alimentaire et Nutritionnelle au Niger (CISAN), a two-day scientific and technical gathering in Niamey.

But is Niger ready to make the necessary changes? The country was at the epicentre of the Sahelian food crisis in 2010. Among those worst affected by the food shortages were children, with NGOs recording dramatic rates of severe acute malnutrition (SAM).

The government recognizes that tackling child malnutrition problems is crucial, and has been running an annual feeding scheme in partnership with the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the World Food Programme (WFP), targeting children aged 6-23 months. The programme reaches 200,000-300,000 children in a normal year, but the number shot past 600,000 in 2010 as the food crisis took hold.

“The timing is right,” said Guido Cornale, the UNICEF representative in Niger. He stressed that donors would be willing to invest more in nutrition interventions if they realized the country was serious about tackling malnutrition.

Development experts have warned that Niger requires long-term sustainable intervention if it is to avoid facing the same scenarios year in year out. Conference contributors emphasized the need to increase the quantity and quality of food and to secure better access to it, while also raising awareness about hygiene, the importance of a balanced diet and the nutritional value of different kinds of food.

Appeal for more resources

Dr Guero Maimouna from Niger’s Public Health Ministry (MSP) said the country had come through two crises in the past six years and had gained the necessary experience to take on bigger and longer-term interventions.

“But to do that we require resources. We are using our existing resources and money to handle the huge problem that we have at hand… We have a large population of malnourished children every year.”

Everyone is hoping the money that long-term interventions can attract will enable Niger to find sustainable solutions.

“You cannot rely on short-term emergency interventions – which are brought in at great cost – forever,” said Charlotte Dufour of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). She stressed the importance of teaching people to do the best with what they had.

Traditional beliefs hamper progress

Recurring drought and the subsequent decline in agricultural production left Niger without food, but the main causes of malnutrition were traditional beliefs about food that prevented people from eating balanced meals, said Mele Djalo, head of health and social action in the prime minister’s office.

“For example, the Fula people, who live in the Maradi Region, do not eat fish; then we have ethnic groupings which consider chicken dirty; some don’t eat eggs, and so on. Creating awareness across these communities is a very difficult job and it requires resources,” he said.

The MSP’s Maimouna acknowledged that in some parts of Niger rations of fortified corn-soya blend, cooking oil and sugar were an attractive package for a family with no food or income: “They keep bringing their child back sick, as the mothers sell the rations given for the child.”

UNICEF’s Cornale said at the height of the 2010 food crisis they discovered that the monthly ration meant for a child lasted only a week. “We found that the families did not have any food and were consuming the rations.”

If you go to areas where there are no NGOs, there are no efforts under way to treat malnutrition

UNICEF then started a large cash transfer programme in the southwestern Maradi and Tahoua regions, targeting 35,000 households with about $126 each over three months to protect the children’s rations. An independent evaluation found the measure had been effective. “Families used 80 percent of the money to buy food,” Cornale said.

There are no national safety net programmes, but food was subsidized in times of crisis, and some emergency distributions were made.

Blanket feeding?

Conference participants debated whether communities should be trained to treat moderate malnutrition, which has a high incidence and affects almost half the children in some areas. An aid worker pointed out that communities were often unable to handle cases of malaria or even severe diarrhoea.

Stéphane Doyon, head of the Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) nutrition campaign, said their research had shown it was more effective to provide blanket feeding for all children aged 6-23 months in vulnerable areas as a response to moderate chronic malnutrition, rather than using the limited resources, including personnel, to just treat children with SAM.

The mortality rate in children with moderate chronic malnutrition was 25 percent, while among those with SAM it was 75 percent.

Malam Kanta Issa of Forum Santé Niger (FORSANI), a local NGO comprising medical professionals, said there was a lack of budgetary support for improving health services. “If you go to areas where there are no NGOs, there are no efforts under way to treat malnutrition.” Aid workers pointed out that they had lobbied to get nutrition on the conference agenda.

Nevertheless, infant mortality has been a declining trend, and the UN Millennium Goal to reduce child mortality by two-thirds by 2015 might be the only one Niger is on track to achieve.

“There are 2,100 health posts in this country, which manage malnutrition in the rural areas,” UNICEF’s Cornale noted. “They seem to be doing their work.”

jk/he/cb

source http://www.irinnews.org