Media worldwide have often helped communicate UNU-INWEH’s scientific and policy-relevant discoveries and insights to the general public and important decision-making audiences worldwide.
With thanks to the hundreds of reporters and thousands of news editors involved, UNU-INWEH top news making highlights in its first 25 years are showcased in a colourful presentation.
Click here
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3 Nov 2015
Safe, systematic collection of human waste in low-resource countries could yield valuable fuels, invaluable health and environmental benefits
Biogas from human waste, safely obtained under controlled circumstances using innovative technologies, is a potential fuel source great enough in theory to generate electricity for up to 138 million households – the number of households in Indonesia, Brazil, and Ethiopia combined.
A report today from UN University’s Canadian-based Institute for Water, Environment and Health estimates that biogas potentially available from human waste worldwide would have a value of up to US$ 9.5 billion in natural gas equivalent.
And the residue, dried and charred, could produce 2 million tonnes of charcoal-equivalent fuel, curbing the destruction of trees.
Finally, experts say, the large energy value would prove small relative to that of the global health and environmental benefits that would accrue from the safe treatment of human waste in low-resource settings.
“Rather than treating our waste as a major liability, with proper controls in place we can use it in several circumstances to build innovative and sustained financing for development while protecting health and improving our environment in the process,” according to the report, “Valuing Human Waste as an Energy Resource.”
The report uses average waste volume statistics, high and low assumptions for the percentage of concentrated combustable solids contained (25 – 45%), its conversion into biogas and charcoal-like fuel and their thermal equivalents (natural gas and charcoal), to calculate the potential energy value of human waste.
Biogas, approximately 60% methane by volume, is generated through the bacterial breakdown of faecal matter, and any other organic matter, in an oxygen free (anaerobic) system.
Dried and charred faecal sludge, meanwhile, has energy content similar to coal and charcoal.
UN figures show that 2.4 billion people lack access to improved sanitation facilities and almost 1 billion people (about 60% of them in India) don’t use toilets at all, defecating instead in the open.
If the waste of only those practicing open defecation was targeted, the financial value of biogas potentially generated exceeds US$ 200 million per year and could reach as high as $376 million. The energy value would equal that of the fuel needed to generate electricity for 10 million to 18 million local households. Processing the residual faecal sludge, meanwhile, would yield the equivalent of 4.8 million to 8.5 million tonnes of charcoal to help power industrial furnaces, for example.
World already reuses the water and nutrients in wastewater
Says lead author Corinne Schuster-Wallace: “Increasingly, water-scarce regions are being driven to separate and reuse the water in wastewater, particularly to expand marginal agricultural lands. There is a technological opportunity, particularly in rural growth areas and small towns, to derive energy as well from this resource.”
UNU-INWEH Senior Research Fellow Chris Metcalfe of Trent University notes that human waste, as with animal waste, is already used to improve food production in many places around the world, governed by guidelines to ensure its safe use.
A study in Sweden established that human urine contains over 300 g of phosphorous, 900 g of potassium and 300 g of sulphur per cubic meter. According to the World Health Organization, an individual’s body excretes an estimated 4.5 kg of nitrogen and 548 g of phosphorus per year.
“We recycle the nutrients in human waste effectively via agriculture in many places, yet the potential energy value of human waste has been given much less attention to date,” says Dr. Metcalfe, a report co-author along with UNU consultant Chris Wild. “Challenges are many but clearly there is a compelling, multi-dimensional financial case to be made for deriving energy from waste.”
Says UNU-INWEH Director Zafar Adeel: “When it comes to creating misery and poverty, human waste mismanagement has few rivals. If we can demonstrate a simple, cost effective new approach in low-resource settings, if we can successfully make a business case and change the economic paradigm of human waste management, we can advance development, protect the environment and help reduce sanitation problems causing one-tenth of all world illnesses.”
“World Toilet Day, upcoming November 19, offers the opportunity to promote new thinking and to continue puncturing the taboos in many places that inhibit discussion and perpetuate the disgrace and tragedy of inadequate human waste management in many developing world areas. This report contributes to that goal.”
Waste to wealth
With initial seed funds from federally-funded Grand Challenges Canada, UNU-INWEH in partnership with the Ugandan Ministry of Water and Environment, its agencies, and other NGO and academic institutions, established the Waste to Wealth national framework.
Waste to Wealth utilises modern anaerobic digestion technologies linked to sanitation systems.
With a focus on rural growth centers and small towns, as well as high population density institutions such as schools and prisons, the biogas and residual material left from energy conversion is a valuable economic resource to provide a return on investment in bioenergy technologies.
The ultimate goal of Waste to Wealth is decentralised (on site) faecal waste management and to help bridge the finance gap for sanitation in Uganda. By identifying value in waste (energy and /or fertilizer), Waste to Wealth provides an incentive to use toilets and a mechanism to finance both upfront capital costs as well as facility operation, maintenance, and expansion. In addition to the economic opportunities, sanitation interventions have known benefits to individual, household and community health and wellbeing.
Video: http://bit.
Photos: http://bit.
Website: http://inweh.
Phase two of the project involves proof of concept of a series of proposed initiatives, including equipping a Ugandan prison with a $100,000 system requiring approximately $5,000 in annual operating costs, expected to pay for itself through fuel cost savings within 2 years.
Waste to Wealth is one of several pilot projects in Africa to have received seed grants from Grand Challenges Canada for the systematic collection of waste for processing into a variety of energy or agricultural products.
Related projects in Africa include:
Kenya
- Collecting and converting human waste into solid fuel for use by cement plants and other industries
- Franchising toilets; profitably, safely collecting and removing the waste daily, converting it into fuel and fertilizer, and
- Collecting human waste and converting it into high quality, emission free bio-charcoal cooking fuel
Uganda
Production of biogas and organic fertilizer from street waste
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UNU-INWEH
The United Nations University Institute for Water, Environment and Health is a member of the United Nations University family of organizations. It is the UN Think Tank on Water created by the UNU Governing Council in 1996. The mission of the institute is to help resolve pressing water challenges that are of concern to the United Nations, its Member States, and their people, through knowledge- based synthesis of existing bodies of scientific discovery; through cutting edge targeted research that identifies emerging policy issues; through application of on-the-ground scalable solutions based on credible research; and, through relevant and targeted public outreach. It is hosted by the Government of Canada and McMaster University.
