Clean Water & Sanitation

Photo: U.S. Secretary of State Michael R. Pompeo meets with Ethiopian President Sahle-Work Zewde in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on February 18, 2020. [State Department Photo by Ron Przysucha/ Public Domain]

U.S. Effort to Block Ethiopian Dam Recalls Legacy of British Colonialism

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK (IDN) – Based on guidance from President Trump, the State Department is suspending $130 million in security-related aid to Ethiopia over a nearly-completed dam that would lift Ethiopia from poverty and end the shadow of British colonialism that favoured Egypt.

Programs on the chopping block include security assistance, counterterrorism and military education and training, anti-human trafficking programs, and broader development assistance funding, congressional aides said. The cuts would not impact U.S. funding for emergency humanitarian relief, food assistance, or health programs aimed at addressing COVID-19 and HIV/AIDS, they said.

: Global Information Network; THE WORLD; Africa; 14 September 2020

Photo credit: A woman in Somalia washes clothes with scarce water, March 24, 2017. USAID.

Sustainable Water Governance Is Critical for Achieving Peace in Horn of Africa

By Anniek Barnhoorn, Florian Krampe, Luc van de Goor, Elizabeth Smith & Dan Smith*

STOCKHOLM (IDN) – As the global climate changes, climate-related security risks are making the existing political, social, and economic challenges even more complicated. The 230 million people who live in the Horn of Africa are highly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change such as droughts and floods. Political fragility and transnational complexities make water governance a matter of regional high-level politics as well as geopolitical tensions. In short, sustainable water governance is critical for achieving resilient peace.

: Africa & ME Editor; OPINION; 14 April 2020

Photo: Family members who have fled conflict sit inside their tent at the Pissila camp for displaced people in Burkina Faso. WFP/Marwa Awad

Military Intervention Alone Will Fail to Resolve the Sahel Crisis

Viewpoint by Jan Egeland and Jean-François Riffaud

Jan Egeland is Secretary General of the Norwegian Refugee Council. Jean-François Riffaud is Chief Executive Officer of Action Against Hunger-France.

OSLO (IDN) — President Emmanuel Macron invited the five G5 West African leaders to the French city of Pau in January 2020 to shore up support for international engagement in restive Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger. All agreed that more European security support was needed to counter violent extremism in the Central Sahel.

: Africa & ME Editor; THE WORLD; Africa; 03 April 2020

Water Security: A Lifeline for People and Planet

Viewpoint by Inge Kaul*

BERLIN (IDN) – In the face of upsurge of the coronavirus, World Water Day 2020 may seem to have no relevance. But the fact is that water is vital for life on earth. It is inextricably linked to climate change, protecting health and saving lives. Water is essential for practicing hand hygiene and combating the spread of COVID-19 and many other infectious diseases.

Therefore, I am deeply concerned about the relatively low-level of attention and priority accorded to water at the practical-political level.

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 20 March 2020

Photo Source: Safe Water Africa. Credit: Salomon Lda (Mozambique)

EU Leaps to Africa’s Rescue with Clean Water

By Jeffrey Moyo

BLANTYRE, Malawi (IDN) – In Karonga, a district in the northern region of Malawi, 32-year old Mavis Banda, a mother of three daughters busies herself drawing safe drinking water from a borehole located at the heart of her village.

Banda and several other villagers claimed they long abandoned a local well where for years they drew water for domestic purposes, thanks to the initiative by the European Union (EU) ensuring developing African countries like Malawi access safe drinking water – as stipulated in Goal 6 of the UN Agenda 2030, which aims to “ensure access to water and sanitation for all”.

: Jeffrey Moyo; THE WORLD; Africa; 21 July 2019

Photo credit: UN | Penny Abeywardena, NYC

New York Brings Global Vision, Urban Action to SDGs

By Santo D. Banerjee

NEW YORK (IDN) – As host city to the United Nations, New York is making the most of its position through its ambitious Global Vision, Urban Action (GVUA) platform that uses the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as a common framework for building a better city for its people and their environment. This programme links multiple New York departments through shared sustainability objectives—and it has been selected as a good practice in a new UN DESA database of SDG actions, which could be scaled up or replicated around the world.

: Santo D. Banerjee; UN INSIDER; 08 July 2019

Photo: llustrations for the promotional materials of the 2019 World Water Day Campaign “Leaving no one behind.” Right to left: Water for all older people, Water for all refugees, Water for all rural people. Images: UN Water.

'Water for All by 2030' Remains Little More than a Pious Wish

By Reinhard Jacobsen

VIENNA (IDN) – More than 2 billion people live without safe water at home. One in four primary schools have no drinking water service, with pupils using unprotected sources or going thirsty. More than 700 children under five years of age die every day from diarrhea linked to unsafe water and poor sanitation. Globally, 80 percent of the people who have to use unsafe and unprotected water sources live in rural areas.

These are some of the facts reflecting stark reality on the ground, making the motto of the World Water Day 2019 – "water for all by 2030" as envisaged in the UN's Sustainable Development Goal 6 to "ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all" – sound like a pious wish.

: Reinhard Jacobsen; SUSTAINABILITY; Clean Water & Sanitation; 23 March 2019

Photo: Amazigh women in a village with an association that cultivates an olive tree nursery. Credit: Peter J. Jacques

Morocco's Indigenous People Cry For Sustainable Development

By Peter J. Jacques

The writer is a Professor of Political Science at the University of Central Florida in Orlando, USA. He recounts what Indigenous Amazigh people told him during field work in the High Atlas Mountains of Morocco.

ORLANDO (IDN) – Life and death for whole communities hang in the balance of achieving the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that include eliminating poverty, conserving forests, and addressing climate change, passed by the United Nations unanimously in 2015. Take for example, the Indigenous Amazigh people who live in the mountains around Marrakech. They are representative of people who need to be served first by sustainable development.

: Africa & ME Editor; THE WORLD; Middle East; 10 February 2019

Strengthening The Evidence Base To Deliver On The 2030 Agenda

Viewpoint by Gemma Van Halderen

The writer is Director, Statistics Division of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP). This article appeared as blog on the UNESCAP website on January 2, 2019.

BANGKOK (IDN) – The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development has set an ambitious agenda of 17 global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), 169 global targets and 232 global indicators. But wait, there is more. The indicators are to be disaggregated not by one or two but at least eight different characteristics: income, sex, age, race, ethnicity, migratory status, disability and geographic location, or "other". And all "in accordance with the UN Fundamental Principles of Official Statistics" which recognize appropriate and reliable data needs to adhere to certain professional and scientific standards.

: UN Bureau; THE WORLD; Asia-Pacific; 07 January 2019

Technology Comes to Rescue as Freshwater Becomes Scarcer

By Anna Kucirkova

UNIVERSAL CITY, Texas (IDN-INPS) – Fresh water is the most important resource for human life on earth. People can survive far longer without food than without water, and virtually all of our food sources require fresh water to grow or create.

Global climate change and the exponential increase in population has led to water scarcity and recent headline-grabbing water shortages in major urban centres like Cape Town and Sao Paulo.

As water scarcity or cleanliness continue to present major issues to humanity’s survival, communities across the globe are turning to technology to help access more fresh water – or create it using seemingly ‘magic’ techniques.