http://www.irinnews.org/irin-fp.aspxUpdated everydayen-gbMon, 08 Feb 2010 11:13:58 GMTLISAPAT Monday, February 08, 2010 (IRIN) - Ask anyone in rural Timor-Leste what they want most and the answer is always water. “We don’t have any,” complained Filomena Brites, 35, who walks up to 3km four times a day to the nearest spring to fetch water from her home in Lisapat, a tiny village high in the coffee-growing hills of Ermera District.LISAPAT Monday, February 08, 2010 (IRIN) - Ask anyone in rural Timor-Leste what they want most and the answer is always water.

“We don’t have any,” complained Filomena Brites, 35, who walks up to 3km four times a day to the nearest spring to fetch water from her home in Lisapat, a tiny village high in the coffee-growing hills of Ermera District.

“Sometimes I go. Sometimes the children [go],” she told IRIN. “But one of us will go. We don’t have a choice.”

According to Timor-Leste’s National Statistics Directorate, almost 40 percent of the country’s 1.1 million inhabitants lack access to an improved water source.

The problem is most evident in rural areas where approximately 75 percent of the population lives - 44.4 percent do not have access against about 15 percent in urban areas.

In the eastern districts of Baucau, Lautem and Viqueque, and Oecussi District, an enclave inside Indonesia, that figure tops more than 50 percent.

One community’s story

Much of the country’s rural water systems fell into disrepair years ago.

Of Lisapat’s 800 households, only 18 have access to piped water, with the rest relying on a nearby spring. Before 2002, everyone had access.

“It’s a big problem and one that we need to fix,” said Julio do Rosario Lemos, 34, who was recently elected the village’s head.

The government has made it a national priority for 2010, but despite its vast oil reserves, the world’s newest independent nation is also Asia’s poorest.

Moreover, the country’s National Directorate of Water and Sanitation Services (DNSAS) has limited resources.

“In many villages there are pipes with no water. In others there never have been,” Bishnu Pokhrel, a water and hygiene specialist with the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), told IRIN, citing poor management, lack of awareness, low institutional capacity and the impact of the 1999 political crisis, when East Timor chose independence from Indonesia in a referendum. Between 70 and 80 percent of the country’s water system was destroyed in the ensuing violence and displacement.

Sustainability

Rebuilding those systems today is just part of the equation. Despite significant investment by international donors, sustainability remains the biggest challenge.

“Sustainable water systems is the key goal,” Keryn Clark, programme team leader for the Timor-Leste Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Programme (RWSSP), an AusAID-funded project working with the Timorese government to improve water supplies, told IRIN.

On some projects in the past, the focus had been more on laying pipes that on community management, she said. It was critical that the community, which ultimately will be managing the system, is fully on board from the very beginning.

Maintenance of the infrastructure is also critical and outside Dili, the capital, few spare parts are available.

While many of the country’s community water management groups are well organized, others are less so and may not have the knowledge or means to undertake necessary repairs.

“You need to determine what the community can realistically manage and what they can’t, and then how you can support them,” Clark said, emphasizing that community training is key.

“Once the water system is established and handed over to the community, we should have a bridging time to follow up technical support for the group,” UNICEF’s Pokhrel added.

Institutional capacity

The government must have the necessary capacity to backstop the water user groups when necessary - underscoring the need for greater institutional capacity, he said.

Until recently, each district had just one non-technical rural water supply and there was only one fully trained water engineer in the whole country.

Now with support from AusAID, another district level technical person has been added, as well as one or two community facilitators at the sub-district level, focusing on community management and sanitation.

“These are all key points in making the system more sustainable,” Clark said. “If we can actually make the systems that have been built, or are in the process of being built, work properly and [be] more sustainable, more people will have access to water.”

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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=88029DAKAR Friday, February 05, 2010 (IRIN) - Natural disasters, epidemics and political unrest deal a particularly heavy blow to communities in West and Central Africa, where people live in a “fragile” state daily, UN Children’s Fund said on 4 February. DAKAR Friday, February 05, 2010 (IRIN) - Natural disasters, epidemics and political unrest deal a particularly heavy blow to communities in West and Central Africa, where people live in a “fragile” state daily, UN Children’s Fund said on 4 February.

UNICEF briefed reporters in Dakar on its $1.2-billion global emergency appeal for 2010; the request calls for $263 million for West and Central Africa. The annual Humanitarian Action Report and accompanying appeal spotlight crises UNICEF sees as needing additional funds outside of the regional UN-wide appeal, to save lives and protect children and women.

“What sets this region apart is a lot of people are vulnerable in normal times, in stable times,” UNICEF West and Central Africa spokesperson Martin Dawes told reporters. “The problem is that any change can make populations slip.”

Of the 182 countries in UN’s 2009 human development index 13 of the bottom 20 are in the region.

UNICEF and other aid organizations have expressed worry over the potential humanitarian impact of severe food insecurity this year in the Sahel, where families already live in difficult conditions.

“The food insecurity and malnutrition are worrying, not only in the Sahel region but also in other areas notably northern Nigeria,” UNICEF West and Central Africa emergency response chief Grant Leaity told reporters. The conditions stem from the global economic crisis – with decreased demand for raw materials and remittances down – as well as climate change effects, he said.

The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies in its 2010-11 West Africa and Sahel strategy also notes that the Sahel countries – among the poorest in the world – face multiple hazards related to climate change, including health emergencies and food insecurity. "The poor human development is manifest in the high infant and child mortality and high maternal mortality rate," IFRC says.

UNICEF's requested funding for West and Central Africa would assist children and women affected by emergencies in Central African Republic, Chad, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Guinea, Mauritania and Niger, as well as smaller-scale emergencies or post-conflict situations in Benin, Cameroon, the Congo, Ghana, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Mali and Togo, UNICEF says.

Emergency funding requirements for the region have increased, mainly due to increased humanitarian needs in Chad and DRC, recurrent crises (flooding and epidemics) and the financial slowdown, UNICEF says. In DRC renewed conflict in several areas has triggered new population displacements, Leaity said; Chad, already coping with hundreds of thousands of refugees and internally displaced persons, is one of the countries facing severe food insecurity this year. In both countries continued armed conflict makes humanitarian aid delivery more complicated and expensive, he pointed out.

The global financial crisis has also hit aid donations, Leaity said. UNICEF’s 2009 humanitarian action appeal for US$1.15 billion was funded to just 39 percent as of October 2009, down from the same period in 2008. “Of course it is difficult to say how [the financial situation will affect aid] for 2010,” he said. “The best we can do is to always be on top of what the most urgent needs are.”

Short and long term

Leaity pointed to the importance of incorporating mid- and long-term assistance into emergency response in the region, where infrastructure is weak.

“In normal times things are fragile,” he said. “As soon as the emergency hits not only is there an immediate or short-term effect but there’s also a mid-term or longer-term effect because the emergency often damages or breaks the infrastructure.”

Recovery is still a relatively new aspect of emergency response for many international organizations and governments, according to Leaity. It is necessary but it is hard work, it takes time and is more difficult to find funding for it, he said.

np/am/ajhttp://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=88018PORT MORESBY Friday, February 05, 2010 (IRIN) - Cholera continues to spread in Papua New Guinea (PNG), where government health officials are now describing the disease as a major national public health concern.PORT MORESBY Friday, February 05, 2010 (IRIN) - Cholera continues to spread in Papua New Guinea (PNG), where government health officials are now describing the disease as a major national public health concern.

“Things are going from bad to worse,” Victor Golpak, the government’s national response coordinator for cholera, told IRIN on 5 February.

“This is now a national public health concern. We cannot ignore it any longer,” he said.

Since the first case was reported in August 2009, more than 2,000 cases have been confirmed nationwide, including 577 in Morabe Province, 885 in Madang and 602 East Sepik Province, the country’s National Department of Health reports.

As of 5 February, 45 people have died.

Much of Momase - one of four areas in the Pacific island nation comprising East Sepik, Madang, Morabe, and West Sepik provinces - is now affected.

There have also been single cases reported in the country’s Eastern Highlands Province, as well as the capital, Port Moresby, in late January.

“The disease is very much mobile,” Golpak said. “Tragically, the government has not woken up to this fact yet,” he said, referring to a lack of funding so far to curtail its spread.

On the move

Cholera was first detected in Morabe Province, and a national response team was set up by the Department of Health, supported by the National Disaster Response Centre, the World Health Organization (WHO) and other international partners.

In October 2009, cholera was detected in the northern province of Madang, followed by another outbreak in East Sepik in November.

Despite that, resources to curtail the disease’s spread are in short supply.

Of particular concern is the situation in East Sepik, with cholera cases reported in Wewak, Angoram and Ambunti districts, as well as around Murik Lake - the home of Papua New Guinea Prime Minister Grand Chief Sir Michael Somare.

There, provincial health authorities have joined forces with staff from Oxfam New Zealand, Save the Children PNG, WHO, and Médecins Sans Frontières, to help contain the disease’s spread.

Provincial health officials, together with NGO partners, have set up cholera treatment centres in affected districts, but time is of the essence, aid workers say.

Of the 602 cases treated thus far in East Sepik, there have been 16 deaths, Oxfam said on 4 February.

“We are getting more reports of deaths coming in from the rural areas that we have yet to confirm,” said Andrew Rankin, Oxfam’s Sepik programme manager, who also described the situation around Murik Lake as particularly bad.

Clean water at a premium

According to health experts, cholera, an acute intestinal infection, is fuelled largely by poor sanitation practices and inadequate access to safe drinking water.

About 58 percent of the country’s six million inhabitants do not have access to safe drinking water, the UN Development Programme (UNDP) reports.

“People paddle for miles to fetch water. There is hardly any fresh and safe water around,” Rankin said.

Although water tanks, buckets and other essential items have been distributed to affected communities, they are useless without any rain.

Many residents continue to use water from the Sepik river - PNG’s second largest and a primary source of water for both drinking and washing.

In November, WHO confirmed large traces of the bacteria vibrio cholerae in the river.

“We found cholera in the water in more than one location and the bacterial results were very high,” Daniel Bleed, an epidemiologist with WHO, told IRIN at the time.

But even more worrying now is how to curtail the disease’s spread - and not just along the Sepik river.

“Madang and Morabe also have big river systems, but we have yet to test the water there,” Golpak noted.

Resources lacking

On the ground, Sibauk Bieb, the operations coordinator for the government’s cholera task force in Madang, says time is running out to stop the spread.

With resources largely depleted, and unable to pay his own staff, he is appealing directly to international donors for help.