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Example coverage:
TIME Magazine, USA, “How Poop Can Be Worth $9.5 Billion,” click here
Washington Post, USA, “Burning humanity’s poop could yield up to $9.5 billion,” click here
Discovery, USA, “Will the Future Be Powered by Feces?,” click here
Science Magazine, USA, “Human feces from the developing world could power millions of homes,” click here
Reuters / Thomson-Reuters Foundation, UK, “Power from human waste could light millions of homes-UN University” click here; Spanish, “Energía de desechos humanos podría iluminar millones de hogares: Universidad ONU” click here
Agence France Presse, France, French: “Les excréments humains, source potentielle importante d’énergie,” click here; Spanish: “Excrementos humanos tienen importante potencial como para producir energía,” click here; Portuguese: “Estudo aponta potencial energético de excremento humano,” click here; Japanese: “人間の排せつ物で発電、途上国の衛生改善も 国連,” click here
The Guardian, UK, “When will the world wake up to the potential of poo power?” click here
Daily Mail, UK, “Now that’s wind power! Gas from human FAECES could generate electricity for up to 138 million households, report claims” click here
BBC World Service Radio, UK (Science in Action), click here
Chicago Sun-Times, and Sun-Times Network (Seattle WA Sun Times, Jacksonville FL Sun Times, Charlotte NC Sun Times, Columbus OH Sun Times): “Study says world’s human poo worth up to $9.5 billion,’ click here
The Atlantic, CityLab, USA, “The Miraculous Energy Source of the Future: Our Poop?” click here
Huffington Post, USA, “Human Waste Could Light Up More Than 138 Million Homes: Study,” click here
Al Jazeera America, USA, “Human waste could provide power for millions in developing world, says UN,” click here
The Australian, $13bn resource squandered as world wastes value of human dung” click here
Politiken, Denmark, “Københavnerne steger i gas lavet af naboens lort og opvaskevand,” click here
Agencia EFE, Spain, “Científicos proponen aprovechar valor energético y económico de excrementos,” click here; English service: “Scientists propose extracting energy and economic worth of human excreta,” click here
RIA Novosti, Russia, “Топливо из высушенных нечистот принесет миру 10 млрд долларов ежегодно” click here
Science et Vie, France, “Energie: Les Excréments Humains Recèlent d’importantes Quantités de Biogaz Inexploitées,” click here
CNN en Español, United States, “Excremento humano podría ser la próxima gran fuente de energía mundial, según la ONU,” click here, CNN Greece, “Ενέργεια από περιττώματα,” click here
Global News, Canada, “How human poop could generate power for up to 138 million homes,” click here
La Repubblica, Italy, “Dalle deiezioni umane energia per 138 milioni di case,” click here
Green Report, Italy, “Il valore energetico dei rifiuti umani. Dal biogas del Burkina Faso al Franchising toilets in Kenya” click here
Public Radio International (PRI), USA ” click here
Helsingen Sanomat, Finland, “Ihmisen jätöksistä saisi energiaa miljoonille kotitalouksille,” click here
Yonhap News Agency, Korea, “인류 배설물의 에너지 가치…연간 최대 11조원”, click here
Mental Floss, USA, “Poop Could Be the World’s Next Big Energy Resource,” click here
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Full summary of coverage in 14 languages from 59 countries, click here
News release in full, click here
]]>1 Oct 2015
Importance of water cooperation grows as climate changes advance;
Tajikistan Foreign Minister honored for water-related leadership in Central Asia; Sirodjidin Aslov delivers UNU-INWEH Distinguished Lecture
The importance of international cooperation in freshwater management is growing with world population and changes to global climate and weather patterns, warns a new report from UN University.
Published by UNU’s Canadian-based Institute on Water, Environment and Health, the report details the most successful (and unsuccessful) elements of past international water management efforts, offers a guide for future preparations, and describes trouble hotspots worldwide in which co-operation between nations will be essential to hundreds of millions of people.
Over half of the world’s population, for example, rely on rivers that originate in the Himalaya’s dwindling glaciers. With those glaciers melting at an accelerating pace, “cooperation will be even more important to the area,” the report says. “Increased flooding followed by a seasonal lack of freshwater will implicate countries across borders and make cooperation vital.”
In some parts of the world, the greatest water cooperation challenges will be tested by changes to the water availability through a distorted frequency and intensity of rainfall.
According to the report:
- Freshwater bodies that connect two or more countries, either above or below surface, cover about 45% of the world’s land mass
- There are 276 international river basins, of which 60% do not have any framework in place to manage these shared resources cooperatively
- Water resource issues have heightened tensions throughout history and 37 conflicts over water have been recorded since 1948
- World population growth is expected to occur most heavily in areas that rely largely on other regions for food production. The result is inter-regional dependency in which countries to have share either virtual or real water.
Despite the potential for conflict, the report says, common water needs have led to more than 200 water treaties negotiated over the last 50 years.
Sirodjidin Aslov, the Tajikistan Foreign Minister and a co-author of the report, states that “It is encouraging that many countries have started paying more attention to integrated approaches towards management of water together with other key sectors of the national economy.”
According to the report: “As more pressure builds on the world’s water resources, previous experience cooperating towards water sustainability serves as useful guidance for future agreements.”
Among the characteristics of successful cooperation agreements, according to the report: The active, continuous involvement of a third party mediator; good data; creative financing; private sector and community involvement; and effective river basis organizations.
Characteristics of unsuccessful cooperation agreements include: Bilateral instead of basin-wide negotiations, ignoring long-term environmental impacts; limiting arrangements to surface water.
Hotspots
- South Asia
South Asian water resources connect many countries that have had military conflicts historically.
The separation of India, Pakistan, and later Bangladesh divided basins between countries. India and Pakistan signed the Indus Water Treaty in 1960, but the Indus basin has continued to cause stress with competition for waters and legal battles against proposed hydropower projects in India.
Developing giants China and India refuse to sign agreements that they view as non-beneficial to their interests as they prefer to maximize their advantage against others. Both countries have expanded hydropower aggressively, such as with China’s Three Gorges Dam, having large impacts downstream.
“This has led to a culture of mistrust in Asia with less signatories and cooperation,” the report says. “South Asia lacks the coordination that EU countries have with economic and legal policies, and countries react defensively when bigger players like China act unilaterally.”
In Central Asia, more coordination has been seen, especially in response to the Aral Sea disaster. Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, and Kyrgyzstan formed the Interstate Commission for Water Coordination of Central Asia and pledged 1% of their budgets to help recover the sea.
In South Asia, progress towards cooperation is being made. While still missing China and Myanmar as active members, the Mekong River Commission has been helping countries in the lower Mekong basin move from humanitarian cooperation to economic cooperation.
- Middle East
In the Middle East, water is especially important for security and peace. Many countries with otherwise tense political relations also usually lack water agreements where they are most needed.
Throughout the region, desertification, shrinking rivers and aquifer depletion stress water supplies. With the so-called Islamic State controlling parts of Iraq and Syria, questions linger about water being used strategically as a threat or a weapon.
Despite overtures towards cooperation, especially around 2008, existing agreements lack controls and principles embedded in similar agreements worldwide. Iraq, Syria and Turkey created a technical committee in water and environment and established the Trilateral Water Institute to study efficient management of water usage in the Tigris-Euphrates river basin. However, treaties between the three countries currently are not being complied with.
Israel and Jordan have come to agreements, such as the 1994 Peace Treaty that included allocations of the Jordan River and joint efforts to prevent water scarcity, but cooperation is even more important today. The Dead Sea’s levels have been falling over one meter per year as the flow of the Jordan River, the main tributary, has dropped by more than 98%. A large project to divert water from the Red Sea to the Dead Sea has been developed by the World Bank and three parties — Israel, Jordan, and Palestine — signed a trilateral agreement in 2014. Implementation of any transboundary agreement in this situation is difficult with constant political and armed conflict in the region.
The Middle East Desalination Research Center (MEDRC), created under the 1996 Oslo Accords, has been influential in bringing Israel and Palestine together for water cooperation. The organization helps build capacity of member countries (Israel, Palestinian Authority, Jordan, Oman, Qatar, US, Spain, Netherlands, Japan, and South Korea) through research and training, and has built a solar desalination pilot plant in the West Bank.
- Africa
Africa faces huge transboundary water challenges.
Large differences in development levels of riparian countries make cooperation even more necessary, such as with Nile-dependent Egypt and the somewhat less developed, upstream countries involved in the Nile Basin Initiative.
Many criticize agreements in place that “are meant to look environmental, but in reality are just vehicles to promote hydropower development or irrigation expansions.”
While rivers may have coordinated cooperation in many places of the continent, groundwater resources lack institutions. Conflicts in places like Darfur and Sudan led to large displacements of people, some into refugee camps, which can aggravate an already stressed water supply with increased concentrated demand for resources. Political instability, mass migration, and limited resources have made cooperation difficult.
The continent has 63 river basins, of which 20 have international agreements in effect and 16 have institutionalized transboundary forums.
With international support, continental, regional and national cooperation organizations have developed, including the Southern African Development Community, Niger Basin Authority, Lake Chad Basin Commission, Lake Victoria Basin Commission, Lake Victoria Fisheries Organization, Lake Tanganyika Authority, and the African Ministers’ Council on Water.
