The world is currently facing a pandemic like never experienced before. Countries, cities and towns are on lockdown as nations battle to control the spread of the coronavirus (Covid-19) and scientists work around the clock to find some sort of vaccine or cure.

Kenya, being part of the global community, has not been spared, with 50 confirmed cases by 29th March.

As the world battles to gain control, one thing has become very clear: maintaining hygiene is the surest way to contain the spread of the virus.

The chorus across the globe has been ‘wash your hands with running water and soap’ to be safe. Once again, and even though we don’t need any reminding, the importance of water to the survival of humanity has come to the forefront.

Sadly, even as the world marked the International Water Day on March 22, access to clean and safe water still remained a challenge to billions of people. According to the United Nations, some 2.2 billion people lack safe drinking water and 4.2 billion live without access to adequate sanitation. Read more…

Interview with Pushpam Kumar, United Nations Environment Programme, Chief Environmental Economist.

Within weeks of the COVID-19 outbreak, the World Health Organization declared a global pandemic, which has since spread around the globe. In addition to loss of lives, the virus has disrupted society and demobilized the global economy.

Meanwhile, efforts to contain the virus by restricting the movement have had a remarkable environmental impact.  According to China’s Ministry of Ecology and Environment, data recorded between January and March 2020 reflects an 84.5 per cent increase in days with good air quality in 337 cities, and satellite data from the United States National Aeronautics and Space Administration shows a decline in nitrogen dioxide over China.

Pushpam Kumar is the Chief Environmental Economist at the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).  In this interview, he explains the concept of trade-off analysis and the use of a trade-off paradigm in navigating the complex relationship between humans and nature.

What is trade-off analysis?

Trade-off analysis considers both the positive and negative impacts of human interventions on nature and observes the ways a situation changes when there is more of one thing and less of another. 

How is trade-off analysis relevant to discussions of COVID-19?

Every crisis provides the opportunity to learn.

COVID-19–a virus that has been attributed to human interferences such as deforestation, encroachment on animal habitats and biodiversity loss–has led to a reported thousands of deaths in China.  The subsequent lockdown of Hubei province contributed to a reduction in pollution that, according to a Stanford University researcher, may prevent 50,000 to 75,000 people from dying prematurely.  This demonstrates a trade-off between consumption-driven society (and its interference with nature) and the resiliency of nature and ecosystems.

Regardless of its cause or origin, the emergence of COVID-19 has underscored the mutually-affective relationship between people and nature.  Now, we must try to understand and appreciate the limits to which humans can push nature, before the impact is negative.  Those limits must be embraced by our consumption and production aspiration. Read more…

Zanzibar Minister for Agriculture and Natural Resources, Livestock and Fisheries Mmanga Mjengo Mjawiri  said when handing out 400m/- to villagers around the Jozani Forest Reserve as compensation for their   crops.

Mjawiri said the government has taken the decision to curb the habit of people going inside the forest reserve to hunt   animals, and added that the poachers even hunt some endangered species   including Ader’s duiker.

Chairman of the farmers’ association around Jozani Forest Reserve Yussuf Mshenga said despite beefing up of patrols   people still  invaded the reserve for tree cutting for timber and firewood.    

He said another activity is beekeeping and during the past two years incidents of fire occurred attributed to honey harvesters.

In 2000 Jozani Forest was included in the list of Tanzania National Parks and is famous for its unique wildlife including colobus monkeys and tree hyrax birds species.

Established in the 1960s the Jozani forest is a conservation area in the core of Zanzibar Island covering an area of 50 square kilometers, it also includes a section of the Jozani Chwaka National Park. Read more…

The academic world is not as distant from everyday reality as some might think. In the late 1970s, the global commodities crisis reduced export revenue in African countries and institutions such as the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank intervened to provide loans. The loan conditions included cutting public spending on education.

This resulted in a spike in migration, including thousands of African academics moving to North America, Europe and, to a lesser extent, Asia. They left for better paid jobs and more research funding in the host countries. The loss of well-trained and experienced academics created huge gaps in the higher education sector. But the sector continued to grow.

The shortage of academics adds to other challenges for universities, such as research quality, innovation, endowment and global visibility. Read more…

Abuja — As COVID-19 surges globally and leaves fear and panic in its wake, global efforts are underway to find a cure. Yet, the same level of response is lacking for several other infectious diseases that kill millions annually. These kinds of neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) are a broad group of communicable diseases which affect more than two billion people and cost developing economies billions of dollars every year.

Lassa Fever is an example and is endemic in Nigeria and other West African countries such as Benin, Ghana, Guinea, Liberia, Mali and Sierra Leone. At present, it kills about 17.8 percent of those infected in Nigeria. In 2020 alone, there have been nearly 4,000 suspected Lassa fever cases and more than 160 deaths.