“What other choice do I have?” Bieb asked reluctantly. “I continue to make representations to the government at the provincial and national level, but so far no funding is forthcoming. We need help and we need help now.”

In September, cholera was declared a public health emergency by the government, which committed more than US$4 million to combat its spread.

As of 5 February, however, just US$900,000 had been released nationwide, leaving provincial authorities and NGOs struggling to cope.

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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=88011ABUJA Thursday, February 04, 2010 (IRIN) - Despite abundant oil wealth in the Niger Delta region in southeast Nigeria, residents lack basic services including electricity, piped water, health clinics and schools. The region has seen decades of unrest stemming mostly from local militants’ uprisings over what they call neglect of the moneymaking region. ABUJA Thursday, February 04, 2010 (IRIN) - Despite abundant oil wealth in the Niger Delta region in southeast Nigeria, residents lack basic services including electricity, piped water, health clinics and schools. The region has seen decades of unrest stemming mostly from local militants’ uprisings over what they call neglect of the moneymaking region.

Below is a timeline of recent events in the Delta.

February 2010
On 2 February Minister of Defence Maj Gen Godwin Abe calls on the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) group to respect the ceasefire members had declared on 25 October 2009 but ended three months later.

January 2010
On 30 January MEND calls off its declared ceasefire threatening an “all-out onslaught” on the oil industry in the Niger Delta oil-producing region and warning of attacks in the weeks to come.

Three British workers and one Colombian are released on 18 January, six days after they were abducted by unknown gunmen near the main oil city of Port Harcourt in the Niger Delta.

December 2009
MEND delivers what it calls a “warning” strike by destroying a major crude pipeline in the Niger Delta on 19 December.

The group expresses frustration over stalled peace talks due to the absence of ailing President Umaru Yar’Adua. “A situation where the future of the Niger Delta is tied to the health and well-being of one man is unacceptable,” MEND says in a statement.

November 2009
On 15 November top Nigerian officials meet with MEND leaders in the capital, Abuja, to discuss plans for development of the oil-producing region as part of a drive to end the long-running insurgency.

October 2009
On 25 October MEND reinstates an indefinite ceasefire raising prospects for peace in the troubled oil-producing region after nearly three decades of hostilities.

President Umaru Yar’Adua meets for the first time with the leader of MEND, Henry Okah, in Abuja to diffuse tensions in the Niger Delta on 19 October. The government announces a US$1.3-billion development package to build roads, schools and hospitals in the Niger Delta.

A government amnesty for militants expires on 4 October. Between August and October between 8,000 and 15,000 gunmen have handed in thousands of weapons and renounced violence under the amnesty programme, according to the authorities.

September 2009
On 29 September MEND names a team of negotiators that included Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka for talks with government.

On 15 September MEND extends a two-month ceasefire in the oil-producing region by 30 days, but dismisses as a sham the government’s amnesty programme.

August 2009
The government’s 60-day amnesty programme for the Niger Delta comes into effect. Under the initiative militants who surrender their weapons within the period are to receive training, employment assistance and a government pardon.

The government announces it will give 10 percent of Nigeria’s joint oil ventures to Niger Delta residents.

July 2009
On 15 July MEND announces a unilateral 60-day ceasefire and releases six crew members it had seized from a foreign oil tanker ‘Sichem Peace’.

On 12 July the federal government drops all charges against the leader of MEND, Henry Okah, and releases him from jail. He was on trial for treason and gun-running. On the same day MEND commits a rare raid on an oil offloading facility in Lagos, the group’s first attack outside the Niger Delta in several months. Five people are killed in the attack.

June 2009
On 26 June President Umaru Yar’Adua formally announces details of an amnesty programme for militants in the Niger Delta. MEND rejects the plans by the government and vows to continue attacks on the oil industry until the "injustice" to the oil-rich region is corrected. At least six high-profile attacks on oil well heads, offshore platforms, major pipelines and oil pumping stations are reported in the days following declaration. The group claims at least 20 soldiers were killed in one of the attacks on Shell’s Forcados offshore platform in Delta state. Chevron evacuates hundreds of workers from the Niger Delta after the attacks.

Royal Dutch Shell reaches an out-of-court settlement on 8 June with the Ogoni community in eastern Niger Delta to pay compensation for complicity in the execution of writer Ken Saro-Wiwa and eight other leaders of the Ogoni tribe.

May 2009
On 25 May Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) says it has destroyed several oil pipelines which oil company Chevron confirms has cut its production by 100,000 barrels per day.

Clashes between government forces (the Joint Task Force) and militants break out on 12 May. Both sides deny initiating the attack. On 14 May militants take at least 15 hostages; the JTF eventually frees most of them. Rebel leader Tom Polo’s compound is destroyed but he is still said to be at large. Thousands of Niger Delta residents are displaced in the fighting.

March 2009
President Umaru Yar’Adua declares the government will consider a conditional amnesty for militants in the Niger Delta.

February 2009
Joint Task Force destroys prominent ‘Daroama militants’ camp in Bayelsa state.

President Yar’Adua announces the creation of a new government committee to study recommendations of previous Technical Committee set up in September 2008 to recommend solutions for reducing violence in region.

Militants attack a civilian helicopter for first time.

January 2009
Militants call off unilateral ceasefire announced in September 2008, declaring “Hurricane Obama” step-up in attacks, linked to a government offensive on camp of rebel member Ateke Tom.

Civil society group coalition criticizes President Yar’Adua’s silence on Technical Committee recommendations for reducing violence.

December 2008
Government forces arrest militant leader Sabomabo Jackrich.

Government Technical Committee issues recommendations to reduce violence in Niger Delta including appointing a mediator to facilitate discussions between government and militants; granting amnesty to some militant leaders; launching a disarmament, demobilisation and rehabilitation campaign; and channeling 25 percent of the country’s oil revenue to the Delta, up from the current 13 percent.

November 2008
Military launches crackdown on oil thieves.

September 2008
Militants declare an “oil war” in which they step up attacks on oil facilities and security forces, sparking the heaviest clashes in the region in two years. On 13 September government security forces allegedly raze three villages in Rivers state in search of MEND member Farah Dagogo. Dozens die in attacks, according to International Crisis Group.

Militants take 27 oil workers hostage, later releasing all but two.

On 10 September 2008, Nigerian cabinet appoints a new minister for the region, the Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Obong Ufot Ekaette. Government forms Technical Committee to recommend ways to reduce violence in the Delta.

At end of month militants declare unilateral ceasefire.

June 2008
President Yar’Adua orders a military crackdown in the Niger Delta following persistent rebel attacks.

February 2008
Prominent militant, Henry Okah, arrested in Angola and is extradited to Nigeria.

November 2007
Militants step up oil pipeline attacks.

August 2007
Government troops continue sweep of restive main oil city of Port Harcourt.

May 2007
President Yar’Adua assumes office. Four American oil workers held by militants for weeks released.

December 2006
Criminal gangs release more than 20 hostages seized some 20 days prior.

December 2006
Three Italian oil workers seized.

November 2006
Soldiers and militants clash in Bayelsa state and at least two militants die in the shootout.

October 2006 to June 2007
Kidnapping of oil workers intensifies.

October 2006
Hundreds of villagers occupy four oil pumping stations in the Niger Delta saying oil company Shell reneged on a promise to give supply contracts to the host community.

October 2006
Army confirmed the killing of nine soldiers in a clash with militants.

September 2006
Soldiers invade Okochiri village, near the main oil city of Port Harcourt, said to be a hideout for suspected kidnappers of oil workers.

September 2006
Oil unions launch a three-day strike over deteriorating security situation in the Niger Delta.

May 2006
A Nigerian court orders oil company Shell Petroleum Development Corporation to pay $1.5 billion in damages to a host community in the Niger Delta for years of environmental pollution. Shell files an appeal and refuses to accept the judgement.

April 2006
President Olusegun Obasanjo inaugurates a forum of Delta activists, elders, officials and youth leaders in bid to end the crisis.

February 2006
The first high-profile seizure of oil workers occurs. Militants of the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), a group representing numerous militant factions, abduct nine expatriate oil workers.

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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=88002AMMAN Thursday, February 04, 2010 (IRIN) - Governments in the Middle East must put aside political differences, rethink water management and revise strategy and policy in using water otherwise the region will face a dire future, scientists have warned at an international conference in Jordan.AMMAN Thursday, February 04, 2010 (IRIN) - Governments in the Middle East must put aside political differences, rethink water management and revise strategy and policy in using water otherwise the region will face a dire future, scientists have warned at an international conference in Jordan.

The 1-4 February Amman conference is entitled Food Security and Climate Change in Dry Areas.

Scientists said the region can no longer afford to waste water, with global warming expected to exacerbate an already existing problem.

“We are still practicing water management in the same way when the water was not scarce and that is the point. Now it is time to revise all water management concepts in the region, because water scarcity [has] reached the point of being chronic,” said Theib Y. Oweis, director of the water and land management programme at the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA).

“We cannot afford to use water as we use it now. Unless we start revising everything, we will come to a point where we will not have water to use for agriculture,” Oweis told IRIN on the sidelines of the conference.

Dozens of experts from around 30 countries are taking part in the conference organized by Jordan’s Ministry of Agriculture, the National Centre for Agricultural Research and Extension, ICARDA and other partners.

Oweis said water policies in the region do not give water the value it deserves, thus putting at risk strategic reserves for future generations.

“Even now water is more valuable than oil; water is life but oil is not. With water getting scarcer people will feel the value. One of the problems is that policies of regional countries do not value water,” he said.

Water pricing

Eddie Bethel, head of ICARDA’s Geographic Information Systems (GIS) unit, said: “The predictions for the near future are dire for the entire Mediterranean region. There is a significant increase in temperature and a decrease in precipitation. For the medium future we can expect serious difficulty in the availability of water in improving agriculture in the region”.

According to a report entitled The Regional Impacts of Climate Change: An Assessment of Vulnerability, by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), water shortages, already a problem in many countries of Arid Western Asia (including the Middle East), are unlikely to be reduced, and may be exacerbated, by climate change. Changes in cropping practices and improved irrigation could significantly boost the efficiency of water use in some countries.

Bethel called on regional countries to introduce some new tools to tackle the problem. “They will have to learn to save water. There is a lot of waste in this region,” he said.

“For example to put a price on water is one of the policy options that are difficult to discuss but most likely to become necessary. Pricing for water will encourage farmers to grow less water-demanding crops and put [in] irrigation systems that are more efficient,” Bethel said.

ICARDA’s Oweis called on individual countries to manage the little water they have in a more efficient way.