- Latin America and the Caribbean
UN data indicate that an overwhelming majority of countries in Latin America and the Caribbean have already achieved, or are likely to achieve the Millennium Development Goal for drinking water, despite great diversity in levels of national development.
Access to sanitation, on the contrary, has only been achieved for 46% of the region’s population. Almost 36 million people remain without access to improved sources of drinking water and over 110 million people lack access to improved sanitation facilities.
Gaps in service mainly affect low-income groups: between 70% and 85% of people lacking access to water services are in the lowest 40% for income. In rural areas, coverage is consistently lower than in urban areas: 15% in the case of drinking water and 24% in the case of sanitation services.
According to a study performed by CAF, the Latin American Bank for Development, to calculate the costs of reaching the water related SDG targets, the investment required would amount US$ 12.5 billion annually — the equivalent to 0.31% of the region’s GDP in 2010.
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Co-author comments
Zafar Adeel, Director, UNU-INWEH:
“Against the background of ever increasing consumption of food and energy by the world population, (which with current working models will demand ever more water for both processes), deteriorated sanitation and global climate change, it is the nexus approach, water-food- energy-climate, which is becoming more urgent and practical. The implementation of these concepts requires the development of cooperation and partnership not only among the countries, but also among different economic sectors and water users within each country.”
Olcay Unver, Deputy Director, Land and Water Division, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
“The new development agenda will be put more emphasis on, and provide more tools for, water cooperation. This necessitates focused capacity development as well as transparent monitoring systems. The indicators by which water cooperation can be described and monitored vary greatly and range from governments establishing basin entities or river treaties, for example, to multi-sector planning and management approaches.”
Josefina Maestu, Coordinator, UN Office to support the International Decade for Action, ‘Water for Life’ 2005-2015
“Water cooperation is a reality. Water cooperation can be done. There is today a wide array of experiences of cooperation among countries, among stakeholders in river basins — such as hydroelectricity producers, farmers cities, industries, environmental NGOs — and at local level through city platforms – with NGOs, Local Authorities, economic activities. Sharing information, building trusting relations, creating joint management structures and agreed legal instruments are all part of the types of actions that are needed to be successful. This can be promoted through dedicated financing to water cooperation.”
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The 2015 Water Catalyst Award
Jointly awarded by UNU-INWEH and SUEZ North America, this award gives recognition to an outstanding individual who has demonstrated exceptional advocacy to improve the lives of others through improving access to drinking water or heightening the prominence of water issues in the political sphere and on the international development agenda.
The 2015 recipient, Tajikistan Foreign Minister Sirodjidin Aslov, is honoured for water-related leadership in Central Asia.
According to the citation: “H.E. Minister Aslov is a global leader on water issues, and has been instrumental in mobilizing governments around the world to act on water challenges and in catalyzing action by the United Nations community.”
“He has championed dialogue on water sharing and water cooperation, leading to a series of major conferences attended by a large number of government representatives, experts, global institutions, and thought leaders.” He has also strived tirelessly to increase regional cooperation amongst the Central Asian countries – water and energy being the core challenges for that region – and his contribution is instrumental in the emerging policy enhancements at the regional scale.
At a global level, award sponsor SUEZ Environnement supplies 92 million people with drinking water and 65 million with sanitation services, collects waste from almost 50 million people, recovers 14 million tonnes of waste per year and generates 5,138 GWh of local and renewable energy. With 81,000 employees and a presence on all five continents, SUEZ Environnement is a key player in the sustainable management of resources.
The United Nations University Institute for Water, Environment and Health is a member of the United Nations University family of organizations. It is the UN Think Tank on Water created by the UNU Governing Council in 1996. The mission of the institute is to help resolve pressing water challenges that are of concern to the United Nations, its Member States, and their people, through knowledge- based synthesis of existing bodies of scientific discovery; through cutting edge targeted research that identifies emerging policy issues; through application of on-the-ground scalable solutions based on credible research; and, through relevant and targeted public outreach. It is hosted by the Government of Canada and McMaster University.
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Example coverage:
Reuters, UK, Governments must cooperate more in water ‘hotspots’ to prevent conflict: U.N. University, click here; Portuguese, click here; Chinese, click here
Agencia EFE, Spain, La ONU advierte sobre problemas de saneamiento en los países latinoamericanos, click here
SciDev, UK, click here
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Coverage summary, click here
News release in full, click here
]]>15-SEP-2015
To better inform the tradeoffs involved in land use choices around the world, experts have assessed the value of ecosystem services provided by land resources such as food, poverty reduction, clean water, climate and disease regulation and nutrients cycling.
Their report today estimates the value of ecosystem services worldwide forfeited due to land degradation at a staggering US $6.3 trillion to $10.6 trillion annually, or the equivalent of 10-17% of global GDP.
Furthermore, the problem threatens to force the migration of millions of people from affected areas. An estimated (http://bit.
Effectively addressing land degradation could help avert that humanitarian crisis and add US $75.6 trillion to annual world income, according to the report, “The Value of Land”, produced by The Economics of Land Degradation Initiative.
With guidance by United Nations University’s Canadian-based Institute for Water, Environment and Health and the CGIAR’s Research Programme on Drylands Systems, the report culminates a four-year collaboration involving 30 renowned international research and policy institutes. The Initiative is funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development, the European Commission and the Korean Forest Service.
Some 52% of world agricultural land is moderately or severely degraded, the report says.
However, “the economics of land degradation is about a lot more than agriculture.”
For example, soil is second only to oceans as the planet’s largest carbon sink, while agriculture and land use changes represent the second largest source of greenhouse gas emissions. Addressing land degradation and its causes, therefore, represents a double-sided way to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, the report says.
“Adequate management of agricultural and forestry land uses are amongst the lowest-cost actions that can reduce global warming, and most actions are either neutral cost or of positive net profit to society, requiring no substantial capital investment,” the report says.
National studies verify that the value of ecosystem services and benefits far outweigh the cost of preventing land degradation or the cost of remediation in most situations.
The report calls on countries to recognize the huge value of improved land management and to enhance institutional capacity and knowledge in the area, together with national policy, economic, legislative and regulatory frameworks.
The authors note that cost-benefit analyses of sustainable land management scenarios “can be done even with limited data availability,”and underscore that, despite an inevitable degree of uncertainty, “it is imperative to take action now, as every day sees the loss of more productive land that will have to be gained back.”
Quick facts from the report:
- Land cover changes since year 2000 are responsible for half to 75% of the lost ecosystem services value
- The value of lost ecosystem services due to land degradation averages US $43,400 to $72,000 per square km, some US $870 to $1,450 per person, globally each year
- Agricultural investments of US $30 billion per year are needed to feed the world’s growing population
- The percentage of Earth’s land stricken by serious drought doubled from the 1970s to the early 2000s
- One third of the world is vulnerable to land degradation; one third of Africa is threatened by desertification
- A future focused on a shift to sustainability will see the greatest increase in ecosystem service values and GDP.
Comments
Monique Barbut, Executive Secretary, UN Convention to Combat Desertification: “As Oscar Wilde put is once ‘people know the price of everything and the value of nothing.’ This is certainly true when we look at our land resources – we do not value them. The ELD Initiative proves it should be a no-brainer. Land degradation eats away at our fertile land. That is our common resource base. It is time to efficiently and cost-effectively harness the land and land-based ecosystems to provide for our needs and secure our livelihoods.”
Karmenu Vella, European Commissioner for Environment, Fisheries and Maritime Affairs: “This study by ELD shows the immediate and global impact of land degradation and highlights that actions to tackle it pay off. Increased land degradation is also one of the factors that can lead to migration and it is being exacerbated by climate change. On our planet, the area affected by drought has doubled in 40 years. One third of Africa is threatened by desertification. As President Juncker said in his State of the Union speech last week, climate refugees will become a new challenge – if we do not act swiftly. We need to be as ambitious as possible in the negotiations for COP 21 in Paris”
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The Economics of Land Degradation (ELD) Initiative
ELD was created to help raise global awareness of the full economic potential of land and land services, including market and non-market values (e.g., carbon sequestration, recreational values, nutrient cycling, etc.) and the costs of land degradation.
