BROOKLIN, Canada (IPS) - Canada's leading scientific society on climate called for urgent government action on climate change at its most recent national conference in early June. 

   Stronger and more frequent hurricanes in summer and stronger winter storms are clearly the result of climate change, according to new scientific studies reported at the 40th annual Canadian Meteorological and Oceanographic Society (CMOS) congress in Toronto. 

BEIJING (IPS) - China is claiming a partial victory in slowing the spread of encroaching deserts but has admitted that the centuries-old war to stop the sands eating up farmland will probably never be won completely. 

   The approaching 2008 Olympic Games, which Beijing has promised will be "green", has inspired the government to launch ambitious, expensive programmes to combat desertification. 

UNITED NATIONS (Tierramérica) - Several environmental groups are demanding an international moratorium on bottom trawling, a fishing technique that destroys seabed ecosystems. But the proposal did not win consensus amongst the delegates taking part in a UN conference on fish stocks. 

    Many participants in the first meeting for review of the United Nations Agreement on Fish Stocks, signed in 1995, recognised that bottom-trawling is an issue of concern, but they proved to be indecisive about how to tackle it. 

KATHMANDU (IPS) - The United Nations World Food Programme is planning its first ever emergency food operation in Nepal to counter a severe drought in the country's northwestern hills and mountains.

    The three-month plan, likely to be approved at the Rome headquarters of the U.N. agency this week, envisions 3,800 tonnes of rice and flour being delivered to the region by trucks, mules and porters, WFP deputy country director Jean-Pierre de Margerie told IPS.

    "We're trying to borrow food from other projects so we can maybe do a first wave of deliveries mid-June," de Margerie said in an interview here Sunday, before the WFP held its 'Walk for Hunger' fund-raising program.

    "We're confident that if we have the money we'll be able to reach everyone," he said, adding that a donors' meeting could be held in the Nepali capital soon after the plan is approved.

    Ten of Nepal's 75 districts are affected by the drought, which is following the driest winter on record in the region, among the poorest parts of this badly impoverished country.

    Earlier this month WFP revealed that 47 percent of Nepalis do not have enough food to live active, healthy lives. About half of all children are malnourished. But while the national poverty rate is about 31 percent, in the Karnali region and affected adjoining districts it is 45 percent, said de Margerie.

    In normal years there is a "hunger gap" in the Karnali, the period between harvests when food stocks run out and people survive by buying food with what little money they earn as day labourers or with cash repatriated by relatives who have migrated for jobs.

    But the drought means that gap will stretch dangerously this year until the August-September crop is harvested.

    Seventy village development committees (VDCs) within the 10 districts are "severely affected" with crop failures of 75-100 percent, according to de Margerie, based on three WFP on-the-ground assessments.

    "People are starting to resort to damaging coping mechanisms," he said. "They're starting to cut the number of meals or the size of meals," selling livestock and tools and even migrating.

    "Many people have already run out of their food stocks and are now eating herbs and roots to survive," Chandra B Shahi, an MP from Mugu district, told the 'Nepali Times' newspaper.

    In February and March, French NGO Action Contre la Faim visited Mugu and neighbouring district Humla to assess the health situation, particularly of children.

    "It can be concluded that the acute malnutrition in the 10 surveyed VDCs is more alarming than expected and is an issue that needs to be addressed in terms of treatment and also in terms of prevention," says the report of that mission.

    ACF also discovered that children less than 30 months are 5.5 times more likely to be malnourished than children aged from 30 to 59 months. And 20.8 percent of women suffered night blindness during their last pregnancy, a result of Vitamin A deficiency.

    The drought and extended hunger gap might have affected these results, concludes the report. "But the causes of malnutrition are multi-factorial and the nutrition situation is also linked with a lack of diversified foods, with poor hygiene practices, with lack of women education, and very poor availability of public health services".

    The remote region, where some villagers must walk five days to reach districts' headquarters, has long been ignored by the capital Kathmandu. That neglect has been exacerbated by a decade of a Maoist insurgency, which, among other things, has chased many local health workers from their far-flung posts.