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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=87991NAIROBI Wednesday, February 03, 2010 (IRIN) - Violence in the central Somali region of Galgadud has made "it hard, if not impossible, for humanitarian workers" to reach those in need of help, the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) says.NAIROBI Wednesday, February 03, 2010 (IRIN) - Violence in the central Somali region of Galgadud has made "it hard, if not impossible, for humanitarian workers" to reach those in need of help, the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) says.

"Many [displaced people] are reported to be sleeping in the open with dwindling shelter and little water," Roberta Russo, UNHCR Somalia spokeswoman, said on 3 February

"There are also growing concerns about the health of particularly vulnerable groups such as children, women and the elderly," she said.

Fighting between various groups in central Somalia and in Mogadishu escalated in January, displacing an estimated 80,000 people.

At least 29,000 fled Dusamareb in Galgadud, while 25,000 fled renewed clashes in Beled Weyne in Hiraan, UNHCR said. Both regions are in central Somalia.

In Mogadishu, where at least 18,000 have fled ongoing clashes, most of those affected had returned to the city, thinking it was more peaceful. However, on 31 January “parts of the city experienced some of the most intense shelling we have seen in a long time," said Ali Sheikh Yassin, deputy chairman of the Mogadishu-based Elman Human Rights Organization (EHRO).

The worst-hit Mogadishu areas included Huriwa, Yaqshiid in the north and Dayniile (northwest). "Many of those who fled had returned from camps thinking that the situation was better," he said.

“Inhuman”

Fadumo Mahamud, who fled her home in the Suuqa Hoolaha area of Huriwa District on 1 February, said she left after shelling continued for one and half hours.

"The shelling was so bad," she told IRIN from an IDP camp on the outskirts of the city. "It was hitting everywhere. This was the second time I had fled my home; what they did on Sunday [31 January] was inhuman."

Leyla Abdi, who fled her home in Yaqshiid District after a shell landed on her neighbour’s home, said: "The mother and her six children were killed instantly. I simply had to take my children away."

The fighting, EHRO’s Yassin said, now seemed to have spread in south and central Somalia. "What is happening in Beled Weyne and Dusamareb is between a new force Ahlu Sunna Wal Jama [a moderate Islamist group], Al-Shabab and Hsibul Islam," he said.

A local journalist in Dusamareb, who requested anonymity, said very few displaced civilians had returned to the town. Both Al-Shabab and Ahlu Sunna Wal Jama were reportedly preparing for "all out war", he said.

Displaced civilians, he said, were facing serious shortages of water.

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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=87977COTONOU Tuesday, February 02, 2010 (IRIN) - In Benin cholera has killed five people in the past two weeks in a rare dry-season outbreak. COTONOU Tuesday, February 02, 2010 (IRIN) - In Benin cholera has killed five people in the past two weeks in a rare dry-season outbreak.

Health officials detected the first cases of the diarrhoeal disease on 13 January in the town of Bonou – 90km east of the economic capital Cotonou – where 66 cases and four deaths were recorded up to 29 January, according to the Health Ministry’s director of sanitation Laurent Assogba.

Three cases, one resulting in death, have also been recorded in Cotonou, he said.

Cholera generally spreads during the rainy season when flooding can contaminate water sources. The World Health Organization (WHO) says cholera in the dry season is uncommon but it does occur.

“Cholera is not transmitted only via water during heavy rains,” Aristide Roch Sossou of WHO-Benin told IRIN. “Foods [kept in unhygienic conditions] and dirty hands are also factors favouring cholera bacteria.”

He said studies are underway to identify the source and transmission mode of the bacteria in the latest outbreak.

“We have no evidence for the causes of cholera during dry season,” Geneva-based WHO cholera expert Claire-Lise Chaignat told IRIN. “It may well be that the vibrio germ is being introduced by contaminated people, or it could be present in boreholes.”

Benin’s Health Ministry is telling citizens to be extra vigilant. Anyone in and around Bonou with vomiting or diarrhoea “must go directly to a health centre”, Assogba said.

Health officials are also advising people to observe proper hygiene – including thoroughly washing hands and food.

In 2009 during the rainy season at least 70 people died of cholera in Benin, according to the Health Ministry.

gc/np/ajhttp://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=87964KANO Wednesday, January 27, 2010 (IRIN) - Relief agencies are struggling to help the some 18,000 displaced people in 17 makeshift camps in and around the central Nigerian city of Jos. KANO Wednesday, January 27, 2010 (IRIN) - Relief agencies are struggling to help the some 18,000 displaced people in 17 makeshift camps in and around the central Nigerian city of Jos.

Most of the displaced do not have enough food and they lack access to toilet facilities and safe drinking water, Nigeria Red Cross (NRC) head Auwalu Mohammed told IRIN.

Local aid agencies and the state authorities say they were unprepared for the scale of destruction, he said.

The capacity of the Nigeria Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) and NRC is overstretched, he said, adding that a lack of coordination among local relief organizations is hampering the humanitarian effort.

“There is no synergy between the organizations providing relief. We don’t have an avenue to coordinate the assistance we provide or to know what the needs of the IDPs are and which camps need what materials,” he told IRIN.

“Our resources are limited but if we could all harness our resources and coordinate our activities, we would enhance the assistance we provide these desperate people.”

As of 27 January 31 women had given birth in police stations and in the central mosque in the Jos neighbourhood of Bukuru, said local midwife Binta Hassan. Two of the babies have died.

Thousands of people fled violence that erupted in Jos on 17 January. Local authorities say 326 people died. 

Though previous violence in Plateau State saw higher death tolls, an “unprecedented” number of residents were displaced this time because their houses were destroyed, according to Red Cross.

Local and international aid agencies, including ActionAid and Médecins Sans Frontières, are launching operations to help the displaced.

aa/aj http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=87896CAIRO Tuesday, January 26, 2010 (IRIN) - The Egyptian government’s decision to cull all of the country’s 300,000 pigs in May 2009 is increasingly being viewed by experts and officials as a gross mistake as piles of organic waste the pigs once ate accumulate in Cairo’s streets, posing serious health hazards.CAIRO Tuesday, January 26, 2010 (IRIN) - The Egyptian government’s decision to cull all of the country’s 300,000 pigs in May 2009 is increasingly being viewed by experts and officials as a gross mistake as piles of organic waste the pigs once ate accumulate in Cairo’s streets, posing serious health hazards.

The month-long cull was ostensibly to stem the spread of H1N1 influenza, but the government later said it was simply a general health measure.

The cull hit the livelihoods of 70,000 former pig farmers and unofficial rubbish collectors and their families in the Cairo area, according to local NGO Association for the Protection of the Environment.

During a recent stormy session of parliament, Cairo Governor Abdelazeem Wazeer called the decision to cull the pigs a “mistake” and legislator Hamdy el-Sayed, chairman of the Doctors’ Association, called it a “national scandal”.

“Our streets are overcome by waste. This is catastrophic,” he said.

“The decision to kill the pigs was wrong and hasty,” Fahti Shabana, an Egyptian medical expert, told IRIN. “There could’ve been better alternatives. The pigs could’ve been moved from their farms in the cities to the desert.”

Shabana warned that some of Cairo’s rubbish-filled streets could become breeding grounds for diseases such as typhoid and cholera. Areas of central Cairo, Giza and Daqahlia on the capital’s periphery are the most affected by the pig cull.

'Zabalin'

In Cairo, the livelihoods of unofficial rubbish collectors - known as ‘Zabalin’ to Egyptians - and pig farmers were very much intertwined as the former collected organic waste from the capital’s streets and sold it to farmers to feed their pigs.

With the pigs gone, the `Zabalin’ have lost a major source of income and have no incentive to collect the waste from the streets, they say.

“Rubbish collectors are poor. Organic waste used to bring them money after they sold it to pig farmers. But now, there’s a market for plastic, paper and glass items only,” said Israel Ayad, a rubbish collector-cum-pig farmer who is also an unofficial spokesman for the `Zabalin’.

Ayad, in his early seventies, used to own around 50,000 pigs which used to “consume thousands of tons of organic waste every day”, he said.

Waste disposal, recycling problems

Cairo, which accounts for 55 percent of the country’s waste, produces 25,000 tons of waste a day, Environment Ministry officials say.

Organic waste makes up almost 70 percent of Cairo’s rubbish, while plastic, paper and glass items make up the remaining 30 percent, according to Ahmed Nasar, deputy chairman of the capital’s cleaning authority.

Compounding the problem are ongoing contractual disputes between the government and the foreign companies it has been commissioning to collect rubbish from the capital’s streets for years, according to Mohamed Abdel Raziq, an official from the cleaning authority.

These companies had stopped working pending the renegotiation of contracts, he said.

Members of the ruling National Democratic Party say Egypt needs an initial LE 2.5 billion (US$460 million) to tackle its garbage problem. They say more recycling factories must be built to add to the existing 160, which can only process about a quarter of the nation’s rubbish, according to the Environment Ministry.

Despite the cull, H1N1 has claimed the lives of 230 Egyptians to date and 15,000 people have contracted it, according to the Health Ministry.

According to a 22 January World Health Organization update on H1N1, “Egypt is now reporting a declining trend after increases in respiratory diseases activity throughout December 2009, suggesting a recent peak in activity during early January 2010.”

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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=87853HARARE Thursday, January 21, 2010 (IRIN) - A year ago Zimbabwe was immersed in one of the continent's worst ever cholera outbreaks, and more of the same was expected in 2010, but the waterborne disease has so far kept a low profile. HARARE Thursday, January 21, 2010 (IRIN) - A year ago Zimbabwe was immersed in one of the continent's worst ever cholera outbreaks, and more of the same was expected in 2010, but the waterborne disease has so far kept a low profile.

The cholera epidemic that began in August 2008 and lasted for a year before it was officially declared at an end in July 2009 caused the deaths of more than 4,000 people and infected nearly 100,000 others.

The 2008-09 outbreak was attributed to dilapidated and broken sanitation and water infrastructure, much of which is still in the same state, raising the fear that the 2009-10 rainy season would bring a resurgence in cases.

Cholera, a waterborne bacterial disease, infects the gastrointestinal system, causing vomiting and diarrhoea that can lead to acute dehydration; left untreated, the disease can kill within 24 hours.

In its latest epidemiological bulletin the World Health Organisation (WHO) reported 149 cholera cases, resulting in five deaths, between September 2009 and 10 January 2010, vastly lower figures than for the same period a year previously: by January 2009, 1,912 people had died and more than 37,000 cases reported.

