Isolda Agazzi
GENEVA, Apr 28 2011 (IPS) – The fifth conference of the 173 parties to the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants, Apr. 25-29, could bring to 22 the total number of internationally agreed forbidden pollutants. Alternatives to DDT one of the persistent organic pollutants (POPs) used in the fight against malaria are gaining popularity, but its complete ban is not on the agenda.
POPs in recycled and new products. Credit: Isolda Agazzi/IPS
POPs are the worst substances man has ever created. They give toxic legacy to future …
Julio Godoy
BERLIN, Jun 2 2011 (IPS) – The decision by the German government of Chancellor Angela Merkel to phase out nuclear power by 2022 will increase efficiency in the use of energy, boost investment and accelerate technical progress in renewable energy sources, and promote international energy cooperation, according to numerous experts.
These factors are indispensable for Germany, the leading industrial powerhouse in Europe, to substitute the present share of nuclear energy of some 23 percent of the country s total consumption of electricity and to guarantee a steady supply of alternative energy, the experts say.
The German government announced Monday that all nuclear power plants operating in the country would be shuttered by 2022. The seven nuclear power plants…
Denis Foynes
UNITED NATIONS, Jul 19 2011 (IPS) – I have never seen anything like it. Many mothers have lost three or four children. It s a tragedy out here, Austin Kennan, regional director for the Horn of Africa for Concern Worldwide, told IPS from within the crisis zone.
A Somali woman holds a malnourished child, waiting for medical assistance from the African Union Mission in Soma…
Thalif Deen
STOCKHOLM, Aug 23 2011 (IPS) – The rapid growth of urban population described as one of the world s major demographic trends has triggered an explosion of mega cities in Asia, Latin America and Africa, causing a breakdown in basic services, including water supplies and sanitation facilities.
And by 2050, about 70 percent of the world s population will live in urban areas causing horrendous problems, predicts a new 80-page study released here by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF).
The current world population of over 6 billion is expected to reach a historic high of 7 billion by the end of October, according to figures released by the U.N. Population Fund (UNFPA), which also estimates a figure of 9.1 billion for 2050.
As city infrastructure cannot keep p…
BELGRADE, Jan 19 2012 (IPS) – According to an old Serbian fairy tale, God tells a poor man who enters a gold mine that no matter what he chooses to do inside, he ll be sorry when he leaves. If he takes some gold, he ll be sorry for not taking more; if he doesn t, he ll be sorry for not taking any at all.
Modern Serbia now finds itself in a similar situation to the hero of that ancient tale.
Experts have revealed that parts of South-eastern Serbia lie on two billion tons of oil shale that could be processed into oil worth roughly 60 billion dollars in the next decade.
Further, the introduction and implementation of sufficient technology to turn the crude into derivates could reap between 120 and 180 billion dollars, according to studies by several domestic and intern…
CONAKRY, Mar 1 2012 (IPS) – Guinea faces acute problems in the supply of clean water and electricity to its citizens, slowing the country s economic development. A major project to address this is now under way, but some Guineans are sceptical of its promises.
Guinea enjoys more rainfall than any other country in West Africa; the country is known as the water tower of the sub-region, with the headwaters of the Niger, Senegal and Gambia rivers all found within its borders. The country’s many rivers and tributaries should be valuable assets for the provision of fresh water, extensive irrigation agriculture, and large-scale hydroelectric power generation.
But despite its natural resources, this country of 10.6 million people faces problems providing adequate electricity a…
GUATEMALA CITY, Apr 6 2012 (IPS) – Teenage pregnancies are on the rise in Guatemala, along with the drop-out rate in schools, family breakdown and many other related social ills.
More and more girls in Guatemala are having babies. Credit: Fiat Luxe/CC BY-ND 2.0
A graph of statistics from the Ministry of Health and Social Assistance shows a rising trend, with 41,529 pregnancies in girls aged 10 to 19 in 2009, 45,048 in 2010 and 49,231 in 2011, giving an average of 135 a day last year.
A long list of…
A family inside its home in Cannon Camp in Haiti. Credit: Susan Robens-Brannon/IPS
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Jun 21 2012 (IPS) – In the remote, dusty and barren area of northern Port-au-Prince, Cannon Camp houses nearly 6,000 displaced Haitians in tiny and cramped spaces. Nestled among the smattering of tents is the home of a 50-something-year-old mother of 12.
The mother, who asked that her name not be used, was moved to the camp after she lost her small home after the earthquake in Haiti in January 2010. Her new home is a battered one-room tent extended by a partial tarp to make a second room.
Inside are two broken chairs, some blankets, a yellow laundry basket and a …
YAOUNDE, Aug 3 2012 (IPS) – For nearly two years, not a single child with HIV has been born at the public hospital in the Cité-Verte district of Yaoundé, the capital of Cameroon. Dr Emilien Fouda, the hospital s director, says this proud record is the result of combined effort by his staff and community support groups.
Philomène Manga had an HIV test in 2005. She was four months pregnant. When I told my husband that the test result came back positive, he asked me to have an abortion rather than give birth to a sick child, Manga told IPS.
But thanks to advice from a community group called the No Limit for Women Project (NOLFOWOP), she decided to keep the baby.
I got medical treatment so that my child didn t get HIV. Today I have two healthy children, one aged …
Nouma Camara stands near the Akouedo open-air dumpsite in Abidjan. Camara says the effects of a 2006 toxic waste dumping here still prevent him from working full-time. Credit: Robbie Corey-Boulet/IPS
ABIDJAN, Sep 26 2012 (IPS) – Nouma Camara, a 40-year-old tailor, remembers waking up on Aug. 20, 2006 to a smell he described as “something catastrophic.” His home in Akouedo village, in Côte d’Ivoire’s commercial capital city of Abidjan, lies adjacent to a large, open-air dumpsite where toxic waste had been dumped the night before.
Almost immediately, the symptoms began to set in: nausea, headaches, eye irritation, blisters forming on his exposed skin. …