    To reverse the impact of this disregard, ACF recommends: - Improving the water and sanitation situation by increasing access to potable water, implementing irrigations systems and improving hygiene practices; - Increasing the quantity of food available for people and helping them to diversify their diet; - Promoting and supporting iron/folic acid and de-worming distributions that would decrease anaemia. - Promoting the use of adequately iodized salt.

    De Margerie said the WFP emergency operation will include fortified wheat flour for families with children under two and pregnant or nursing mothers, along with the rice allotment they will get at the start and end of a 20-day food for work programme.

    The agency does not want to simply give the rice to the people, fearing that could compromise its long-standing programmes of providing locals with food in return for local works, such as road building, that contribute to development, he added.

    "We consider this a very short-term intervention. We're confident it won't affect long-term development activities," said de Margerie. ***** +World Food Programme (http://www.wfp.org.np) +Action Contre la Faim (http://un.org.np/uploads/reports//ACF/2006/2006-5-17-ACF-Nutritional-Survey-06.pdf)

(END/IPS/AP/WD/NP/DV/HU/MD/ML/RDR/06)

BANGKOK  (IPS) - Flash floods that hit northern Thailand in May, killing nearly 100 people, have revealed the vulnerability of communities to freak weather patterns in the region, say environmentalists. And this, they warn, will not be the last. 

   The heavy rains in the three worst-hit provinces bear this out. Uttaradit, Sukhothai and Phrae received a fifth of their annual rainfall, which is 1,500 millimetres, leading to flash floods and mudslides in May 23. 

Worries about warehouses storing radioactive wastes are increasing because of the warehouses' proximity to the river, which could be submerged in spring or collapse due to landslides.

 

 

   The project to reinforce and rehabilitate the storehouses at Mailuu-Suu began in April and is expected to be completed within two years. The World Bank has given 11 million U.S. dollars to finance the operation.

   Radioactive scrap from Soviet-era uranium mines – and former Eastern European bloc nations – are stored in 23 storages near Mailuu-Suu City in Jalal-Abad province in southern Kyrgyzstan.

   All the storages near Mailuu-Suu are said to contain 1.37 million cubic metres of radioactive waste including 7,000 tons in semi-liquid form. The radiation level ranges from 100 to 1,800 mR/hr (micro Roentgen per hour).

   Experts say the nuclear refuse threatens the entire region because many are located near rivers. The ones in Mailuu-Suu City are near the Mailuu-Suu River a tributary of the Syr Darya.

   They fear a strong earthquake or a landslide could cause the content of any one of the storages to spill into the river and trigger a nuclear catastrophe.

   Syr Darya flows 2,000 kilometres across Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Kazakhstan before emptying into the Aral Sea.

   The reinforcement and rehabilitation work is now focused on a slope that could crash into the river along with the warehouses if there is a major tremor in the region. This would involve excavating and moving 30,000 cubic meters of soil and rock.

   Engineers of NarynGES, the company involved in the excavations, say the slope stabilization would be complete within six months after which they plan to move the bulldozers to tackle two warehouses.

   Warehouses number 2 and 3 are lying close to the bank of the Aylampa-Say river, a tributary of the Mailuu-Suu.

   In all, five of the 23 warehouses near Mailuu-Suu City lie dangerously close to the river and could be submerged during high waters in the spring.

   The plan is to build embankments to reinforce the riverbank and to construct a new road to the city to avoid the existing one that is threatened by landslides.

   The engineers would also have to drill holes on unstable rock faces, place sensors to monitor seismic activity and build drainage systems to tap surface and subsoil waters.

   Payzulla Kejebaev, the Head of Jalal-Abad province department of the Ministry of Extreme Situations (MES), says the government plans to closely monitor the weak slopes – especially the Koy-Tash landslip – after the new road connecting Sary-Bee and Mailuu-Suu city is completed.

   "We have been unable to monitor the landslip now but every year experts from Uzbekistan come and check its conditions,” said Kejebaev.

 

   Waste from storages that cannot be rehabilitated would have to be moved to safer locations for which Russian and German expertise is to be brought in for assessing the implications.

   Kyrgyzstan has set up a new Control Centre of Crisis Situations (CCCS) under the Ministry of Emergency Situations to share information for tackling regional problems.

