By Thomas Ochieng API Kenya                                                                                               
The Kenya’s statutory body charged with the responsibility of managing her water resources, the Water Resource Management Authority WARMA has launched a performance report that paints a picture of acute funding by the State towards the preservation and management of water catchment eras in the country.

The performance report for the year 2009/2010 funded through the support of German funding body the GIZ is a publication that intends to inform the general public on how water resources are managed in Kenya.

Speaking during the official launch of the report in Nairobi, the Director of Water Resources at the Ministry of Water Mr.John Rao Nyarao, underscored the importance and the wisdom in the formation of the statutory authority WARMA to accelerate the preservation of water resources in the country. Nyaoro “This independent Water Authority plays a very important function that had been neglected for quite some time in Kenya and the bold step taken for the Authority to publish its appraisal document for the public is very commendable” Said Nyaoro adding that the management of water resources
will improve the water availability to the nation for prosperity.

The report states that effective management of water resources is a perquisite for a sustainable water service provision. It further states that the immediate financial returns gained by effective management of water as a resource is not short term, hence the reluctance from the government to factor this sector in its budgetary allocations which are often annual in estimation. The Chairman of the authority Mr.Francis Nyenze appealed for more financial consideration from the Government to carry its mandate of decentralizing its functions to the grassroots levels through opening up of regional offices countrywide.

His sentiments were echoed by the Chief Executive of the authority Eng.Philip J Olum who said that the allocation from the government kitty towards its operation cannot sustain the huge mandate bestowed upon it, “we have a very clear and elaborate programme that is geared towards decentralizing the water resource management throughout the country but we are slowed down by the inadequate finances” Said Eng.Olum.

The report states that the protection of water resources in Kenya remains a major challenge to WARMA arising from the cross cutting nature and the complexity of causes which are categorized as point and non-point sources, hence the need for adequate financial resources.

Ends.

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Did you know? Kenyan Track Star David Rudisha is a top favorite for the London Olympic Games

• Kenya’s David Rudisha broke the 13-year-old men’s 800-meter world record for the second time in eight days in August 2010.
He clocked 1 minute, 41.01 seconds in the two-lap race meeting in Rieti, shaving 0.08 seconds off his mark set the previous weekend in Berlin.
 
• He is the only runner to have run under 1 minute 43 seconds this year and has lost only one race in nearly three years – last September in a sprint finish at the end of a long season.
 
• London 2012 will be Rudisha’s first Olympic experience since an injury kept him out of the Beijing Games. Experts consider him a likely athlete for gold medal glory and even perhaps a new world record at the London Games.
 
Source: Guinness World Record
Source: Sport24
Source: Vanity Fair

End

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Photo: Jason Gutierrez/IRIN

Sometimes cash is not enough

MANILA,  – A nationwide conditional cash transfer programme in the Philippines is slowly improving maternal health, but more is needed to reverse the climbing maternal mortality ratio, say women’s groups.

Known locally as “Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program” (4Ps), five-year conditional cash transfers (CCTs) were first rolled out in 2007 as a pilot programme to cut poverty. Now, with a budget of US$227 million, the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) aims make CCTs available to 5.2 million eligible households by 2015.

The 4Ps identified 5.2 million of the poorest households with pregnant women and children aged 0-14, three million of which have been receiving cash grants since April 2012. In exchange, beneficiaries must meet certain health and education goals.

Participants receive a monthly grant of $12 for getting pre- and post-natal check-ups and delivering their babies in a health centre under the supervision of a skilled birth attendant, rather than with a traditional birth attendant as most women currently do, and must attend monthly parenting seminars offered by the DSWD. 

National surveys indicate that prenatal check-ups average 4.4 visits per woman – the international recommendation is four – but only 44.2 percent of births occur in a health facility. 

Beneficiaries also receive a monthly grant of $7 per child, for a maximum of three children, in exchange for proof of regular paediatric check-ups and school-aged children attending at least 85 percent of their classes.