This season the case fatality rate has dropped from 5.1 percent to 3.4 percent - still higher than the expected average of about one percent. Ten of the country's 62 districts have been affected by the current outbreak, compared to 51 districts last year, the WHO bulletin said.

The distribution pattern of the disease in 2009-10 has also shifted, with 82 percent of cases emanating from rural areas and the balance of 18 percent from urban areas. During the 2008-09 outbreak, 66 percent of cholera cases occurred in urban areas and 34 percent in rural areas.

In 2008-09 the capital, Harare, was the epicentre of the epidemic; in the working-class suburb of Budiriro, 30 strains of cholera were detected and all water sources in the area were contaminated, but in the last few months WHO has reported only six cases in the capital, and no deaths.

The breakdown in water infrastructure and failure to collect refuse, coupled with a collapse of sewage systems that caused raw sewage to spill onto city streets, and the shallow wells dug by residents to access ground water, provided ideal conditions for the disease to breed and spread.

The threat of cholera usually recedes as the rainy season tapers off, but in 2008-09 it stubbornly continued ratcheting up its death toll, well after the rains had ended.

Harare mayor Muchadeyi Masunda told IRIN the 2008-09 outbreak had caught them by surprise, but "the cholera epidemic prepared us for another outbreak, in the sense that there are a lot of strategies and structures to combat any outbreak."

He noted that "Our health department's clinics throughout Harare are ready to deal with any cases that may arise. The residents are now more informed on how to avoid or react to reports of cholera cases."

Water disconnections

With a few months of the current rainy season still remaining, the Harare municipality has begun disconnecting water supplies to residential homes for non-payment, despite protests by some homeowners that they have been billed for services they did not receive or use.

"We are disconnecting water because we want better service delivery, and that is what we want to provide. We have done this before and we do not want a situation that would undermine the capacity of the council," the Harare municipality spokesman told a local newspaper.

"People need treated water and for us to offer them treated water, they must fully settle their bills." The disconnections contradict national government instructions that residential water supplies should not be disconnected for non-payment.

Water Resources minister Sam Sipepa Nkomo told IRIN: "We will engage the mayor of Harare and the municipality, because our position as government is that there should be no disconnections and that payment methods can be varied, like having residents pay in instalments."

go/dd/he http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=87828PORT-AU-PRINCE Wednesday, January 20, 2010 (IRIN) - Johane, 18, a high-school student, is living in a makeshift camp on a football pitch in the Corridor Icare district, less than 2km from the presidential palace in Port-au-Prince, which was wrecked in the 12 January earthquake. She spoke to IRIN about her experiences: PORT-AU-PRINCE Wednesday, January 20, 2010 (IRIN) - Johane, 18, a high-school student, is living in a makeshift camp on a football pitch in the Corridor Icare district, less than 2km from the presidential palace in Port-au-Prince, which was wrecked in the 12 January earthquake. She spoke to IRIN about her experiences:

“My days now start around 4am. Every night since the earthquake is a trial,” she said. “I don’t think I really sleep until everybody wakes up, but that’s the time of morning prayers."

Many Haitians see the earthquake as a punishment from God, the consequences of sin. Catholics, Protestants and believers in voodoo all pray together in Johane's camp without discussing their faiths, while self-proclaimed pastors shout about spiritual victory and praise God for seeing another day.

"In the early morning we don't think twice about sharing our thoughts and fears while brushing our teeth. [We hear] the sounds of helicopters which remind us [of our new reality, and] the earthquake.

"In the morning my big brother starts looking for an [aid] distribution. Twice he has not managed to get anything to eat. He doesn’t want to loot. It's a bit sad to know that you’ve still got nothing to eat but you’re risking your life [by going outside the camp].”

Johane’s family is headed by her mother. They were desperately poor before the earthquake. "We wait for help all day, it still hasn’t come."

Humanitarian aid has started fanning out along the main routes of the capital, but most Haitians in the city's hard-to-reach slum districts have had to fend for themselves for more than a week.

"Yesterday I could have died of thirst. Now it costs US50 cents to buy [600ml] of clean water. This makes me angry with the authorities," Johane said.

The lack of clean water and the stench of decomposing bodies and human waste make life even more miserable.

Nearly 250 families live on the football pitch at Corridor Icare, ringed by damaged houses. The authorities estimate there are about 326 similar camps in Port-au-Prince; they hope to concentrate people into 150 sites, one of them holding up to 100,000 people.

"I go to bed early, even if people are up and still talking. Stories of rapes and looting are increasing. My mother worries about me," said Johane, nervously rubbing her hands and not wanting to say any more.

There are limited UN patrols in the city, the national police are in disarray, and foreign military forces are largely deployed at strategic points.

"At about 8pm I am already lying down. The temperature is cool, the sky cloudy and rain is coming. Sleep takes over from time to time, but we don't really sleep. All the boys have grouped together as a guard force and the women keep watch. When a stranger appears the sentry sings a song to warn the community. The night continues until the next sunrise."

* Johane did not want to give her surname

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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=87811TEL AVIV Wednesday, January 20, 2010 (IRIN) - Heavy rain and flooding has forced hundreds of people from their homes in Khan Younis in the south of the Gaza Strip, according to the Gaza authorities. About 115 homes were damaged and the sewage system was reported to be overflowing.TEL AVIV Wednesday, January 20, 2010 (IRIN) - Heavy rain and flooding has forced hundreds of people from their homes in Khan Younis in the south of the Gaza Strip, according to the Gaza authorities.

About 115 homes were damaged and the sewage system was reported to be overflowing.

A witness in Gaza who works for a local NGO told IRIN that over 100 families had been made homeless, but warned the number might rise if the rain continued.

Some experts told IRIN Gaza’s poor infrastructure is unable to cope, and there was a risk that sewage mixed with floodwater could cause communicable and water-borne diseases.

The Israeli government has so far not commented on allegations that Israel opened dams in Gaza valley, exacerbating flooding in the Strip.

td/at/cbhttp://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=87809MARSABIT Monday, January 18, 2010 (IRIN) - This is the final part of our travelogue detailing the journey into the heart of northern Kenya by an IRIN reporter.MARSABIT Monday, January 18, 2010 (IRIN) - This is the final part of our travelogue detailing the journey into the heart of northern Kenya by an IRIN reporter.

Desert country

The distance from Marsabit to Moyale is about 300km, with the vegetation changing every 50km or so. We pass an escarpment; we are told there are plans to build a huge dam for Marsabit there. Water scarcity is a perennial problem in the north, and the cause of disease outbreaks as well as conflict.

The temperature suddenly shoots up; we are now entering desert country. Chalbi District is dry and rocky. The only settlements in the distance are some Gabra community houses. What do the people eat? The few goats we see are surprisingly healthy but there are no cows, save for the carcasses by the roadside.

A prolonged drought has led to numerous livestock deaths, with cows and sheep the most affected. Camels are faring better and a few can be seen with their Gabra women herders trekking in search of water.

We get to the outskirts of Moyale town with an afternoon to kill and stop at Odda for an interview with the local assistant chief there.

Life in Moyale, he says, is influenced by its proximity to Ethiopia. Communities there are homogenous, cross-border migration common and sometimes, conflict spills over. Much of the food in Moyale is imported from neighbouring Ethiopia in a vibrant cross-border trade.

False start

Throughout the trip there has been one repeated hint from most of the people we have talked to, that our car is not suitable for the rough northern Kenya terrain. So far, it has been good and our Toyota Prado has braved most of the roads.

Today, it fails us.

We are with an NGO colleague from Concern Worldwide and hope to explore the interior of Moyale. Not far out of town, the pot-holes give way to gaping gullies. Our lead security escort car hits a couple and gets stuck in the mud. The driver is furious and waits for us to make the crossing to reach him; however, we give up after a few false starts to avoid damaging our car and being stranded.

We are forced to abort our mission to the remote location of Dabel, one of those worst affected by food insecurity and high child malnutrition levels. At least 28,000 Moyale residents rely on food aid under the emergency operations programme. This is about a third of the total district population, according to estimates.

Not to be discouraged, we head back to the Odda Location of Moyale. Moyale, we are told, is experiencing an increasing number of HIV/AIDS cases; the presence of a military camp, the porous border and its location as a busy transit town are among the reasons for this rise, even though HIV prevalence in northern areas is still way below the national 7.4 percent rate.

We then proceed on to a temporary settlement for conflict-displaced residents. They tell us they are used to criss-crossing the Kenya-Ethiopia border due to conflicts between the Gabra and Borana communities. Both are found on either side of the border.

A meeting with the drought management officer, Molu Dira Sora, is the highlight of the day. He says government and NGOs have been trucking water to residents in far-off parts of Moyale due to the water shortage. The start of the rains has recharged a few watering points but this will be inadequate in the coming weeks as most of the initial rains are likely to be lost to seepage. “Drought is now a natural phenomenon and we must deal with it through response and development programmes,” he says.

Despite the rains, next year we will still be trucking water, he says.

Jinxed and jumpy

We are heading back to Marsabit as our reporting trip draws to a close. We have achieved a lot, interviewing many local people and getting a feel for some of the challenges that are a daily part of their life.

We intend to make the 300km trip back to Marsabit a fast one. But this is not meant to be.

Shortly after we leave Marsabit, our vehicle gets a puncture. The security escort has already zoomed past the bend and doesn’t immediately notice that we are no longer trailing them.

As the IRIN driver is changing the tyre, we see their car heading back towards us, the policemen on high alert with their guns pointing at the horizon.

With the tyre changed, we set off again. My long-needed snooze is interrupted by shouting - we are veering dangerously off the road and land in the bush. Fortunately, the car does not roll.

We are in shock, trying to understand what happened. Apparently, we had another flat tyre; the front wheel is extensively damaged, the tyre beyond repair.

Our escort car finds us again. Fortunately, they brought a mechanic along, who helps to replace the last spare tyre.

The policemen then recommend that we travel ahead of them so that they can keep an eye on us – a bad idea as it soon turns out.

We drive for more than an hour, oblivious to the absence of a trailing security escort car. We decide to stop and wait but after 15 minutes and still no sign of them on the flat horizon, we decide to head back and it takes us 30 minutes to find them. Shortly after we left, they say, the car battery went dead and they had to push the vehicle for almost 1km to get it started.

The day seems jinxed, and we are a worried lot.

The escort vehicle is running out of fuel after the many back-and-forth trips. Our nerves are frayed and we’re jumpy. We are relieved to arrive back in Marsabit without further mishap.