The Initiative focused on creating efficient, practical tools and methodologies to fully assess land’s value and thus encourage sustainable land management.
By determining the economic values of ecosystem services preserved or enhanced through proper land management and restoration, the ELD Initiative has created ‘a common language’ to help communities choose between land use options.
Options to address land degradation include reforestation, afforestation, sustainable agricultural practices, and establishing alternative livelihoods such as eco-tourism. Potential economic tools include payments for ecosystem services, subsidies, taxes, voluntary payments for environmental conservation, and access to micro-finance and credit. Facilitating sustainable land management also requires using legal, social marketing, and policy tools.
Final report
The Value of Land
In full: http://bit.
Summary of findings and recommendations: Pages 133-136
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News release in full, click here
Example coverage:
Washington Post, USA: “Damaging the land we live on is costing humans trillions every year,” click here
Reuters, UK: “Spread of deserts costs trillions, spurs migrants: study,” click here
Portuguese: “Expansão de desertos custa trilhões e gera migração, diz estudo da ONU,” click here
Chinese: “土地退化經濟損失 1年逾數兆美元,” click here
The Guardian, UK: “Land degradation costs the world up to $10.6tn a year, report says,” click here
Newsweek, USA: “Climate Change Will Cause the World’s Next Migration Crisis (Frank Biermann commentary),” click here; “Lack of Resources Could Create 50 Million Climate Migrants in Decade, Says Report,” click here
Deutsche Presse Agentur (DPA), Germany, German: “UN-Studie: Riesen-Verluste drohen: 50 Millionen Flüchtlinge durch Bodenzerstörung,” click here (also via APA, Austria: click here)
ANSA, Italy, Italian: “Il 17% del Pil mondiale va in fumo per degradazione suolo,” click here
Agencia EFE, Spain, Spanish: “El mundo pierde hasta un 17 % de PIB anual por la degradación del suelo,” click here
Actualités News Environnement, France, French: “La désertification coûte des trillions et suscite la migration,” click here
Indo-Asian News Service, India: “Land degradation can create 50 million migrants in a decade: Study,” click here
Maailma, Finland, Finnish: “Raportti: Maaperän rappeutuminen maksaa biljoonia vuodessa,” click here
صحيفة حريات, (Hurriyat) Sudan, Arabic: “دراسة دولية جديدة : السودان يخسر أكثر من (7% ) من قيمة أراضيه,” click here
DiaCaf, Romania, Romanian: “Criza refugiatilor nu se termina curand. Specialistii avertizeaza: mai urmeaza un val!,” click here
Dnevnik, Bulgaria, Bulgarian: “Разширяването на пустините струва трилиони долари и създава милиони имигранти,” click here
New Europe, Belgium: “What if Syria is only the beginning of the refugee crisis?,” click here
Sueddeutsche, Germany, German: “Das unterschätzte Gut,” click here
Protothema, Greece, Greek: “Κίνδυνος για την ανθρωπότητα η εξάπλωση των ερήμων,” click here
iPolitics, Canada: “Next wave of migrants will be seeking arable land, warn experts,” click here
International Business Times, USA
“Land Degradation, Desertification Might Create 50 Million Climate Refugees Within A Decade,” click here
EurActiv, EU, German: “Land in Sicht: Den Wert unseres Bodens erkennen,” click here
Aamulehti, Finland, Finnish: “Tuore raportti: Kymmenessä vuodessa jopa 50 miljoonaa ympäristöpakolaista lisää,” click here
Merdeka, Indonesia, Indonesian: “Bumi tengah menderita! 5 Fakta kerusakan lingkungan ini bikin ngeri,” click here
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Complete coverage summary, click here
]]>Institute for Water, Environment and Health, Hamilton CANADA
22-FEB-2015
Corruption, siphoning 30 percent of water sector funding, must end for world development and security
A new UN report warns that without large new water-related investments many societies worldwide will soon confront rising desperation and conflicts over life’s most essential resource.
Presenting their report at UN Headquarters, New York, officials of UN University and the UN Office for Sustainable Development said unmet water goals threaten many world regions and form a barrier to key universally-shared ambitions including stable political systems, greater wealth and better health for all.
Continued stalling, coupled with population growth, economic instability, disrupted climate patterns and other variables, could reverse hard-earned development gains and preclude meaningful levels of development that can be sustained into the future.
Says lead author Bob Sandford, EPCOR Chair, Canadian Partnership Initiative in support of the UN Water for Life Decade: “The consequence of unmet water goals will be widespread insecurity creating more international tension and conflict. The positive message is that if we can keep moving now on water-related Sustainable Development Goals we can still have the future we want.”
Published in the run-up to the adoption this September of universal post-2015 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the report provides an in-depth analysis of 10 countries to show how achieving water and sanitation-related SDGs offers a rapid, cost effective way to achieve sustainable development.
The countries included in the study cover the full range of economic and development spectrum: Bangladesh, Bolivia, Canada, Indonesia, Republic of Korea, Pakistan, Singapore, Uganda, Vietnam, and Zambia.
Based on the national case studies, the report prescribes country level steps for achieving the global water targets.
Among top recommendations: Hold the agriculture sector (which guzzles roughly 70% of world water supplies), and the energy sector (15%), accountable for making efficiencies while transitioning to clean energy including hydropower.
Prepared in association with the Global Water Partnership and Canada’s McMaster University, the report says the success of global efforts on the scale required rests in large part on a crackdown on widespread corruption in the water sector, particularly in developing countries.
“In many places … corruption is resulting in the hemorrhaging of precious financial resources,” siphoning an estimated 30% of funds earmarked for water and sanitation-related improvements.
The report underscores the need for clearly defined anti-corruption protocols enforced with harsh penalties.
Given accelerating Earth system changes and the growing threat of hydro-climatic disruption, corruption undermining water-related improvements threatens the stability and very existence of some nation states, which in turn affects all other countries, the report says.
“Corruption at any level is not just a criminal act in its own right. In the context of sustainable development it could be viewed as a crime against all of humanity.”
The report notes that the world’s water and wastewater infrastructure maintenance and replacement deficit is building at a rate of $200 million per year, with $1 trillion now required in the USA alone.
To finance its recommendations, the report says that, in addition to plugging the leakage of funds to corruption, $1.9 trillion in subsidies to petroleum, coal and gas industries should be redirected by degrees.
The estimated global cost to achieve post-2015 sustainable development goals in water and sanitation development, maintenance and replacement is US $1.25 trillion to $2.25 trillion per year for 20 years, a doubling or tripling of current spending translating into 1.8 to 2.5 percent of global GDP.
The resulting benefits would be commensurately large, however – a minimum of $3.11 trillion per year, not counting health care savings and valuable ecosystem service enhancements.
Changes in fundamental hydrology “likely to cause new kinds of conflict”
Sandford and co-lead author Corinne J. Schuster-Wallace of UNU-INWEH underline that all current water management challenges will be compounded one way or another by climate change, and by increasingly unpredictable weather.
“Historical predictability, known as relative hydrological stationarity … provides the certainty needed to build houses to withstand winds of a certain speed, snow of a certain weight, and rainfalls of certain intensity and duration, when to plant crops, and to what size to build storm sewers. The consequence is that the management of water in all its forms in the future will involve a great deal more uncertainty than it has in the past.”
“In a more or less stable hydro-climatic regime you are playing poker with a deck you know and can bet on risk accordingly. The loss of stationarity is playing poker with a deck in which new cards you have never seen before keep appearing more and more often, ultimately disrupting your hand to such an extent that the game no longer has coherence or meaning.”
