Another world is indeed possible, says PACJA

The Pan African climate Justice Alliance (PACJA) has again brought the world’s attention to Africa as thousands of movements from across the globe gathered in Montreal, Canada in the ongoing World Social Forum (FSM2016) holding from August 9-14, 2016. The 2016 Forum is with an overarching theme “Another World Is Possible.”

 

The goal of the WSF 2016 is to gather tens of thousands of people from groups in civil society, organizations and social movements who want to build a sustainable and inclusive world, where every person and every people has its place and can make its voice heard.

Kenya’s only superhighway losing its environmental spark

By David Njagi

NAIROBI, Kenya (PAMACC News) - At the Githurai open air market in Kiambu County, Kenya, women occasionally swap gossip as they trade away their fresh produce wares.  

Suddenly the afternoon calm is torn by a sharp cry that sets the women upon a galloping villain. The cow had sneaked into one of the women’s stand and helped itself to mouthfuls of fresh tomatoes.

Cornered for its folly, it cleverly escapes to join a herd which is combing for leftovers at a nearby landfill.

Cameroon to notify Nigeria before releasing excess water, Minister says

By Tosin Kolade

Nigeria has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Cameroonian Government to boost water resources management and notify the country before releasing excess water from its dam.

The Minister of Water Resources, Mr Suleiman Adamu, said this was to prevent a repeat of the 2012 flood in the country.

Using open data to achieve SDGs

By Greg Odogwu

The Women Environmental Programme (WEP), a non-governmental, non-profit, non-religious and voluntary organization established in 1997 by a group of grassroots women in Nigeria, made history by training about twenty five Nigerian youths on data collection for the purpose of monitoring developmental governance.

The training of data collectors was done under the project “Promoting Transparency and Accountability in Local Government, Through Open Data Collection in Three Area Councils of FCT, Nigeria”.

Households from Pastoralists Counties in Kenya to Benefit from a Sh7.7 billion

By Nabongo Kwach

A total of 93,000 households from pastoralist counties in Kenya are set to benefit from a Sh7.7 billion World Bank project.

The is after Government on Sunday launched its component of the Sh19.1 billion (US$197 million) Regional Pastoral Livelihoods Resilience Project (RPLRP).

Ghana’s development under siege of unbridled land grabbing

By Koffi Adu Domfeh

KUMASI, Ghana (PAMACC News) - It took an industrial action by workers of the Ghana Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA) recently to get their concerns of land sales and encroachment partly addressed by the government.

 

Domestic flights had to be grounded as part of the agitations before a compromise was reached for the GCAA to have 153 acres of the demanded 640 acres of land released.

Nigeria restates commitment to providing regular and potable water by 2030

Eng. Suleiman Adamu during an interview session with PAMACC News

DAR ES SALAAM (PAMACC News) - Nigeria's Minister of Water Resources, Eng. Suleiman Adamu has restated Federal Governments’ commitment towards increasing access to potable water for all Nigerians by 2030.

Adamu said this in an interview with PAMACC News at the recently concluded Africa water Week in Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania.

He said that without universal access to safe water and sanitation, poverty and inequality cannot be eradicated in any country.

``We are working to ensure that all Nigerians have access to potable water by 2030 through urban water sector reform programme.”

Africa determined to overcome water and sanitation challenges

By Elias Ntungwe Ngalame

DAR ES SALAAM (PAMACC News) - The water and sanitation challenges that confront Africa are not new. What is new however in the growing determination by development actors to stand to the different challenges heads on.

The 6th Africa Water Week in Dar es Salaam July 18-22, 2016  provided the right opportunity for researchers, civil society actors, government officials to show how determined the different actors are to find lasting solutions to the age old water and sanitation problems in the continent.

How Nile Basin riparian countries united for the sake of development

Nzoia River within the Nile Basin

By Isaiah Esipisu

DAR ES SALAAM, Tanzania (PAMACC News) A conceptual structure agreed upon by Nile Basin riparian countries for organising policies, strategies and guidelines for sustainable management and development of the Nile River Basin some five years ago has enabled speedy development within the basin region.

Talking to journalist members of the Pan African Climate Justice Alliance (PAMACC) at the sixth session of the Africa Water Week (AWW6) in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, John Rao Nyoro, the Executive Director for the Nile Basin Initiative (NBI) said that the Nile Basin Sustainability Framework (NBSF) is now benefiting all the 10 riparian states.

Commission says insurgency affecting Lake Chad basin

By Tosin Kolade

 

DAR ES SALAAM, Tanzania, (PAMACC News) – Dr Mana Boubakari, Technical Director, Lake Chad Basin Commission (LCBC), has said insurgency and its impact are challenges to effective groundwater management in the region.

Boubakari said this at an event on the sideline of the ongoing sixth Africa Water Week in Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania on Wednesday.

He said it was sad to note that these challenges were worsened by the population growth in the region following inflow of refugees.

Africa needs adapted early warning systems for water and climate management

By Elias Ntungwe Ngalame

DAR ES SALAAM, Tanzania (PAMACC News) – Extreme droughts, floods and other climate challenges are leading to an increase in both the number and intensity of disasters all over the world and in Africa in particular. Countries in the Sahel regions in Africa are worst affected, experts have revealed.

Participants at a technical meeting in the 6^th Africa Water Week in Dar es Salam on July 19, 2016, agreed early warning systems adapted to the realities of different countries will help governments cope with the huge climate challenges plaguing Africa.