After the near misses, we’re not fussy about where we sleep and find a place not far out of town. Tomorrow, we are southward bound, spending an afternoon in the central northwestern region of Laikipia then back to Nairobi after about one-and-a-half weeks on and off the road.

Homeward bound

I am still a little uneasy after the previous day’s incidents and I keep asking my colleague to slow down.

To make matters worse, our northern Kenya stringer has just called with news that about 10 people were shot by bandits close to Isiolo Town a day earlier. He urges us to leave for Isiolo early and travel in convoy, preferably with the long-distance trucks for more security.

Other colleagues in the field are more encouraging: lightning does not strike the same place twice, they say. The bandits must be resting today since they know the security forces are looking for them. The drive to Isiolo is incident-free and we arrive to find that there is a project to extend the tarmac road a few kilometres north. If only they could go farther - where the tarmac ends, trouble starts.

We are greeted with more news of banditry in all the places we have visited. It seems they happened a day before or after we had left many of the destinations.

We head south to Laikipia. En route we notice it has rained more heavily in these parts and the landscape is a lovely green. The road is tarmac but in need of repair.

We get a view of Mt Kenya as we approach the main town in Laikipia East District, Nanyuki, where we will be spending the night. There is no shortage of good hotels here, depending on how much one wants to spend.

Journey's end

If the residents had better roads, support for pastoralism and more education opportunities, their lives would greatly improve and help them feel like they were indeed part of Kenya, despite the climatic shocks they will still have to overcome, they say.

By the time this travelogue was published, the much anticipated El-Niño-enhanced October to December short rains had failed to meet expectations, forcing experts to warn of a possible deterioration in the food security situation in the north.

aw/mwhttp://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=87763SANAA Thursday, January 14, 2010 (IRIN) - Tens of thousands of residents in rural areas of Beidha, Taiz and Dhalea governorates in Yemen’s southern highlands have run out of water, and are having to have it trucked in, according to government officials.SANAA Thursday, January 14, 2010 (IRIN) - Tens of thousands of residents in rural areas of Beidha, Taiz and Dhalea governorates in Yemen’s southern highlands have run out of water, and are having to have it trucked in, according to government officials.

The water they normally rely on - rainwater harvested in catchment tanks or ponds during the rainy (summer) season - has run dry.

“Rainfall… ceased in early August 2009, and since then, rural residents have been using water supplies stored in their catchment tanks. Also, dozens of artesian wells in those areas [in the three governorates mentioned above] dried up between October and December 2009," Abdulalem Hashim, a local council member from Dhalea Governorate, said.

The three governorates have a rural population of over two million, he said.

Hundreds of women and children in Dhalea’s Hasha District line up all night long to get water from meagre springs, he added.

"Yemen has scant water sources which are going to deplete within the next few years. As the majority of the rural population depends on trucked water or water they harvest from rainfall in catchment tanks and ponds, their suffering worsens in dry seasons," said Abdulqader Hanash, deputy minister for the water sector.

Abdullah al-Aidarus, a member of Beidha’s local council, said in some cases they had dug up to 700 metres deep in areas around Beidha city but found no water. “The only possible solution is to bring trucked water from wells in Radaa District 100km away."

Rising water costs

Abdurrahman al-Mudhafari, who works as a daily labourer in Sanaa to provide for his seven-member family back in Dhi Najem District in Beidha, said the worst time for him was when he received a phone call from his wife asking to transfer money to buy water.

"I hardly make YR 30,000 [US$150] per month and nearly one third of this money goes to pay for trucked water in our village where a big [2,500-litre] truckload costs YR 8,000 [$40] now, compared to YR 6,000 [$30] two months ago," he said.

Mukhtar Thabit, a resident of Shamir District in Taiz Governorate, agreed. "These days, we drive for three hours to reach the nearest well in Barh area where we fill our four-wheel drive… Some 1,200 litres costs us YR 6,000-7,000 [$30-35],” he said.

According to Thabit, a pond dug by local residents to store water dried up within a month of the rainy season. "Only one percent of the district’s population [of 55,000 people], have rainwater catchment tanks. On average, a six-member family lives on YR 1,000 ($5) a day, so many families can't afford a catchment tank, which costs up to YR 4 million [$20,000]," he said.

Mohammed Abdurrazzaq, head of the Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Project at the World Bank Office in Yemen, said contractors had been assigned to identify vulnerable families that do not have catchment tanks. "Then, we will contribute money or construction materials to these families so they can have tanks for collecting rainwater from their home roofs," he said.

Abdurrazaq said projects in Dhalea and neighbouring areas would benefit tens of thousands of people.

`Qat’ blamed

Mohammed Hussein, a truck driver in Beidha, said that `qat’ cultivation was the culprit. "Artesian well owners prefer `qat’ farmers, who pay higher rates. Sometimes, we queue up at a Radaa well for four or five hours until they finish pumping water to a `qat’ farm."

He said `qat’ farmers were currently using much more water for their `qat’ trees to get them to grow quicker to take advantage of higher winter `qat’ prices.

According to Deputy Minister Hanash, the ministry's National Water Strategy (NWS) needs to be amended to ration water consumption for agricultural purposes, particularly `qat’ cultivation which, he said, consumes up to 40 percent of available water supplies.

If the local authorities took a tough line against `qat’ farmers and artesian well owners, the price of trucked water would go down, and vulnerable families could afford to buy two truckloads of water a month, he said.

According to the World Bank’s Abdurrazaq, the average individual consumption of water in rural areas is 40 litres a day, compared to 120 litres in the rural areas of other countries in the region.

Hanash said his ministry was urging international donors to help plan and implement alternative water projects, manage available water resources and support the implementation of NWS.

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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=87733GARISSA Wednesday, January 13, 2010 (IRIN) - In November 2009, an IRIN reporter ventured into the heart of northern Kenya to report on food security in the region, which is characterized by a lack of basic infrastructure, poor healthcare, and a harsh climate. GARISSA Wednesday, January 13, 2010 (IRIN) - In November 2009, an IRIN reporter ventured into the heart of northern Kenya to report on food security in the region, which is characterized by a lack of basic infrastructure, poor healthcare, and a harsh climate.

The area has experienced successive periods of failed rains and is constantly grappling with perennial drought. This has increased residents’ vulnerability and their dependence on food aid.

Since then, the rains have arrived, albeit erratically with unpredictable breaks; despite a good start to the rains in late October 2009, November was largely characterized by lengthy dry spells.

Livestock, the mainstay in the region, were affected by the sudden arrival of the rains after a long dry spell leading to numerous deaths.

In some northeastern parts, the rains have led to improved pasture for the livestock as well as lowered the price of milk, but in the northwestern region, in areas such as Turkana, residents now have to deal with the effects of flash flooding, after the drought, and a cholera outbreak.

According to experts, the impact of the drought in Northern Kenya was the most severe in recent years and recovery will take long despite the rains.

Hoping for rain

Conversation is light and easy; my colleague, the IRIN driver, and I are looking forward to visiting northeastern Kenya. I will be reporting on food security, and inter-communal conflict, which has been exacerbated by successive droughts. I also hope to write on the health issues in the region, where residents living far away from towns have limited access to medical care.

The first leg of our journey sees us head to the provincial capital, Garissa, about 380km northeast of Nairobi. To get there, we have to pass through Mwingi in eastern Kenya, which is about 200km east of Nairobi. The road to Mwingi is good save for a few pot-holed stretches at the Yatta area where we slow almost to a crawl.

A few farmers are tilling their small pieces of land hoping to take advantage of the short rains. Their anticipation is evident, heightened by the scent of wet earth after months without rain.

Past Mwingi, the vegetation thins - a tree here, scrubs there, sandy soil. Charcoal sacks are prominent by the roadsides.

There have been several days of erratic rains but the landscape remains parched. The land is denuded, with big gaping gullies opening on to the road. The temperature is about 30 degrees.

We meet a driver with the World Health Organization (WHO) office in Garissa in Ukasi, about 100km from our destination, Garissa Town. From Ukasi to Garissa, it is recommended that we take armed security escorts despite a marked drop in highway banditry in the northeast.

Our vehicle has its first puncture a stone’s throw from Garissa Town. We proceed to the aptly named Nomad Hotel where a colleague at the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA Kenya) booked us in for the night. We will be heading to Wajir, farther north, with him; he is assisting district officials with their El-Niño preparedness plans. The meteorological department has forecast El-Niño-enhanced short October to December rains and there is a sense of great expectation after successive droughts. In northern Kenya, rain can be a blessing and a curse, improving water and pasture, or causing flooding and disease.

With an evening to spare, we set up an interview with Hubbie Hussein Al-Haji, the co-director of a local NGO, WOMANKIND Kenya (WOKIKE), which provides leadership training to women and runs a sanctuary for girls at risk of female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C). The practice is prevalent in the northeast, where it is deeply entrenched in the local culture, despite its harmful effects.

Heading north

The distance from Garissa Town to Wajir Town is about 320km. If we leave Garissa by 9am, we figure it should take us and our escort vehicle about five hours at most to reach our destination; we are wrong.

The “road” is not tarmacked, and is cut off in parts by flash floods from a few days of rain, forcing our driver to make some clever detours into the scrubland. It’s not surprising that we find many heavy trucks stuck in the mud. We are told they are transporting food supplies to Wajir and farther north in preparation for rains, which they fear will cut off the region from “Kenya” - it is not unusual to hear areas past the eastern town of Isiolo, heading north, being described as outside the country's borders.

Decades of political marginalization have left residents, mostly pastoralists, unable to access even the most basic services. Trekking long distances in search of drinking water is common, and security is non-existent in some parts, forcing residents to rely on home-guards. The sight of residents carrying guns is not unusual here. Schools are few and far between, the roads are as seasonal as the rivers.

Some of the trucks have been parked-up for days. We hear tales of passengers who have been stranded for much longer and have ended up eating the supplies they had travelled to Garissa to buy. Here, people travel with lots of water and few promises of meeting a deadline. Mobile telephone network connectivity is erratic at best. If stranded here, it can be a very long wait.

Despite the “horror” stories of the poor state of the road ahead, we are fortunate to arrive in Wajir without incident, albeit after sunset.

We check into what we are told is the best hotel in town; it is. It has a toilet that flushes, if you carefully hook a wire to the broken cistern. There is even a cold shower – we had been expecting a basin of water delivered at bath-time.

We feel lucky; most residents in Wajir still rely on bucket toilets, one of several sanitation challenges aggravated by a non-existent drainage and sewerage system. I remember a colleague recalling his school days there. Then, he said, there were DCs [dirt collectors] or more correctly, bucket emptiers, who would come to the school compound every evening. His classmate’s father was a DC, an occupation the student found so embarrassing he had to change schools.

