By Simba Russeau
CAIRO, May 27 (IPS) – Libya’s enormous aquatic reserves could potentially become a new weapon of choice if government forces opt to starve coastal cities that heavily rely on free flowing freshwater.

With only five percent of the country getting at least 100 millimetres of rainfall per year, Libya is one of the driest [...]

Safe water and sanitation are cost-effective public health measures, but have not been prioritised in most poor countries.

ISTANBUL, May 16, 2011 (IPS) – For Jany Chen from Shanghai, concern often-raised in Europe and North America about the Chinese invasion of Africa is a lot of wasteful talk that deserves to be flushed down the toilet. Efficiently.

Chen is chief executive officer of the Shanghai Yiyuan Environmental Group, a company that claims breakthrough technology in conservation of water. Chen dismisses suggestions that the company could have an exploitative interest in Africa.

ISTANBUL, May 11, 2011 (IPS) – “Women in LDCs bear the brunt of economic and social hardships,” said Wubitu Hailu, managing director of an Ethiopian NGO, the Kulich Youth Reproductive Health and Development Organisation. The failure to provide access to basic services like clean water and electricity is a major factor preventing women from realising their full potential.

Farmers enlisted to build berms, stabilise dunes and plant trees to reduce siltation.

Dispute over presidential elections could over-ride other factors as voters choose leadership at state level.

The previously impoverished community of Malibeni, previously ravaged by drought, is bustling with farmers who have transformed the area into a bread basket. Lush green fields of sugarcane and vegetables have replaced an expanse of dry shrubs near this community in northeastern Swaziland. The project has two main components, one improving water and sanitation for homesteads in the area and the other irrigating the sugar cane fields of a farmers’ association.

by Souleymane Faye

DAKAR, Apr 16 (IPS) – Senegal’s small-scale fishers are challenging the government over licences granting foreign trawlers permission to fish in Senegalese waters. The artisanal fishers condemn the “selling off” of the country’s fishery resources at a time when stocks off Senegal’s coast are severely depleted.

Many farms and crops were devastated when the January floods hit South Africa at the start of this year. Farmer organisation Agri South Africa (AgriSa) estimated damages as high as 270 million dollars. Some critics say that as managers of the country’s water resources, the Department of Water Affairs should have done more to prevent the devastation. IPS Africa spoke to the department’s Peter Pyke about the importance of flood mitigation strategies.

GABORONE, Mar 30 (IPS) – The evidence of Gaborone’s inadequate sewerage system hangs in the air over the Botswana capital’s low income area. Pit latrines dominate, and residents complain that the city doesn’t empty them frequently enough. But the end may be in sight. There are simply no sewers in large parts of Gaborone’s low income areas. The city – which had fewer than 4,000 people at independence in 1966 – quickly lost the race to expand its sewerage infrastructure as fast as the city grew.

WINDHOEK, Mar 25 (IPS) – North-central Namibia is experiencing the heaviest floods ever recorded, but unlike in previous years, the area is fully prepared. Flood levels in the Cuvelai basin in north-central Namibia are eight centimetres higher than in the 2009 flood season, setting a new record for the area where about one million people – half of Namibia’s population – live.

LILONGWE, Mar 22 (IPS) – The market can do better: a sanitation and hygiene campaign to be launched in Malawi plans to apply this tenet to improve cleanliness and public health the country’s cities. The campaign, tagged “Sanitation Marketing and Hygiene Promotion”, hopes to promote entrepreneurship in low-income communities at the same time as addressing sanitation and health needs.

CAPE TOWN, Mar 21 (IPS) – As a U.N. conference on water opens in South Africa today, the country’s Council for Scientific and Industrial Research has repeated warnings that the country faces a water supply crisis. Experts attending the three-day conference will consider the challenges posed by growing demands, migration and water resources potentially limited by careless use and climate change. The CSIR report on South Africa states, “The country is facing a water supply crisis caused by a combination of low rainfall, high evaporation rates, an expanding economy and a growing population whose geographical demands for water do not conform to the distribution of exploitable water supplies”.

WINDHOEK, Mar 12 (IPS) – For Namibia’s capital city, the goal of sustainable water and sanitation is a major challenge for the 21st century. Windhoek had just 140,000 inhabitants at independence in 1990. In 20 years, the population has more than doubled to 300,000 people, according to the city government, with between 20 and 30 percent living in informal settlements. These unplanned areas have grown at a rate of 9.4 percent each year, making the provision of water and sanitation a serious challenge.

LILONGWE, Mar 9 (IPS) – At its best it is waterless, odorless, eminently affordable and has a rich fertiliser as byproduct, yet for residents of Malawi’s informal settlements, dry sanitation retains a whiff of the unwanted. As much as two-thirds of Malawi’s two-million strong urban population live in slum conditions without proper toilets. In densely-crowded Lilongwe townships like Mtsiriza, Mgona, or Senti, dozens of people often share a single convenience.