Cash not enough

Perla Maribel Diotor, 36, a CCT beneficiary who lives in Baseco, one of the biggest slum communities in Manila, the capital, gave up paid employment when she became pregnant with her first child, now five children ago. She said the programme had helped her in the two years since she joined.

Her husband works “occasionally”, doing construction work, fishing or “whatever job is available”. On some days, he brings home the equivalent of $2. “I only wanted three kids, but I kept getting pregnant,” Diotor said.

The World Bank estimates that 22 percent of women of reproductive age in the Philippines (about six million) do not have access to contraception.

According to the 2008 National Demographic Health Survey (NDHS), women surveyed reported wanting 2.4 children, but had on average 3.3 each.

Until late 2011, the distribution of modern contraceptives was banned at public health clinics in Manila. The city government now allows it if the contraceptives are donated by development groups and NGOs, but has not used its own funds for contraception.

Diotor and others like her have had to find contraception on their own, usually going to NGOs, where the supply is often erratic and insufficient.

“Interventions made when a woman is already pregnant are already too late. We can save lives by preventing unwanted pregnancies,” said Junice Melgar, executive director of Likhaan Centre for Women’s Health, a local NGO working in some of Manila’s poorest communities.

A study published in 2010 by the Guttmacher Institute, a German reproductive health think-tank, estimated that up to 2,100 maternal deaths could be prevented each year by providing modern contraceptives to all women at risk of unintended pregnancy.

Government awareness

The maternal mortality ratio (MMR) in the Philippines has jumped by 35 percent, from 162 deaths per 100,000 live births in 2006 to 221 in 2011, according to the 2011 Family Planning Survey.

“We need a more serious approach to family planning. The family development sessions that beneficiaries are required to take are more of lectures that focus on natural family planning methods. Even then, were the women given beads or calendars to track their cycles? [No.] It’s more of a lip service to family planning,” said Melgar.

During the administration of previous President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, from 2001 to 2010, the government supported only natural family planning methods, leaving NGOs and women’s groups to provide for the contraceptive needs of poor women. “We are really feeling the results of nine years under the Arroyo government,” Melgar noted.

The current government recently approved the purchase of $12 million in family planning commodities in an attempt to counter rising maternal deaths. “This administration [of President Benigno Aquino] has been very clear about its support for responsible parenthood, but admittedly, there is really a problem on the supply side,” said DSWD Secretary Corazon Soliman.

“We lack midwives to attend our pregnant mothers. We lack adequate healthcare facilities. We are doing what we can, given our limited resources. We have started nursing programmes to fill the manpower gap, but building healthcare infrastructures and equipping them takes time,” she said.

Enrique Ona, the Department of Health Secretary, told IRIN, “The latest family planning survey covers the period 2006 to 2010. We don’t have a survey that will reflect the effect of a fully implemented CCT programme yet.”

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source www.irinnews.org

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KAMPALA, – A four-day international scientific meeting in the Ugandan capital, Kampala, highlighted the many unknowns of so-called “nodding disease” or “nodding syndrome”, which has affected more than 3,000 people in the north of the country, with patients suffering from involuntary nodding, neurological deterioration and, in many cases, death.

Nodding syndrome was detected in the 1960s in parts of Tanzania. It also appeared in what is now South Sudan in the 1990s, but the syndrome began attracting international attention in 2011 as hundreds of cases were reported in northern Uganda, a region emerging from a decades-long conflict with the Lord’s Resistance Army.

Uganda’s Ministry of Health introduced a national plan at the beginning of 2012 to treat the symptoms of the syndrome in three affected districts – Kitgum, Lamwo and Pader - including distributing anti-epileptic medication and nutritional supplements. Nodding syndrome patients generally suffer from malnutrition because food – along with cold weather – are frequent triggers of the nodding. Since the plan was announced, the syndrome has been detected in three additional northern districts – Gulu, Amuru and Oyam.