Wajir

We spend the day holding interviews with NGO officials and a family in Wajir; we also manage to sit in on a meeting with local district officials organized by OCHA Kenya. It is informative and our network of contacts grows.

We head back to our hotel feeling we have achieved more than we had expected that day. My room is growing on me, especially after hearing of hotels in the town where strangers have to share - you pay for your bed and leave the door open, for complete strangers of either gender. Or you can opt not to use the mattress, and pay less. Some of the other inns rarely have visitors, judging by the frantic search for bedding whenever you attempt to make a booking.

We go to bed uncertain whether we will be proceeding northwest to Moyale or head southeast to Isiolo. We will go where the weather takes us and change our plans accordingly. It is quite difficult to stick to a plan in these parts: it rained the previous night in Isiolo and Moyale, rendering the roads impassable in some areas. We have to wait for morning to find out from the local police station whether a day of sun has made a difference to the roads. One of the police cars, we are told, was heading back to Wajir from Moyale this morning; we go to bed none the wiser.

Back to Garissa

In the morning we learn that we cannot travel directly to Moyale, about 280km farther north, nor to Isiolo; the roads are impassable after a few days of rain. Apparently, the road is cut off just 50km from Moyale. The road to Isiolo is out of the question too.

Our only option is to head back to Garissa, a day’s drive, and make our way to Isiolo from there. It is a national holiday, a perfect day to travel, as we could not have done much work anyway. But we still stand to lose another day going to Isiolo from Garissa.

We quickly make telephone calls to arrange appointments in Garissa. The drive is uneventful, and we are “soon” back at the Nomad Hotel. We get better rooms this time, with hot showers.

I don’t want the day to be entirely wasted so I convince a WHO official, Argata Guracha, to give me an interview on the health situation in the northeast.

From the interview, I learn that several factors conspire to make healthcare difficult to access in the region. The nomadic lifestyle of the people means they are far away from the few health facilities for long periods each year; poor infrastructure and proximity to porous international borders also make the spread of disease difficult to control.

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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=87717DAKAR Friday, January 08, 2010 (IRIN) - Guinean health officials plan this month to vaccinate more than 250,000 people in the northeast against yellow fever after one confirmed and several suspected cases emerged in the region.DAKAR Friday, January 08, 2010 (IRIN) - Guinean health officials plan this month to vaccinate more than 250,000 people in the northeast against yellow fever after one confirmed and several suspected cases emerged in the region.

The woman found to be infected with the mosquito-borne viral infection is in Mandiana, a Guinea prefecture that has never had a yellow fever vaccination campaign, according to the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Health Ministry.

“In some areas we have vaccinated only on a case-by-case basis and Mandiana is one prefecture where we have not done a preventive campaign,” Sakoba Keïta, Health Ministry head of disease prevention, told IRIN.

A 28-29 December investigation found seven other suspected cases in the prefecture. The outbreak comes weeks after at least 20 people died of yellow fever in the bordering Denguélé region of Côte d’Ivoire.

There is no cure for yellow fever and vaccination is the single most important measure against the disease, which kills about 50 percent of severely affected persons who lack treatment for associated fever and dehydration, according to WHO.

Health officials have yet to fix a date for the Mandiana vaccination campaign, which will target 278,681 people in the prefecture – all inhabitants except children under nine months and pregnant women.

“We fully expect it will take place in January,” the Health Ministry’s Keïta said. “We are still meeting with international NGOs to mobilize supplemental funds for the vaccination drive.” The campaign would cost US$391,384, according to the ministry's post-investigation report.

WHO’s International Coordinating Group on Yellow Fever Vaccine (ICG) has received a request from Guinea to use vaccines from the international emergency stockpile for the Mandiana campaign, Alejandro Costa, scientist with WHO's global alert and response department, told IRIN on 8 January.

The group expects to decide soon, he said. “If the ICG considers that the data submitted by the country is sufficient to justify a release of vaccine from the emergency stockpile the vaccine will be sent immediately.”

A nationwide preventive vaccination campaign was set to take place in Guinea in mid-2009 but it has been pushed back to around April 2010 in part due to a lack of vaccine, the Health Ministry’s Keïta said.

Short supply

The worldwide supply of yellow fever vaccine is limited, according to WHO. In mid-2009 the ICG appealed for funds to replenish the emergency stockpile which is used for outbreak response and to complete preventative campaigns in the 12 highest risk countries – Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana, Guinea, Liberia, Mali, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone and Togo.

“The emergency stockpile is funded for 2010, with six million doses in stock and ready to be used in any country facing an outbreak,” Costa told IRIN. “WHO is seeking alternatives for financing the stockpile beyond 2010.”

np/cihttp://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=87683KAMPALA Friday, January 08, 2010 (IRIN) - The lack of adequate sanitation facilities in the Ugandan capital, Kampala, has led to increased use of polythene bags - known as "flying toilets" - for human waste disposal, local officials said.KAMPALA Friday, January 08, 2010 (IRIN) - The lack of adequate sanitation facilities in the Ugandan capital, Kampala, has led to increased use of polythene bags - known as "flying toilets" - for human waste disposal, local officials said.

The situation is worse in slums where infrastructure is basic. The few private and public facilities that exist charge up to USh200 [US10 cents] per use of a toilet.

"These areas are characterized by poor drainage systems and in the rainy season, the problem becomes worse," said Bernard Luyiga, a councillor in Kampala district. "We have not invested enough in this area.

"Water and sanitation in Kivulu [slum in Makerere area, which he represents on the city council] are among the worst I have come across in my life. We tried to use Eco-san toilets... but the 'flying toilet' has remained rampant."

Eco-san toilets use a natural biological process to break down human waste into a dehydrated, odourless, compost-like material, and save on water use. They were developed in South Africa in the 1990s.

It is difficult to tell how many facilities exist in Kivulu, but several pits latrines were visible, with dilapidated rusty iron sheets for walls, cracked floors and plastic roofs.

Contaminated springs

The situation is similar in other slums. About 6.2 percent of households in the city have no toilet facilities at all. Most, according to chief health inspector Mohammed Kirumira, are in the slums.

"Human waste is a problem to reckon with and many households lack a toilet, bathroom or kitchen," Kirumira told IRIN.

According to the city council: "One study conducted by Chemiphar estimated that up to 90 percent of the natural springs in Kampala are contaminated, especially in the wet season, yet this remains a major source of water for the urban slum dwellers."

Agatha Nambi, whose house stands near a drainage stream formed by an overflowing pit latrine in Kivulu, said: "It is very difficult to keep clean here. You observe cleanliness in your home, but other people just bring their mess to you and you have to give up... that is why our children keep getting sick."

Justus Namenya, a casual labourer living nearby, added: "This is the rainy season, so this place is unbearable. [It] becomes filthy and sometimes water flows up to your house with all the dirt in it."

Inadequate water

Only about 65 percent of Kampala’s two million residents have access to clean water. The rest use water that is sometimes contaminated by pit latrines.

According to Uganda's Lands, Housing and Urban Development Ministry, the high cost of piped water has forced some city dwellers to rely on springs and wells.

"Over 50 percent of household occupants in Kampala are hospitalised every three months due to malaria while contamination of water by prevalence of micro-organisms is evident in the water sources of the city," it said in a paper.

A recent survey by the Catholic Church's Justice and Peace Centre found that average toilet to household ratio in Kampala slums was about 1:25.

"The children are told to use the school toilets so that when they come back home, they do not ask for money to go to the toilet," the survey report, The plight of the urban poor and yet increased rural-urban migration, noted.

"Poor sanitation accounts for cholera outbreaks that are usually experienced in the slums of Kampala."
 
Urban poverty

According to UN-HABITAT, 44 percent of Kampala's population live in unplanned, underserviced slums. Informal settlements cover up to 25 percent of the city’s total area.

In informal settlements, only 17 percent of the population can access piped water. According to UN-HABITAT: "There is a high prevalence of sanitation-related diseases such as diarrhoea, worm infestations. Malaria is also endemic."

Some 92.7 percent of Kampala's population, the African Development Bank found, used on-site sanitation systems including septic tanks and pit latrines. However, emptier services, which are offered mainly by private sector on a cash-on-demand basis, were inadequate.

"As a result, effluent from latrines and septic tanks is often discharged into the environment untreated," it added.

Government response

Uganda's State Minister for Lands, Housing and Urban Development, Michael Kafabusa Werikhe, said the government was determined to address the appalling sanitation in the city.

Kampala authorities are trying to roll out a new sewage system by 2014, financed by the European Union, German government, African Development Bank and Ugandan government.

"Uganda is targeting to uplift the lives of at least one million people by the year 2020 through implementing the slum upgrading strategy and action plan," Werikhe told IRIN on 7 January.

"We believe that slums are a development challenge which must be addressed to create harmony in our societies," he added.

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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=87677KABUL Thursday, January 07, 2010 (IRIN) - A project funded by the US Agency for International Development (USAID) to collect rubbish from Kabul’s streets will create jobs and improve the environment, but municipal officials say a more permanent solution is needed. KABUL Thursday, January 07, 2010 (IRIN) - A project funded by the US Agency for International Development (USAID) to collect rubbish from Kabul’s streets will create jobs and improve the environment, but municipal officials say a more permanent solution is needed.

USAID will spend US$60 million between now and 2012 on waste management, drainage channels and roadside ditches, the rehabilitation of city parks and sports fields, and other greenery programmes in Kabul.

The waste management component will provide work for 3,000 people.

“The United States Government is proud to work closely with the Kabul municipality to provide a cleaner environment for the residents of Kabul city and provide cash for work employment opportunities for the most vulnerable and food insecure families of Kabul," the US embassy in Kabul said in a press release on 30 December 2009.

“The citizens of Kabul have been complaining and suffering from the piles of solid waste in different parts of the city that could not be removed due to the limited resources of Kabul Municipality’s sanitation department,” Steven Susens, USAID’s communication officer in Kabul, told IRIN.

Under the project, some 80,000 cubic metres of solid waste is to be removed from Kabul city this winter.

Municipality officials estimate that Kabul’s five million people produce about 3,500 tons of waste every day but almost half of this is simply left in the streets.

Nisar Ahmad Habibi, head of the municipal sanitation department, welcomed the project but said it would only be a temporary remedy: “After March 2010 there will again be piles of waste in the city, because we will not be able to collect and manage all of it,” said Habibi.