“People do not have the luxury of living without water and when faced with a life or death decision, people tend to do whatever they must to survive … Changes in fundamental hydrology are likely to cause new kinds of conflict, and it can be expected that both water scarcity and flooding will become major trans-boundary water issues.”
Within 10 years, researchers predict 48 countries – 25% of all nations on Earth with an expected combined population of 2.9 billion – will be classified “water-scarce” (1,000 to 1,700 cubic meters of water per capita per year) or “water-stressed” (1,000 cubic meters or less).
And by 2030, expect overall global demand for freshwater to exceed supply by 40%, with the most acute problems in warmer, low-resource nations with young, fast-growing populations, according to the report.
An estimated 25% of the world’s major river basins run dry for part of each year, the report notes, and “new conflicts are likely to emerge as more of the world’s rivers become further heavily abstracted so that they no longer make it to the sea.”
Meanwhile, the magnitude of floods in Pakistan and Australia in 2010, and on the Great Plains of North America in 2011 and 2014, “suggests that the destruction of upstream flood protection and the failure to provide adequate downstream flood warning will enter into global conflict formulae in the future.”
The report cites the rising cost of world flood-related damages: US$53 billion in 2013 and more than US$312 billion since 2004.
Included in the global flood figures: roughly $1 billion in flood damage in the Canadian province of Manitoba in both 2011 and 2014. The disasters have affected the province’s economic and political stability, contributing to a budget deficit, an unpopular increase in the provincial sales tax and to the consequent resignation of political leaders.
UNU-INWEH Director Zafar Adeel and Jong Soo Yoon, Head of the UN Office for Sustainable Development, state: “Through a series of country case studies, expert opinion, and evidence synthesis, the report explores the critical role that water plays (including sanitation and wastewater management) in sustainable development; current disconnects between some national development plans and the proposed SDGs; opportunities for achieving sustainable development through careful water management; and implementation opportunities.”
The report, they add, “fills a critical gap in understanding the complexities associated with water resources and their management, and also provides substantive options that enable us to move forward within the global dialogue.”
###
The report in full is available from Feb. 24 at inweh.unu.edu
Recommendations
- National governments must make sustainable advancements in water, wastewater, and sanitation management, supported by a dedicated and independent arm’s length water agency, a high level policy priority.
- Decisions for managing water at all scales must be evidence informed, accounting for the multiple roles, uses, and demands on water and disposal of human waste and wastewater, as well as the way in which the distribution of water resources is changing, and expected to continue to change over time and space.
- Governments and all economic sectors must eradicate corruption through the establishment and implementation of clear and defined anti-corruption protocols, with meaningful consequences when the protocols are breached.
- Capacity development must be nested within, and form a pillar of, institutional reform at all scales within a country, with an emphasis on transferable skills that can be used for sustain- able development across all areas and goals.
- Governments, supported by relevant stakeholders, must commit to timely and transparent monitoring and reporting on SDG indicators to monitor progress and hold the global community mutually accountable.
- There must be a national commitment to universal access to WaSH, linked to waste treatment and management, delivered through nationally coordinated and monitored multi-stakeholder response while recognizing and realizing the value in human and animal waste and wastewater wherever possible.
- The world must identify, recognise, and account for water needs for planetary bio-diversity based Earth system function and national governments must commit to ensuring continued viability and level of provisioning and regulating functions.
- National water governance and management must include a requirement to balance supply and demand at the at the sub-basin level for sustainability and disaster risk reduction, while recognising and protecting downstream users.
- Common disaster risk reduction targets need to be formally incorporated into post-2015 water- and sanitation-related sustainable development goals. These targets must permit the tailoring of actions to national realities.
- The agriculture sector must be held accountable for water use efficiencies and other system efficiencies which limit water demand while maintaining or increasing productivity, ensuring that women and small scale farm-holders are provided with the knowledge and technology to be able to play their part, thereby increasing income above poverty thresholds.
- The energy sector must be held accountable for water efficiencies in energy and a transition to clean energy, including hydropower, which does not compromise water quality, environmental integrity, community access, or disaster mitigation.
- Water-dependent companies have a key role to play in financing and implementing sound water, sanitation and wastewater management strategies and must step up to the plate or risk significant losses. This is no longer simply corporate social responsibility but sound economic strategy.
- National governments, multi-national corporations, and international institutions must work together to identify and implement strategies to equitably free up available existing resources.
- Current expenditures must be more efficient, freeing up and increasing returns on existing resources through integration of inter- and intra-sectoral activities that take advantage of economies of scope and scale.
- Subject to rigorous due diligence, national governments must identify, explore, and utilise new and emerging financial sources.
UNU-INWEH: http://bit.
The United Nations University Institute for Water, Environment and Health is a member of the United Nations University family of organizations. It is the UN Think Tank on Water created by the UNU Governing Council in 1996. The mission of the institute is to help resolve pressing water challenges that are of concern to the United Nations, its Member States, and their people, through knowledge- based synthesis of existing bodies of scientific discovery; through cutting edge targeted research that identifies emerging policy issues; through application of on-the-ground scalable solutions based on credible research; and, through relevant and targeted public outreach. It is hosted by the Government of Canada and McMaster University.
UN Office for Sustainable Development: http://bit.
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23-DEC-2014
Large Parts Of Europe, South America Face Rising Vulnerability
The first-ever maps of global vulnerability to dengue, a mosquito-borne tropical virus that produces a painful condition of body joints sometimes referred to as “breakbone fever,” were published today by UN University’s Canadian-based Institute for Water, Environment and Health.
The maps colourfully illustrate the dynamic expansion and contraction of dengue vulnerability worldwide through the year, revealing hotspots in January, April, July and October (available online for download: http://bit.ly/1wCq0mi). While not all vulnerable regions identified currently experience endemic dengue, these maps demonstrate where the virus could become a danger.
The work illustrates the consistent exposure to the virus in equatorial regions with greater seasonal trends in sub-tropical latitudes.
As the planet warms, according to the paper, conditions in West and Central Africa are particularly favourable for expansion of dengue illness and both regions are urged to plan for this anticipated health challenge.
As well, people living in large parts of Europe and mountainous regions of South America – too cold today to sustain mosquito populations year-round – face a “serious threat” of potential dengue virus exposure, the paper warns.
Vulnerability is a function of both exposure and susceptibility, the latter determined by such factors as access to healthcare, to clean water, housing quality, dengue control measures and government policies.
In typical northern conditions, eggs of the dengue-carrying Aedes mosquitoes die below -2°C. Should minimum temperatures rise 2°C and 4°C due to climate change, however, the eggs could survive, putting large populations worldwide at risk of exposure for the first time, the paper says.
While the paper notes that a rise in temperatures could make the environment too hot for mosquito populations in some places and shrink exposure to dengue, in general the authors expect the dengue virus to expand both north and south of its current range due to climate change.
Led by Senior Research Fellow Dr. Corinne J. Schuster-Wallace, the UNU-INWEH’s team of authors included Laura M. Fullerton, now a Research Associate, University Health Network, Toronto, and Sarah K. Dicken, a McMaster University and Water Without Borders PhD candidate.
The paper says dengue is endemic in more than 100 countries and the world’s fastest growing vector-borne disease.
Close to 400 million people today are infected by the virus, causing 250,000- 500,000 severe cases annually leading to hundreds of thousands of hospitalizations, approximately 20,000 deaths and enormous economic impacts due to lost productivity and healthcare costs. In Southeast Asia, dengue creates annual direct healthcare costs estimated at US $950 million.
UN estimates of the number of people at risk today: 2.5 billion people, rising to 5 or 6 billion people by 2085 (assuming climate change and population growth). The increase due to climate change alone would more than double the number at those at risk to an estimated 3.5 billion.