The international meeting, which ended on 1 August, was the first to bring together various actors, including the UN World Health Organization, the US Centres for Disease Control, the UK’s Department for International Development and health officials from Sudan, Tanzania and Uganda.

While much remains unknown, the participants did settle on an official name – nodding syndrome – and a case definition that will help field workers in all three countries determine the extent of its spread. People with nodding syndrome (almost exclusively children under 18) exhibit at least two incidents of involuntary nodding every 5-20 minutes. They also exhibit neurological abnormalities, nodding triggered by food or cold weather, physical wasting, delayed sexual or physical development and psychiatric symptoms.

Cause unknown

That is where the definite answers stopped, though. Jane Ruth Aceng, director-general of health services at Uganda’s Ministry of Health acknowledged: “We do not know the cause.”

Participants were not certain if the syndrome was neurological or psychiatric, since many of the patients are living in post-conflict settings. There is also little historical information or even confirmation of all of the places where it is present. Some participants suggested the syndrome could also be in Kenya, Liberia and Cameroon.

Participants were able to settle on areas of potential research to identify the cause.

In Uganda, attention has focused on the relationship between the syndrome and onchocerciasis (river blindness), a parasitic disease transmitted by black flies. All of the reported cases so far have occurred in sub-Saharan Africa’s onchocerciasis belt. But researchers also called for investigations to determine if there was a possible relationship between the syndrome and two parasitic roundworms – mansonella streptocerca and mansonella perstans.

Initial research also indicates that Vitamin B6 deficiency, early malnutrition, fungal contamination of food and other environmental toxins could also be possible causes.

They ruled out two possible theories – exposure to munitions and the food from internally displaced camps – that have gained popular attention in Uganda. Because the disease is almost exclusively appearing in areas that were ravaged by the LRA, the affected populations have been quick to make a link between the conflict and the syndrome.

Through laboratory and epidemiological tests “we find that there is really no difference between the children who have been exposed and have gone on to develop nodding syndrome and those who have not,” said James Sevjar, a neuroepidemiologist with CDC.

With a renewed, unified agenda, the international community is now looking for funding to set up studies and a systematic surveillance system across all of the affected countries. In the absence of more knowledge, they also called for more funding to determine the best way to treat the syndrome’s symptoms so that patients could attempt to resume normal activities.

ag/kr/cb
source www.irinnews.org

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Supreme Court Judge Overturns Suspension of Belo Monte Dam

Brasilia, Brazil: The Brazilian Supreme Court has overturned the suspension of the Belo Monte Dam, caving to pressure from President Dilma Rousseff’s administration without giving appropriate consideration to the indigenous rights implications of the case, human rights groups said today. The case illustrates the Brazilian judiciary’s alarming lack of independence, when powerful interests are at stake.

On August 27th the Chief Justice of the Brazilian Supreme Court Carlos Ayres Britto unilaterally overturned an August 14th ruling by a regional federal court (TRF-1) to suspend construction of the controversial Belo Monte Dam. The suspension was based on illegalities in the 2005 congressional authorization of the project due to the absence of prior consultations with affected indigenous peoples, as required by the federal constitution and ILO Convention 169.

“This unfortunate decision doesn’t invalidate the TRF1′s judgment that the project is unconstitutional,” said Atossa Soltani, Executive Director of Amazon Watch. “This is a failure of the judiciary to stand up to entrenched interests and the power of a politically motivated executive branch that wants the Belo Monte Dam to move forward at all costs.”

The Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office is expected to appeal Britto’s decision and demand a review by the full Supreme Court. Yesterday’s decision was also not a judgment of the merits of the case and the Supreme Court may still uphold the decision that suspended this highly controversial Amazon dam project.

Justice Britto was reported to have received multiple Ministers and other government representatives in recent days who argued against the suspension of Belo Monte and long overdue consultations with indigenous peoples. Despite repeated requests, he was unwilling to meet with representatives of indigenous communities affected by the project, prior to issuing his decision on Monday.