He called on donors to help the municipality rebuild and expand its sanitation infrastructure - dumping sites, drainage channels, recycling facilities and waste management capacity. The authorities currently rely on a World Bank-funded dumping site in the east of the city, and there are no incinerators.

The sanitation department employs 2,500 workers and has 111 trucks over half of which are effectively out of service at any one time, Habibi said.

Health risks

The piles of solid waste in Kabul are a major source of diseases, air pollution and environmental problems, according to the Ministry of Public Health (MoPH).

MoPH studies indicate air pollution hastens the deaths of about 3,000 people in Kabul every year.

“Unmanaged and insecure waste in the city causes various skin diseases, respiratory infections and contaminates water sources which then cause water-borne diseases,” Farid Raaid, MoPH spokesman, told IRIN.

He said USAID’s sanitation funding will improve air quality and help reduce diseases in the capital.

Meanwhile, MoPH has called on the government to stop importing low quality fuel with a high sulphur content.

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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=87654SIKASSO Tuesday, December 29, 2009 (IRIN) - Sikasso is one of Mali's most fertile regions, but under-five malnutrition is as high here as in the country’s barren north, according to government health data.SIKASSO Tuesday, December 29, 2009 (IRIN) - Sikasso is one of Mali's most fertile regions, but under-five malnutrition is as high here as the country’s barren north, according to government health data.

Health workers and agricultural experts explain the paradox as a combination of a lack of nutritional awareness, and the concentration on export-oriented cash crop production.

"We are the country's economic purse," said the Agriculture Ministry’s Sikasso representative, Seydou Keita. He told IRIN the southern region has traditionally been the top cotton and fruit producer.

"But the problem is we do not consume our wealth. We are rich and malnourished. Our residents consume calories, but they are not getting nourished."

The national average for acute malnutrition was 15 percent in 2006, when the most recent government health survey was done; the rate in Sikasso was 16 percent.

The government and UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) are working on a nutritional survey; results are due in 2010.

Malnutrition care

Malnutrition is a leading cause of under-five deaths in Sikasso, according to regional hospital paediatric director, Eugène Dembélé. "Despite the efforts of health centres and their [NGO] partners, childhood malnutrition continues to be a worrisome situation in the region."

Children are often brought in for consultations too late, said Oumar Guindo, a community health centre doctor. "When mothers bring their children to find out what is wrong with them, it is after they have [consulted] the traditional healers. Then, we find out [here at the health centre] that it is a case of malnutrition."

Farm work competes with child care as a priority for mothers, said community educator Oumou Cissé. "In Sikasso, women are very active. They compete with men in the fields, which means they are absorbed not only with their field work, but also their housework. The children are not their only focus. We neglect a bit the children's health care."

Feeding the country

Farmers prefer to sell their products so they can buy more fertilizer and seeds in order to continue producing, the Agriculture Ministry's Keita told IRIN. "They are essentially going hungry so they can feed this country."

The government’s Keita said local farmers contract with buyers from neighbouring Burkina Faso and Côte d'Ivoire, as well as clients from the capital Bamako. "We should be eating the potatoes that grow on this land, but instead we are selling them. Same with mangoes, and sometimes at ridiculously low prices."

In addition to what is legally sold, Keita said an unknown quantity of food is smuggled past customs, evading export taxes.

Fertilizer-driven choices

To encourage diversification from cotton, a sector whose profits have plummeted, the government provides a 50-percent subsidy for fertilizer – US$27 per 100kg bag – if used for maize, rice or potatoes.

Local producer Oumar Diamoutene told IRIN that in 2008 he sold one tonne of potatoes for $382 and purchased 300kg of maize for his family at $34 per 100kg. "I needed 10 sacks [of maize] to be able to feed my family, but what I could afford was three," he told IRIN. He cares for two wives and 15 children.

Moussa Diamoutene told IRIN he has less access to subsidized fertilizer because he no longer grows cotton. “I grow less millet and sorghum for my family because I would have to pay twice as much for that fertilizer [as opposed to for potatoes]. What I can buy for my family does not last all year."

Of the money he earned from his potato sales in 2008, he used some for taxes and health care, $875 for three weddings, $110 for six baptisms and $790 for fertilizer, he told IRIN.

Multi-dimensional

The causes of malnutrition are varied and often overlooked, according to Didier Verse, food advisor with the European Commission humanitarian aid department (ECHO). “The causes are rooted in culture, behaviour, health, agriculture. We cannot say that with more food the problem will go away, because it does not. We need to go deeper to solve the problem.”

Malnutrition in Sikasso is not linked to seasonal hunger – during harvest time when there is less food in the fields and in the markets – but rather to whether people can access health services and practice good hygiene, according to UNICEF.

The non-profit Save the Children is analyzing a household economic survey that it conducted in Sikasso, covering the period October 2008 to September 2009. Results of the survey, financed by ECHO, are expected in January 2010.

Since 2006 ECHO has given $21.6 million to projects in Mali aimed to prevent malnutrition.

Malnutrition should be tackled as aggressively as other diseases, said the head of a Sikasso resident association in Bamako, Soumaila Berthé. “There is simply a lack of information about malnutrition. Authorities should carry out large campaigns as they do for mosquito net distribution.”

Save the Children’s director in Mali, Thomas McCormack, said decades of nutrition interventions have led to little noticeable improvement in Sikasso. “It is discouraging. We need to pull together the disparate approaches to child hunger. When I was a [US] Peace Corps volunteer in Sikasso, we observed the same problem. What we are seeing now is simply renewed focus on an old problem.”

pt/sd/nphttp://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=87569BANDA ACEH Thursday, December 24, 2009 (IRIN) - Ani was preparing breakfast on a Sunday morning five years ago when she heard a loud roaring noise after a massive earthquake. She fled to the hills with her husband and four children, unaware that within minutes their rented home would be swept away.BANDA ACEH Thursday, December 24, 2009 (IRIN) - Ani was preparing breakfast on a Sunday morning five years ago when she heard a loud roaring noise after a massive earthquake.

She fled to the hills with her husband and four children, unaware that within minutes their rented home would be swept away.

Nobody else on her street survived the tidal wave that washed inland after the 9.1- magnitude earthquake just off the coast of Indonesia’s Aceh Province - one of the worst natural disasters in recorded history.

“That seemed impossible. We lived 5km from the sea,” she said, recalling the devastating tsunami that struck Aceh and 13 countries along the Indian Ocean on 26 December 2004.

More than 230,000 people died, half in the coastal Indonesian province.

Her family first fled to the nearest mosque, but it was so crowded they drove to the hills.

“The car was flipped by the churning water and all my neighbours died,” she said. “Not a day passes that I don’t think about it.”

Mixed progress

According to the World Bank, the Indonesian government has shown tremendous leadership in coordinating the US$7 billion reconstruction effort. Thousands of homes, schools, government offices and hospitals were rebuilt by the tsunami reconstruction agency, which wound up its work in April.

Even so, some survivors are still waiting to be relocated – testament to the fact that some people may be falling through the cracks.

Ani, 39, lives in Barak Bakoi, a barracks-like settlement where about 500 people still live in uncertainty, in Banda Aceh, the provincial capital.

“Everybody here is a victim of the tsunami,” said Trusli, the centre’s official. “They were all promised a house two years ago. Now the local government told us to be patient and wait.”

Almost 200,000 houses in Aceh where destroyed by the tsunami, displacing more than half a million people, the UN said.

Indonesia’s Agency for Rehabilitation and Reconstruction, which oversaw the building of 141,000 houses, said it was unclear how many people were still living in makeshift structures.

According to media reports, several hundred families around Banda Aceh are still without permanent accommodation.

Of the new homes, only 3,000 were built for renters like Ani, resulting in a shortage.

At the same time almost 30,000 houses are unoccupied because of corruption, poor construction and mismanagement, according to reports.

Harsh conditions

Meanwhile, Ani does her best to make their one-room shelter comfortable, lining it with potted plants. “These are mine and I’m going to take all of them to my new house,” she said.

However, it is unclear when that may be. Thousands have already moved away, while other renters have been promised homes.

One is Syarwini, 23. Her new house is already finished, she said, “but it is not clear when I can move in. I am afraid other homeless people will take my house.”

The keys she was promised have not been handed over.

Even people who once owned land have had to fight to receive aid because they lost ownership documents in the tsunami or missed deadlines to register property.

Conditions in the camp remain harsh, residents say. Row upon row of poorly maintained wooden shacks are interspersed with toilets shared by as many as 30 people. “The sanitation is very bad,” says Ani. “And the water supply is not good.”

There is no ready access to clean drinking water and the temporary schools have gone, along with international donors, making it too expensive for some parents to provide their children with an education, she complained.

“My house is one of the last houses built. If I don’t get it now, I will never get one,” mother-of-two Syarwini said.

ej/ds/mwhttp://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=87556TEL AVIV Thursday, December 24, 2009 (IRIN) - Israeli NGOs say a planned 40 percent rise in water prices in 2010 will hit the most vulnerable in society hardest. Poor families spend some 100 NIS (US$27) a month on water but will have to spend another 40 NIS ($11) a month after the price increase. TEL AVIV Thursday, December 24, 2009 (IRIN) - Israeli NGOs say a planned 40 percent rise in water prices in 2010 will hit the most vulnerable in society hardest.

Poor families spend some 100 NIS (US$27) a month on water but will have to spend another 40 NIS ($11) a month after the price increase.

The Negev Bedouins, a traditionally pastoral and semi-nomadic Arabic-speaking minority in the Negev desert, southern Israel, are among the poorest people in the country, according to the Central Bureau of Statistics, and are expected to be worst affected by the price hike.

In Rahat, a Bedouin town in the Negev region, residents told IRIN they will have to revert to fetching water from ancient wells. One resident, who requested anonymity, said it would be like “going back to the dark ages” and warned of severe implications for hygiene. “We will go back to using back yards as toilets as we won’t be able to afford to flush our toilets,” he said.

Some 50,000 people live in Rahat. Over 20,000 are unemployed and some 14,000 rely on welfare assistance, according to local welfare providers. Overall, some 180,000 Bedouins live in the Negev area in both recognized townships and unrecognized villages.

Rahat Mayor Faiz Abu-Sabihan said poorer communities such as the Bedouins should receive subsidized water instead of being forced to pay more. ''It is an unnecessary extra burden for the weaker population,” he said.

Noam Tirosh, coordinator of the Negev Coexistence Forum, an NGO which promotes cooperation between the Jewish and Bedouin communities in the Negev region, told IRIN: “All of the weaker sectors will suffer but the Negev Bedouins, who by far are Israel's poorest sector, will suffer the most… It may only be a 40-50 NIS increase but it takes a big bite out of their meagre income.''