The Top 10 Dengue Endemic Countries:
- Brazil
- Indonesia
- Vietnam
- Mexico
- Venezuela
- Thailand
- Philippines
- Colombia
- Malaysia
- Honduras
Between 2004 and 2010, Brazil reported by far the largest number of dengue cases – about 450,000. Overall, however, the people of South Asia and Southeast Asia are deemed to have highest levels of vulnerability to dengue (for a map comparing global exposure to dengue in January and July, download at http://bit.ly/1IYEJgz).
Countries located close the equator tend to maintain some level of vulnerability to dengue throughout the year because they experience moderate to high susceptibility and consistently favourable exposure conditions (e.g., Colombia, Sierra Leone, Nigeria, Southern India, Indonesia).
The disease is often misdiagnosed. In addition to fever, symptoms include headache, muscle and joint pains, and a measles-like rash. A small share of cases develop into life-threatening dengue hemorrhagic fever, resulting in bleeding, low levels of blood platelets and blood plasma leakage, or dengue shock syndrome, characterized by dangerously low blood pressure.
Since there is no vaccine, the usual approach to curbing dengue is insecticidal fogging of sites where the Aedes mosquito breed.
Mapping Global Vulnerability: Background
The paper, “Mapping Global Vulnerability to Dengue,” assesses several factors – including social, cultural and economic conditions – that determine the exposure and susceptibility of people to the disease to arrive at the global vulnerability maps.
Developed by UNU-INWEH, the Water-Associated Disease Index (WADI) used in the research incorporates and aggregates such factors behind the disease as climatic conditions, land cover, population educational status and water use practices. WADI helps visualize the vulnerability of communities and regions to infectious water-related diseases in the face of global changes such as increasing urbanization, land use intensification and climate change.
Says Dr. Schuster-Wallace: “WADI was developed to assess vulnerability by integrating disease-specific measures of environmental exposure (i.e., temperature, precipitation, land cover etc.) with disease-specific measures of social susceptibility (i.e., life expectancy, educational attainment, access to healthcare etc.) to provide a holistic picture of vulnerability to disease.”
Employing freely available global datasets, the global vulnerability data created using the WADI approach provides valuable information to decision-makers for improved planning and resource allocation for the prevention of disease (the same approach can be applied to many other illnesses).
High population density increases exposure by providing human virus reservoirs that allow rapid dengue transmission. For instance, in Asian countries where population density is high, such as India, Bangladesh, China, and Indonesia, vulnerability to dengue is also high. Similar trends are observed in Central America and Western Africa where regions with high population density also have a high vulnerability to dengue.
In Central and West African regions, susceptibility to dengue is very high due to the lack of access to clean water resources, sanitation facilities and health care services. With very high susceptibility to dengue, vulnerability in this region was higher than other regions with similar exposure levels but lower levels of susceptibility to dengue.
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Agencia EFE, Spain, Spanish: Investigadores de la ONU crean un mapa global de la vulnerabilidad al dengue, click here; English: UN Researchers Say Dengue Fever Could Spread to Europe click here,
Salon, USA, Dengue’s deadly future: How climate change will put billions more at risk, click here
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]]>One billion people don’t use toilets: 1 in 6 people in developing regions;
New UN-Water GLAAS findings underscore
critical gaps in monitoring, particularly for sanitation in rural areas
The UN today called on religious, education and opinion leaders in developing regions to join government officials and champion a halt to open defecation, a practice of 1 billion people worldwide – one-sixth of the developing world’s 5.9 billion inhabitants.
At UN Headquarters in New York marking World Toilet Day, coordinated by UN-Water, Deputy Secretary-General Jan Eliasson highlighted the health threat posed by lack of access to sanitation, and the particular dangers open defecation poses for women and girls.
Said Mr. Eliasson: “We know that political will at the highest level is critical to address these challenges. However, we also know that success at ending open defecation goes beyond infrastructure. It requires the understanding of behaviors, cultural attitudes and social norms.”
“Throughout all life stages, women and girls bear the greatest burdens caused by the lack of toilet access. Girls are more likely to drop out of school if they don’t have access to a safe and clean toilet. Women and girls can also risk harassment and sexual abuse when trying to use public toilets or when trying to find somewhere to defecate in the open. Universal access to sanitation has a clear role to play in defending women’s safety, dignity and equality,” said Mr. Eliasson.
The Deputy Secretary-General, on behalf of UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, in March 2013 launched the Call to Action on Sanitation. This in turn inspired the UN’s End Open Defecation campaign created earlier this year (opendefecation.org; #opendefecation).
Said Chris Williams, Executive Director of the UN-hosted Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council: “The active support and efforts of leaders of religion, education and public opinion are needed as much as that of elected and other government officials. We call on all leaders of societies and cultures where open defecation habits are still tolerated: Help us end the taboos associated with frank talk about the dangers of the practice and the benefits of proper sanitation and hygiene.”
“A generation ago, the idea of smoke-free restaurants, theatres, airports, banks and other public places seemed improbable. Attitudes were changed by the concerted focus of political leaders, health officials and advocates, and today the notion of sharing such spaces with smokers has become almost universally foreign. It is beyond time for all of humanity to have access to adequate toilets and to use them.”
The practice of open defecation is deeply rooted in poverty but has also been related to convention and customs in some countries and societies – representing, for example, some of the only times other than worship when women from rigid family circumstances may meet.
The recent Ebola outbreak shone a public spotlight on the open defecation issue in West Africa, where worried health officials in Lagos and Nigeria, citing human waste as a vector of the virus, appealed through the media for citizens practicing open defecation to stop.
In Liberia, the nation most affected by Ebola, roughly half the nation’s 4.2 million citizens don’t use toilets; in rural Sierra Leone, the second worst-hit country, the estimate is 28%.
WHO and UNICEF have issued joint guidance on WASH and Ebola (http://bit.ly/1E5vyYn), including the need for separate toilets for use by patients and health care workers in Ebola clinics.
In the sub-Saharan Africa region, where 25% of the population practices open defecation, diarrhea is the third biggest killer of children under five years old. Studies estimate that a child dies every 2.5 minutes because of unsafe drinking water, poor sanitation and hygiene.
Children with diarrhea eat less and are less able to absorb the nutrients from their food, which makes them even more susceptible to bacteria-related illnesses. Compounding the problem: the children most vulnerable to acute diarrhea also lack access to potentially life-saving health services.
Critical gaps in monitoring; resources not targeted to greater needs; rural sanitation neglected
Published today by WHO on behalf of UN-Water, the Global Analysis and Assessment of Sanitation and Drinking-Water (GLAAS) report says “countries are unable to confirm whether funding is directed towards actual needs or to report back on whether they have met financial allocation targets.”
“More importantly, data often does not inform decision-making: less than half of countries use data in the allocation of resources to sanitation. Existing plans for reaching disadvantaged groups are commonly left unmonitored. Less than half of low and middle income countries track progress in extending sanitation services to the poor.”
The vast majority of those without improved sanitation are impoverished rural residents. And, according to the report, where rural sanitation progress has occurred, it has primarily benefitted richer people, increasing inequalities.
“Political commitments to ensure everyone has access to water and sanitation are essential to human health and are at an all-time high,” said Dr. Maria Neira, Director of the WHO Department of Public Health and the Environment. “International aid for the sector is on the rise. But we continue to see major financial gaps at the country level, particularly in rural areas.”
GLAAS data show sanitation expenditure as a proportion of overall WASH expenditure growing from 20% in 2010 to 40% in 2014. Aid commitments for sanitation, however, fell to one-fourth of water and sanitation in ODA in 2012, compared to one-third in 2010.
Estimates indicate that expenditures for rural sanitation comprise less than 10% of total water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) financing.
“Despite considerable health benefits to be had through hygiene promotion … hygiene remains a neglected component of WASH,” says the report.
Reducing open defecation worldwide
The World Health Organization and UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme (http://bit.ly/11vJFZf) shows open defecation was almost halved in developing regions between 1990 and 2012, down from 31% to 17% of those populations.