Smart-phones and community radio key for early warning systems

By Isaiah Esipisu

DAR ES SALAAM, Tanzania (PAMACC News) – Use of mobile telephone technologies and community radio services has been cited as some of the best methods of sharing and disseminating climate information for effective early warning, and adaptation.

Experts attending the sixth session of the Africa Water Week (AWW) in Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania have pointed out that early warning systems can be set up to avoid or reduce the impact of hazards such as floods, landslides, storms, and forest fires. However, the significance of an effective system lies in the recognition of its benefits by local people.

African governments asked to commit to providing water for all

By Isaiah Esipisu

DAR ES SALAAM, Tanzania (PAMACC News) - Government representatives from Africa, civil society organisations and experts in the water sectors are meeting in Dar Es Salaam to draw a roadmap through which leaders will make commitments at the highest level towards achieving a universal and equitable access to water and sanitation for all.

The event, dubbed Sixth Africa Water Week (AWW) and convened by the African Ministers Council on Water (AMCOW) in conjunction with the African Union Commission brings together over 1000 participants from 100 different African countries.

African Ministers Call for self-driven water initiatives

By Elias Ntungwe Ngalame

DAR ES ALAAM , Tanzania (PAMACC News) – Africa is experiencing water crisis, with scientists saying there is strong evidence of decreased water flow and water quality in many countries.

                             

Scientists, researchers and drivers of water policy have also warned that continued population and economic growth, combined with climate change, could result in serious water shortages in some parts of the continent by 2025.

These challenges are coming at a time many African countries are mapping pathways towards the Sustainable Development Goals, SDGs.

Climate deniers should be compelled to finance adaptation in Africa – African NGOs

US Senators seek to hold climate deniers accountable

By Isaiah Esipisu

 

Nairobi, Kenya (PAMACC News) – African organisations championing against climate change have called on climate deniers to be compelled to finance climate change adaptation in developing countries and as well finance all the pledged Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDC) by all African countries.

 

This comes only two days after the Democrats in both United States chambers of Congress introduced a resolution condemning the efforts of fossil-fuel industries among others companies to deliberately cast doubt on science so as to mislead the public about the impact of the fuels on climate change, in an effort to protect their financial interests.

The Big Shift: A move to advocate for access to clean Energy launched in Africa

By Isaiah Esipisu and Robert Muthami

 

KIGALI, Rwanda (PAMACC News) – African Civil Society Organisations, on the sidelines of the ongoing 27^th African Union and Governments Summit in Kigali-Rwanda have launched an energy advocacy initiative dubbed the “The Big Shift” aimed at enhancing energy access among millions of African Energy poor.

The Initiative is in line with the African Coalition for Sustainable Energy and Access (ACSEA) launched during of the African Ministerial Conference on the Environment (AMCEN), and spearheaded by the Pan African Climate Justice Alliance (PACJA).

CSOs call for rapid phase down of Short-lived climate pollutants

Air conditioners use some of the polluting gases

By Robert Muthami and Isaiah Esipisu

African Civil Society Organisations (CSO) have called for a rapid phase down of the Short Lived Climate Pollutants (SLCPs) as a way of slowing down the current rate of global warming.

Based on a 2011 study by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) in collaboration with the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) titled ‘Integrated Assessment of Black Carbon and Tropospheric Ozone,’ reducing three of the SLCPs – black carbon, tropospheric ozone, and methane – has the potential to avoid up to 0.5°C global average warming by 2050 and 0.84°C in the Arctic by 2070.

African Farmers to Benefit from Reduction in Loss of Grains after Harvest

Innovative technologies like mechanised threshers and airtight storage bags can reduce post-harvest losses by up to 50 percent

Post harvest losses (Isaiah Esipisu)

NAIROBI, Kenya (PAMACC News) – Globally, one-third of food produced for human consumption is lost or wasted, the equivalent of 1.3 billion tons of food per year. In Sub-Saharan Africa – home to over 230 million people suffering from chronic undernourishment – the majority of these losses occur after grains have been harvested, but before they reach the consumer. About 30 per cent of the grains produced on the continent is lost due to inadequate post-harvest management, lack of structured markets, inadequate storage, and limited processing capacity.

Former Norwegian Minister Erik Solheim Takes Reins at UN Environment Programme

Solheim pledges to tackle major environmental issues such as ocean and air pollution, climate change, and nexus between conflict, migration and the environment

Erik Solheim (Photo - Colombo Telegraph)

 

NAIROBI, Kenya (PAMACC News) - Erik Solheim, a former Minister of Environment and International Development in Norway has began his tenure as Executive Director of the UN Environment Programme, with the concurrent position of UN Under-Secretary-General. Mr. Solheim assumes his new role as chief of the global authority on the environment after three years as head of the Development Assistance Committee (DAC) of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).

Vers une meilleure couverture médiatique de l'agriculture et l'alimentation en Afrique sub-saharienne.

Visite de terrain

Par Kanzly MIDEH

ABIDJAN, Côte d’Ivoire (PAMACC News) – Une avancée notable dans la stratégie de vulgarisation des problématiques liées à l’agriculture et à l’alimentation en Afrique sub-saharienne. C’est en substance ce que l’on peut retenir de l’atelier de renforcement des capacités organisé par la Banque mondiale et l’Initiative des médias d’Afrique (AMI), à l’intention d’une cinquante de journaliste africains du 13 au 15 juin dernier au Golf Hôtel d’Abidjan en Côte d’Ivoire.