Staggered price rise

The government has said water prices will be increased gradually: In January prices will rise by 25 percent; in June by another 16 percent; and at the beginning of 2011 by another two percent.

The extra revenue from the price rise will help finance more desalination plants following five years of drought, the government said.

Israel has three desalination plants (in Eilat, Ashkelon and Palmakhim) supplying 150 million cubic metres of drinking water a year. Two more plants are at various stages of planning.

Israel plans to have six desalination plants in operation by 2012 to supply 300 million cubic metres of water, nearly half the country’s household water consumption.

Erez Weissmen, director of Israel’s Water Works Association, has asked members of parliament to reconsider the price hike. “Water prices will go up a great deal in 2010. This will turn water into a commodity for the rich only,” he said.

Research conducted by the National Insurance Institute of Israel (NIOI) estimates that the price increase would cause a 0.3 percent increase in the poverty rate in Israel and that poorer sectors would be particularly hard hit.

“This data is worrisome, and it proves how increasing the price of one basic commodity can harm poor families,” Esther Dominissini, director-general of NIOI, told reporters.

Yedid, an NGO working to empower poorer sectors of society, is concerned the water price increase will widen the gap between rich and poor and increase poverty. “For people in the lower tenth [of society, financially] in Israel, this 50 NIS is crucial for buying needed medicine or food. This will harm the elderly, the working poor, people living on pensions, the unemployed, handicapped and more,'' Ran Melamed, deputy director of Yedid, told IRIN.

td/ed/cbhttp://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=87560TEL AVIV Wednesday, December 23, 2009 (IRIN) - The construction of a desalination plant intended to supply some 50 million cubic metres of water annually to Palestinians living in the West Bank has again been stalled.TEL AVIV Wednesday, December 23, 2009 (IRIN) - The construction of a desalination plant intended to supply some 50 million cubic metres of water annually to Palestinians living in the West Bank has again been stalled.

Sources at Israel's National Water Authority said building the plant near Hadera city, about 45km from Tel Aviv, might damage the coastal aquifer: “If a pipe breaks it will mean permanent damage to the aquifer,” Avraham Tene, a Water Authority official responsible for desalination issues, told reporters.

Israeli demands that an alternative site be found might delay construction for years, analysts say. Israel is not funding the project or involved in its construction but is responsible for allocating the land for it, according to the Israeli-Palestinian Joint Water Committee.

Desalination is a major plank in Israeli water policy: the country already operates two major plants and is constructing more.

td/ed/cbhttp://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=87539LUSAKA Friday, December 18, 2009 (IRIN) - As the rainy season in Zambia picks up, so does the threat of Cholera; around 60 cases have been recorded since mid-November, but the authorities and aid agencies hope education and improved infrastructure will help keep the waterborne disease at bay. LUSAKA Friday, December 18, 2009 (IRIN) - As the rainy season in Zambia picks up, so does the threat of Cholera; around 60 cases have been recorded since mid-November, but the authorities and aid agencies hope education and improved infrastructure will help keep the waterborne disease at bay.

Most of the recent cases were reported in the southern province of Sinanzogwe, but the disease has also resurfaced in the capital, Lusaka, where two-thirds of the 7,000 cases in 2008 were recorded. In June 2009 cholera claimed 162 lives nationwide, 30 of them in Lusaka.

Jatal Zulu, whose family lives in the sprawling township of Mandevu, north of Lusaka, said cholera affected the area every year, "but people don't know much about it."

Some 75 percent of Lusaka's 2.5 million people live in peri-urban conditions. Unplanned high-density settlements have mushroomed around the capital, and Mandevu is no different: water pours from the tarmac main road into the dirt tracks between the shacks to mix with garbage and excrement from the open lavatories and settle in stagnant pools - ideal breeding conditions for the Vibrio cholerae bacterium that causes the disease.

Cholera is an intestinal infection that causes acute diarrhoea and vomiting and, if left untreated, can cause death from dehydration within 24 hours. It is spread by eating or drinking contaminated food or water. Contamination often occurs when faeces from someone with the disease comes in contact with a community water supply.

Cholera is easily treated with rehydration salts, but starting treatment early is critical; prevention is the best option. Lusaka District Commissioner Christah Kalulu is well aware of the health risks that come with the rainy season, but while others eagerly anticipate the first rains, she becomes anxious.

"We don't have enough money to put in place sanitation for everyone," she told IRIN. "The biggest problem seems to be the garbage ... In terms of disaster management, we had to do something about this," Kalulu said.

Together with members of parliament, her office launched Lusaka's District Disaster Reduction (DDR) programme in August 2009 to take measures to prevent an epidemic and "lessen the impact on communities".

About US$1.1 million of a proposed $2.6 million package to cover health, water and sanitation, bridges and crossings, garbage collection and drainage clearance has been raised, she said.

Other efforts by the DDR programme include installing dry toilets that separate urine and faeces, and replacing temporary water stands - put up last year in collaboration with the Lusaka Water and Sewerage Company - with eleven permanent water pipes.

Ongoing education and sensitization are essential to preventing the spread of the disease. Government and the UN Children Fund (UNICEF) have launched an awareness campaign called: "Your Life is in Your Hands".

UNICEF country representative Lotta Sylwander said education was vital in addressing cholera outbreaks, and the programme promotes hand-washing with soap at four critical times: before eating, before preparing food, after using the toilet, and after changing babies' diapers (nappies).

Popular entertainers are spreading the campaign messages in the high-risk areas of Lusaka, backed up by town-hall meetings, schools events, and public service announcements on radio. According to UNICEF, such campaigns are highly effective because they rely on peer-to-peer advocacy and education.

gs/tdm/hehttp://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=87486NAIROBI Friday, December 11, 2009 (IRIN) - An outbreak of cholera in northwest Kenya has killed at least 24 people over the past two weeks according to a senior health official.NAIROBI Friday, December 11, 2009 (IRIN) - An outbreak of cholera in northwest Kenya has killed at least 24 people over the past two weeks according to a senior health official.

Some 193 cholera cases were recorded between 23 November and 9 December, said Director of Public Health Shahnaaz Sharif, adding that the Kapedo and Lokori areas of East Pokot district were the most affected.

However, Sharif said, there has been a decline in new cases; one was reported on 10 December.

"The outbreak is as a result of using contaminated water," he said adding that safe drinking water is being trucked in the region.

Boreholes are also being sunk, he added. Residents in East Pokot mainly rely on water pans and shallow wells, which easily get contaminated in case of heavy rain or sharing with livestock.

According to a December update by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, rains were undermining sanitation and hygiene practices.

"Cholera in some parts of Kenya has become endemic and with deteriorating /non-existence of public health and social services in poor urban settlements and continued public policy failures, the situation is worsening," it added.

In mid-November, residents of Kapnyung'uny village in neighbouring East Baringo district developed cholera-like symptoms with some deaths reported, according to the Kenyan Red Cross.

This caused some residents to flee towards areas such as Lomelo, Kapedo in East Pokot and the Silale and Nasorot hills with reported continuity of the disease’s symptoms, it added.

East Pokot borders the northern district of Turkana where another cholera outbreak is ongoing. Nairobi North District has also been affected.

The Red Cross has set up a medical camp to reach cholera patients in East Pokot. Along with health officials, the KRCS team is also conducting hygiene campaigns and distributing water purification tablets.

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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=87397JOHANNESBURG Tuesday, December 08, 2009 (IRIN) - The humanitarian community in Zimbabwe, taking a cautiously optimistic approach, has appealed for US$378 million dollars to buy food and medicines, and bolster health, education, sanitation and access to safe water in 2010 - half the amount requested in 2009.JOHANNESBURG Tuesday, December 08, 2009 (IRIN) - The humanitarian community in Zimbabwe, taking a cautiously optimistic approach, has appealed for US$378 million dollars to buy food and medicines, and bolster health, education, sanitation and access to safe water in 2010 - half the amount requested in 2009.

"We have noticed an improvement in the humanitarian situation," UN Assistant Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Deputy Humanitarian Coordinator, Catherine Bragg, said at the launch of the Consolidated Appeals Process (CAP) in the capital, Harare, on 7 December. The CAP is a planning and resource mobilization tool used mainly for emergency responses.

However, she was quick to add that things were "still fragile". "The needs may have reduced, [but] they remain astoundingly high due to the structural nature of some of the problems."

Despite significant improvements in food security, Bragg noted that an estimated 1.9 million Zimbabweans would still require food assistance at the peak of the 2010 hunger season, from January to March, and that "33 percent of children under age five are chronically malnourished". According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), seven percent in this age group suffer from acute malnutrition.

A cholera outbreak, which began in August 2008 and lasted a year, causing the deaths of more than 4,000 people and infecting nearly 100,000 others, re-emerged in October 2009, while "some 1.2 million people live with [HIV/AIDS], including 35,200 children under age 15 ... urgently need antiretroviral treatment," Bragg said.

Most of the money - over US$107 million - will go to agriculture. The health sector required some US$64 million, food aid around US$58 million, education US$35 million - there were severe shortages of essential supplies, high staff turnover, and teachers' strikes - water and sanitation US$46 million, and the remainder would address other needs like coordination and protection.

The 2009 appeal requested US$719 million, of which more than 50 percent went on food aid. OCHA said 64 percent of requested funding had been received, and a further US$185 million was added by donors outside the CAP.

Food and beyond

At a conference hosted by the Institute for Justice and Reconciliation in Cape Town, South Africa, on 4 December, Zimbabwean Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai told IRIN: "We have very limited fiscal space because of a number of [competing] needs."

He said aid would continue to be required to handle Zimbabwe's enormous social service needs, and "[until Zimbabwe's GDP improves], humanitarian requirements will have to be supported by outsiders."

Tsvangirai said he hoped less assistance for food requirements would be needed in 2010 than in 2009. "There's been a huge improvement in terms of agricultural production, and we have put a lot of money and effort into ensuring that this current [growing] season even goes further, so that Zimbabwe becomes again self-sufficient in food."

Bragg said a deterioration in existing infrastructure was hampering meaningful economic revival, hence the need to combine assistance with support for "humanitarian plus", or early recovery, programmes. She noted that cooperation between government and the international community had greatly improved.

Zimbabwe's Minister of Regional Integration and International Cooperation, Priscilla Misihairambwi-Mushonga, highlighted the importance of continued investment in agriculture to ensure food security, so that "Zimbabwe can begin to claim her rightful place as the breadbasket of Africa."

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