“This case is emblematic of a seriously flawed legal system, where bureaucracy and political interventions allow for systematic violations of human rights and environmental law,” said Brent Millikan, Amazon Program Director at International Rivers. “There is an urgent need to judge the merits of over a dozen lawsuits against Belo Monte that are still awaiting their day in court.”

Justice Britto’s decision was made in response to a complaint filed by the Attorney General’s office (AGU), in which the central argument was that the regional court’s decision conflicted with a previous Supreme Court ruling in 2007. However, the prior Supreme Court decision actually recognized that the Brazilian Congress’ authorization of Belo Monte – in the absence of prior consultations with indigenous peoples – was flawed. Instead of canceling Belo Monte altogether, the previous ruling ordered that an environmental impact study and consultations with indigenous peoples be completed in order for the Congress to reach a decision on whether the project should move forward.

One of the arguments in the AGU complaint is that the suspension of Belo Monte would cause social and economic chaos if some 14,000 workers were dismissed. There is no mention of the social, economic, and environmental havoc that the construction of Belo Monte is wreaking on the region, nor the fact that when dam construction is completed in a few years, some 40,000 workers are scheduled to be fired.

“This decision sets a terrible precedent for Belo Monte and the dozens of dam projects planned for the Brazilian Amazon,” said Raul Silva Telles do Vale, Associate Coordinator for Policy and Law with the Social-Environmental Institute. “It indicates that consultations with indigenous peoples can be carried out in any manner – including after Congressional authorization of a project or after an environmental impact study has been carried out. It also means that consultations aren’t required for dam projects that don’t directly flood indigenous lands, denying what are in fact disastrous impacts on downstream communities.”

End

source: International Rivers

“The agreement on regulating trade and taxation between Israel and the Palestinian Authority is an important step towards sustainability for the Palestinian economy,” said Minister of Foreign Affairs Jonas Gahr Støre.

“As chair of the international donor group for the Palestinians, I welcome the signing of this agreement between Israel and the Palestinian Authority. It is an important follow-up to the meeting of the donor countries in Brussels in March this year. Now it is vital that the parties cooperate closely on implementing the agreement,” Mr Støre said.

On Monday, Prime Minister Salam Fayyad and Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz signed an agreement on improving existing arrangements for bilateral trade between Israel and the Palestinian Authority (PA), and for Israel’s collection of customs and tax revenues on behalf of the PA. Weaknesses in the existing arrangements were a key topic at the meeting of the Ad Hoc Liaison Committee for Assistance to the Palestinians in March.

“Earlier this year, the donor countries stressed the need for improving existing arrangements for collecting customs and tax revenues, and for facilitating increased trade and value creation in the private sector, with a view to achieving a sustainable Palestinian economy,” Mr Støre said.

Two thirds of the PA’s revenues come from taxes and customs duties that are collected by Israel, and that are dependent on the domestic economy performing well.

“Widening the Palestinian tax base and achieving a sustainable economy are essential for Palestinian independence and the future creation of a Palestinian state. External assistance to the Palestinian Authority will be unnecessary once the occupation ends and the Palestinians are able to develop their economy in the normal way. But given the current situation, the Palestinians are dependent on assistance from outside. The donor countries must therefore take their responsibility seriously,” Mr Støre commented.

“It is worrying that the allocations from donor countries have been reduced dramatically before we are able to see the positive effects of the new economic agreement which enters into force on 1 January 2013. I urge all countries in the strongest possible terms to not let the Palestinians down at this crucial time,” Mr Støre said.

The EU is the largest donor to the Palestinians. Along with other European countries such as Norway, the EU countries paid out all their planned allocations for 2012 during the first half of the year. Saudi Arabia has just allocated USD 100 million. This funding has covered half of the Palestinians’ financial needs this year. However, few countries have announced plans to contribute during the second half of 2012, which could cause a serious economic crisis for the Palestinians. This will be one of the main topics to be discussed at the next meeting of the donor countries in New York on 23 September.

source MFA-Norway

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