About 825 million people – 82% of the 1 billion practicing open defecation – reside in just 10 countries:
Five in Asia:
India, 597 million (47% of the national population)
Indonesia, 54 million (21%)
Pakistan, 41 million (22.5%)
Nepal, 11 million (40%)
China, 10 million (<1%)
Five in Africa:
Nigeria, 39 million (22%)
Ethiopia, 34 million (36%)
Sudan, 17 million (45%)
Niger, 13 million (72%)
Mozambique, 10 million (38%)
In the rest of the world, the number of people practicing open defecation is estimated at 182 million.
Open defecation is declining steadily in Asia, and in Latin America and the Caribbean.
In South Asia the percentage dropped from 65% in 1990 to 38% in 2012, with the greatest reductions in that region recorded in Nepal (from 86% in 1990 to 40% in 2012), Bangladesh (from 34% to 3%) and Pakistan (from 52% to 23%).
The 25% of people in sub-Saharan Africa not using toilets is down from 36% in 1990. However, the practice is growing in 26 of sub-Saharan Africa’s 44 countries.
Countries are taking action and the Sanitation and Water for All partnership has created an overview of national commitments: http://sanitationandwaterforall.org/commitments/country-commitments.
For example, India Prime Minister Narendra Modi has pledged 111 million toilets and an end to open defecation by 2019, an ambition channelling the view of the nation’s late spiritual leader Mahatma Gandhi, who termed sanitation “more important than independence.”
Nigeria has set a target date of 2018 for the end of open defecation, while Burundi is evaluating a framework for eliminating the practice by the end of 2016.
Meanwhile, from 1990 to 2012, open defecation in Ethiopia fell by 55 percentage points, from 92% to 37%.
According to the GLAAS report launched today, key elements of Ethiopia’s success include:
* Strong political will for improving access to water and sanitation. According to the Ministry of Health: “The government has shown demonstrable, high level political commitment to enhanced sanitation coverage over the past few years. This goal is reflected in the national Health Extension Program, the National Hygiene and Sanitation Strategy and a national step-by-step protocol and Sanitation Action Plan (SAP) for achieving universal access by 2015. There has been significant improvement in access to safe sanitation and hygiene in Ethiopia since the Health Extension Program began in 2002/2003.”
* Human resources and education. Health Extension Workers educate communities about sanitation and help create cultural acceptance of toilets. The nation’s 39,000 HEWs are trained at nine Training Vocational and Educational Centres and the government has upgraded the degree levels for sanitation and hygiene to improve qualifications.
Governments that have invested in behavior change programmes, rather than just in constructing of toilets have seen the most positive results.
Community approaches such as Community Led Total Sanitation, for example, offer an innovative approach to eliminate open defecation. This approach focuses on the behavioural change needed to ensure real and sustainable improvements and the creation of open defecation-free villages, since even a minority practicing open defecation puts a whole village at greater risk of disease. Through the use of simple and effective demonstrations which explain the link between open defecation and disease, families make the decision to change their sanitation practices and the community as a whole comes together to decide on what steps need to be taken to achieve an open defecation free environment.
Says Sanjay Wijesekera, head of UNICEF’s Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) programmes: “UNICEF has been successfully implementing these approaches at scale in more than 50 countries, leading to some 26 million people abandoning open defecation in the last six years. They encourage innovation, mutual support and appropriate local solutions, thus leading to greater ownership and sustainability.”
* * * * *
UN World Toilet Day is coordinated by United Nations Water (UN-Water) – the UN’s inter agency coordination mechanism on all fresh water related issues, including sanitation.
For more information:
World Toilet Day: unwater.org/worldtoiletday
UN-Water: unwater.org
GLAAS report: who.int/water_sanitation_health/glaas/en
End Open Defecation Campaign: opendefecation.org; #opendefecation
UN Call to Action on Sanitation:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pDUCr-V9NE8
* * * * *
Example coverage by
- Agence France Presse, France, click here
- Agencia EFE, Spain, click here
- Press Trust of India, India, click here
- IndoAsian News Service, India, click here
- Islamic Republic News Agency, Iran, click here
World Toilet Day 2014 coverage summary, with links to 2,500+ news articles across 84 countries, click here
]]>Institute for Water, Environment and Health, Hamilton CANADA
Salt-spoiled soils worldwide: 20 percent of all irrigated lands — an area equal to France; Extensive costs include $27 billion+ in lost crop value per year
Every day for more than 20 years, an average of 2,000 hectares of irrigated land in arid and semi-arid areas across 75 countries have been degraded by salt, according to a study by UN University’s Canadian-based Institute for Water, Environment and Health, published Oct. 28.
Today an area the size of France is affected — about 62 million hectares (20%) of the world’s irrigated lands, up from 45 million hectares in the early 1990s.
Salt-degradation occurs in arid and semi-arid regions where rainfall is too low to maintain regular percolation of rainwater through the soil and where irrigation is practiced without a natural or artificial drainage system.
Irrigation practices without drainage management trigger the accumulation of salts in the root zone, affecting several soil properties and reducing productivity.
“To feed the world’s anticipated nine billion people by 2050, and with little new productive land available, it’s a case of all lands needed on deck,” says principal author Manzoor Qadir, Assistant Director, Water and Human Development, at UN University’s Canadian-based Institute for Water, Environment and Health. “We can’t afford not to restore the productivity of salt-affected lands.”
The study, “Economics of Salt-induced Land Degradation and Restoration,”is published Tuesday Oct. 28 in the UN Sustainable Development journal ‘Natural Resources Forum,’
Zafar Adeel, Director of UNU-INWEH, notes the UN Food and Agriculture Organization projects a need to produce 70% more food by 2050, including a 50% rise in annual cereal production to about 3 billion tonnes.
“Each week the world loses an area larger than Manhattan to salt-degradation. A large portion of the affected areas in developing countries have seen investments made in irrigation and drainage but the infrastructure is not properly maintained or managed. Efforts to restore those lands to full productivity are essential as world population and food needs grow, especially in the developing world.”
Well known salt-degraded land areas include:
- Aral Sea Basin, Central Asia,
- Indo-Gangetic Basin, India
- Indus Basin, Pakistan
- Yellow River Basin, China
- Euphrates Basin, Syria and Iraq
- Murray-Darling Basin, Australia, and
- San Joaquin Valley, United States
The paper, authored by eight experts based in Canada, Jordan, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, details crop productivity losses at farm, regional, and global scales, the cost of doing nothing, and the net economic benefit of preventing and/or reversing land degradation.
The estimated cost of crop losses was drawn from a review of more than 20 studies over the last 20 years in Australia, India, Pakistan, Spain, Central Asia and the USA.
Globally, irrigated lands cover some 310 million ha, an estimated 20% of it salt-affected (62 million ha). The inflation-adjusted cost of salt-induced land degradation in 2013 was estimated at $441 per hectare, yielding an estimate of global economic losses at $27.3 billion per year.
In India’s Indo-Gangetic Basin, crop yield losses on salt-affected lands for wheat, rice, sugarcane and cotton grown on salt-affected lands could be 40%, 45%, 48%, and 63%, respectively. Employment losses could be 50-80 man-days per hectare, with an estimate 20-40% increase in human health problems and 15-50% increase in animal health problems.
In the Indus Basin in Pakistan, wheat grain yield losses from salt-affected lands ranged 20-43% with an overall average loss of 32%. For rice, the crop yield losses from salt-affected lands ranged 36-69% with an overall average loss of 48%.
Even in the USA’s Colorado River Basin, studies show the annual economic impact of salt-induced land degradation in irrigated areas at US $750 million.
“It is important to note that the above numbers on global cost of salt-induced land degradation refer to economic losses based on crop yield losses only,” the paper says.