   “Our efforts are aimed at the safety of the Central Asian states and for resolving questions of cross-border emergencies,” says Janysh Rustenbekov, MES minister of Kyrgyzstan.

   The projects now underway are to be completed in 2009 but the MES says it would need more funds – a total of 30 million U.S. dollars – for rehabilitating all radioactive waste storages in Kyrgyzstan.
(END/AWW/IPSAP/EK/BB/180506)

HAVANA (IPS) - Beyond the hotels and the bathing suits, the Caribbean landscape bears the scars of drought. To combat soil degradation and desertification, young people from 16 countries in the region will be trained in reforestation and sustainable development techniques as part of an environmental rehabilitation programme.

KARACHI, Pakistan, (Asia Water Wire) – Fears of an impending draught has forced Pakistan to open up debate on water management, including the contentious debate on allocation among its provinces.

   Pakistan had 25 percent less snow and about 40 percent less rain in winter which has lowered water levels in the rivers.

   Experts say the low water levels, combined with the severe heat wave Pakistan has had since early May, could affect over a million people in Sindh and Balochistan provinces by end-June. That is, if there is no rain soon.

MARDAN, Pakistan (Asia Water Wire)- Increased use of chemicals for fishing in the villages of Pakistan’s North West Frontier Province is emerging as a major threat to both aquatic life and human health.

   Those using chemicals to stun their catch are not regular fishermen but fly-by-night profiteers who have discovered a quick way to make a quick buck.

   The use of agro-chemicals for fishing has already had a disastrous impact and many streams where they have been used have become devoid of fish and other aquatic life forms.

   “Earlier, people used to use Cynogas, an anti-rodent poison, for stunning fish and it was not very harmful,” says Nadir Khan, who retails agro-chemicals in the Chargulli Adda area.

   The government banned the import of Cyngas a few years ago after which the “fishermen” shifted to more dangerous chemicals such as Aluminum Phosphide (56%) tablets, and Endosulfan, a liquid insecticide.

   “We do not sell these chemicals for fishing but they come to us saying they want them for their crops and we have to give it to them,” Khan adds.

   Aluminum Phosphide turns into a gas when exposed to moisture and is highly toxic to insects, burrowing pests and even humans.

   “Those who use it to catch fish throw in the tablets after which fish begin to float on the surface,” said Taje, a resident of Chargulli village.

   Another method is to place the fumigating tablets inside little balls of flour and feed it to fish within areas enclosed by small embankments – to prevent the catch from being carried away by the current.

   The fish feed on the pellets, which enter their systems and release the poison.

   “The tablets are cheaper and are becoming more popular because all the people have to do to catch fish, is to feed them and wait,” he added.

   Endosulfan 35 EC is more potent.

   “A few drops of it kills all animal life within almost five kilometres downstream,” says Zahid Hussain of Jalalabad village. He added that he used it once but has now stopped because he felt guilty of having caused such damage.

   ”Now we cannot catch anything using traditional techniques,” says Hussain. “The poisons have killed everything, even embryos.”

   The polluted water has also become a hazard for livestock.

   “Quite a few times our cattle have become sick or even died after drinking from poisoned streams,” says Nurul Amin, a shepherd of Jahanzeb Banda village.

   The loss of cattle, especially cows, can be devastating for poor farmers who depend on livestock products for livelihood.

   The poisons put into the streams eventually enter the human body when people eat fish.

   Dr. Zahor Sahibzada of the Public Health Department of NWFP has patients come to him with complaints of headache, dizziness, nausea, difficultly in breathing, vomiting and diarrhoea after eating poisoned fish.

   “We cannot say how widespread the problem is because it has not been properly studied,” says Dr. Sahibzada. “What we do now is treat the immediate complaints.”

   However, there are also those that do not hesitate to eat fish that have been poisoned.

   “I have eaten fish caught with chemicals but did have any health problems,” says Zahid Hussain. He still uses chemicals for fishing.

   Doctors say there are no studies that trace a cause-and-effect relationship but what is also true is that large quantities of poison can cause problems in human beings.