First reported in 1969, there is still no viable vaccine to prevent it. An acute viral haemorrhagic illness that is similar to Ebola, the infection could last anywhere from two days to twenty-one days and is spread to humans through contact with food or household items that have been contaminated with rodent urine or faeces or from person-to-person.

Given the drive from the global north for a safe and effective vaccine and treatment for COVID-19, it is evident that for as long as diseases like tuberculosis, Lassa fever, as well as others like trachoma and sleeping sickness are limited to poor and marginalised populations, persistent underfunding will continue

Tuberculosis is another neglected disease. According to the World Health Organization, about 10 million people globally were infected with tuberculosis in 2018 including over one million children. India, China, Indonesia, the Philippines, Pakistan, Nigeria, Bangladesh and South Africa accounted for two thirds of all TB cases. Read more…

With two-thirds of the world’s population living in developing countries (excluding China) facing unprecedented economic damage from the COVID-19 crisis, the UN today called for a $2.5 trillion package for these countries to turn expressions of international solidarity into meaningful global action.

The speed at which the economic shockwaves from the pandemic has hit developing countries is dramatic, even in comparison to the 2008 global financial crisis, says a new report by UNCTAD, the UN trade and development body.

“The economic fallout from the shock is ongoing and increasingly difficult to predict but there are clear indications that things will get much worse for developing economies before they get better,” UNCTAD Secretary-General Mukhisa Kituyi said.

Mounting economic damage

The report shows that in the two months since the virus began spreading beyond China, developing countries have taken an enormous hit in terms of capital outflows, growing bond spreads, currency depreciations and lost export earnings, including from falling commodity prices and declining tourist revenues.

On most of these measures the impact has cut deeper than in 2008; and with domestic economic activity now feeling the effects of the crisis, UNCTAD is not optimistic about the kind of rapid rebound witnessed in many developing countries between 2009 and 2010. Read more…

The United Nations (UN) has recently sounded the alarm. Egypt could face a shortage of fresh water by 2025. If the country reaches that point, its agricultural production will decline by 47 percent by 2060.
Egypt’s agriculture and water sectors are in poor shape. The United Nations (UN) has issued a report on the situation.

According to the document, Egypt could face a shortage of fresh water by 2025. “In 2018 the individual water share was 570 m³. By 2025 it is expected to fall to 500 m³,” says the UN. Such a situation would be disastrous for the country, as its agricultural production could decrease by 47% by 2060 due to salinisation, a direct consequence of the freshwater shortage.

Egypt gets 90% of its water from the Blue Nile. The Blue Nile is a 6,700-kilometre-long river that flows through Uganda, Ethiopia and Sudan before arriving in Egypt. Bordered by a lush green valley full of palm trees, the northward-flowing river is flooded with tourists, fishing and recreational boats. It is this influx of people that causes the pollution of the river.

In the last three years, 37 tons of cans, plastic bottles, disposable bags and other waste have been recovered from the waters and banks of the Nile in Egypt. In addition to these figures, about 150 million tonnes of industrial waste are dumped each year, according to the Egyptian state-run Environmental Affairs Agency. Climate change and the renaissance dam under construction in Ethiopia may also significantly reduce the flow of the Nile. Read more…

The past few months have been intense with the rapid global spread of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Observing basic hygiene and sanitation in particular washing hands has been one of the key messages from the World Health Organisation to curb the spread of the pandemic. However, across the world, access to clean, safe water and sanitation remains a challenge for many.

The United Nations Development Programme estimates that about three billion people do not have access to safe, drinking water, 884 million lack access to an improved water source, 2.6 billion do not have access to improved sanitation while 1.1 billion still practise open defecation.

The number of countries experiencing water stress is increasing with each passing day, worsening these trends. And with the increasing temperatures due to the impacts of climate change, we may see more people lack access to clean water and sanitation.

By 2050, we may have at least one in four people suffer recurring water shortages. Read more…

The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) World Conservation Monitoring Centre and the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology teamed up to undertake a microplastics research and Ocean Literacy project linked to the Japan-Palau Goodwill Yacht Race—celebrating 25 years of Palau’s independence.

On 29 December 2019, an all-female research team, together with children and their parents from Palau, boarded tall ship ‘Miraie’ and embarked on a 17-day expedition from Yokohama, Japan to Koror, Palau. Their goals was to collect marine plastic pollution data in the western North Pacific Ocean—an area expected to have high density of microplastics that is currently insufficiently surveyed.

They also aimed to educate young people about the impact of human activities on the ocean, and how we can help. Young leaders are the driving force for protecting our ocean and the channels through which individuals, schools and communities can change their consumption habits. Read more…