“However, the crop yields from irrigated areas not affected by salinization have increased since 1990 due to factors such as improved crop varieties, efficient on-farm practices, better fertilizer use, and efficient water management practices. Consequently, there may be larger gaps in crop yields harvested from salt-affected and non-affected areas under similar agro-ecosystems, suggesting an underestimation of the economic cost of salt-induced land degradation.”
“These costs are expected to be even higher when other cost components such as infrastructure deterioration (including roads, railways, and buildings), losses in property values of farms with degraded land, and the social cost of farm businesses are taken into consideration. In addition, there could be additional environmental costs associated with salt-affected degraded lands as these lands emit more greenhouse gases, thus contributing to global warming.”
Among methods successfully used to facilitate drainage and reverse soil degradation: Tree planting, deep plowing, cultivation of salt-tolerant varieties of crops, mixing harvested plant residues into topsoil, and digging a drain or deep ditch around the salt-affected land.
Reversing land degradation and bringing salt-affected lands back into highly productive state are expected to result in favorable environmental benefits in addition to economic gains, although functional markets for many of the ecosystem services are currently embryonic or nonexistent.
Although there is a cost of investing in preventing land degradation, reversing land degradation, or restoring degraded land into productive land, these costs of action are much less than the costs of letting land degradation continue and intensify.
Pertinent policies, well-designed salinity management plans, supportive institutions, skilled human resources, provision of facilities and infrastructure for disposal of salts, capacity development of farmers, and utilization of locally available resources and indigenous knowledge of communities are crucial in combating salt-induced land degradation.
Salt-induced land degradation may also affect the business sector negatively either directly or indirectly, targeting their inputs, outputs, or processes. The businesses in close connection with natural resources may be affected, such as those dealing with basic resources (forestry, wood, pulp, and paper), food and beverage, construction and materials, industrial goods and services (transportation and packaging), utilities (water and electricity), personal and household goods (clothing, footwear, and furniture), leisure and travel (hotels and restaurants), and real estate. Therefore, reversing salt-induced land degradation would help these sectors achieve potential economic gains by providing needed levels of materials and services.
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Authors of the paper:
- Manzoor Qadir and Emmanuelle Quillérou, United Nation University Institute for Water, Environment and Health, Ontario, Canada
- V. Nangia and M. Singh, International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas, Amman, Jordan
- G. Murtaza, Institute of Soil and Environmental Sciences, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad, Pakistan
- Richard Thomas, CGIAR Research Program on Dryland Systems, c/o International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas, Amman, Jordan.
- P. Drechsel and A.D. Noble, International Water Management Institute, Colombo, Sri Lanka
The United Nations University Institute for Water, Environment and Health, a member of the UNU family of organizations, is the UN Think Tank on Water, created in 1996. The institute’s mission: to contribute to efforts to resolve pressing regional and global water challenges of concern to the UN, its Member States, and their people, through targeted research, capacity development, knowledge enhancement and transfer, and public outreach. UNU-INWEH is hosted by the Government of Canada and McMaster University.
* * * * *
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9-Oct-2014
Experts’ address universal concerns identified by former world leaders: World water crisis, sectarianism, energy, denuclearization of Korea
A massive 180 km pipeline-canal megaproject to bring water from the Red Sea could prevent the Dead Sea from disappearing while improving the region’s environmental, energy and peace prospects, according to a book of insights into major global topics launched today by an association of 40 former government leaders and heads of state and UN University’s Institute for Water, Environment and Health.
Commissioned from leading experts on issues of universal concern, the authors include former Jordanian Prime Minister Abdel Salam Majali and Moneef R. Zou’bi, respectively the President and Director General of the Islamic World Academy of Sciences, who say the innovative Red-Dead Canal offers the potential to secure human well-being while promoting regional stability.
For years, Israel, Syria and Jordan have diverted more than 90 percent of the southward flow of the River Jordan to agricultural and industrial purposes, choking the Dead Sea, the lowest point on earth, causing “severe negative consequences on the ecosystem, industry, and wildlife in the area,” says Dr. Zou’bi. “Due to gradual water loss, the sea has split into two separate lakes and its coastline has receded significantly. The River Jordan is a shadow of its former glorious self.”
The Red-Dead Canal, as envisioned by Jordan, is a 180-kilometre, partially covered pipeline across Wadi Araba — a dry plateau stretching from the Gulf of Aqaba in the south to the Dead Sea in the north. It would carry around 1.5 billion cubic meters of water per year, pumped first to an altitude of 150 metres above sea level before flowing down a 580-metre decline.
Not only would the three-party project (Jordan-Israel-the Palestinians) restore most of the Dead Sea water level over time, it would generate hydroelectricity to power large desalination plants, relieving chronic freshwater shortages and helping to meet energy needs.
Says Dr. Majali, Prime Minister of Jordan from 1993 to 1995 and 1997-98: “As a decision-maker, I think that this project is innovative, forward looking and a potential peace asset that can contribute to regional interdependence and security.”
In addition to Dr. Majali, the former leaders of Canada, Colombia, Cyprus, New Zealand and Singapore are contributors to the wide-ranging book launched in the UK by the InterAction Council (IAC), a 32-year-old association created to pool the expertise of former world leaders and to speak out on issues of vital importance to the world community and current leaders alike.
Published by UN University’s Canadian-based Institute for Water, Environment and Health, and co-edited by UNU-INWEH Director Zafar Adeel and IAC Secretary-General Thomas S. Axworthy, the new book offers authoritative views on interlinked topics ranging from the Middle East and denuclearization of Korea to the water crisis and the future of energy.
Says the Rt. Hon. Jean Chrétien, former Prime Minister Of Canada and IAC’s co-chair: “The InterAction Council selects issues and develops proposals for action within these areas and communicates these proposals directly to government leaders, other national decision-makers, heads of international organizations and influential individuals around the world.”
“This latest publication makes an important and timely contribution to public dialogue and understanding of two of the world’s most pressing issue areas — peace and the environment.”
Says Dr. Adeel: “We have a new appreciation of the deep interconnections between water, energy and peace – particularly in the Middle East region in the context of recent developments. This tight nexus of global interests has driven the creation of this book and UNU-INWEH, the United Nations’ think tank on water, is continuing its engagement with the IAC in exploring these critical issues.”
In a major contribution to the book, “Tolerance: An Under-Appreciated Virtue in our Sectarian Age,” co-editor Dr. Axworthy, Distinguished Senior Fellow at Canada’s Munk School of Global Affairs, cites the history of sectarianism in Europe to suggest ways to promote tolerance today. The fires of European sectarianism, he says, only began to subside when 16th-Century thinkers won the war of ideas through the promotion of tolerance.
Ahmad Moussalli, Professor of Political Science and Islamic Studies, American University of Beirut, meanwhile, assesses the interests of Russia, the United States, France, Israel, Iran, and the Gulf States in the Syrian crisis, with conditions in the Middle East favouring “extremism and rise of conflicts.”
Atmospheric rivers driving new hazards
Among other contributors, Robert Sandford, the IAC’s Senior Water Advisor, describes the consequence of increasingly saturated “atmospheric rivers … corridors of intense winds and moist air” 400 to 500 kilometres across, and thousands of kilometres long that “can carry the equivalent of about ten times the average daily discharge of the Mississippi River.”
“Perhaps the best-known atmospheric river in North America is what we call the Pineapple Express (which) begins as a narrow stream of hurricane strength wind. As it crosses the warm Pacific, that atmospheric river fills with water vapour. We now surmise that some 42 atmospheric rivers deluged California between 1997 and 2006.”
As global temperatures and evaporation rise, sending more moisture into the air, these heavily-laden atmospheric rivers are producing “flooding of the magnitude we saw in Australia and Pakistan in 2010, and possibly in parts of the Central Great Plains region of North America in 2011. Research is now being conducted to determine if an atmospheric river played a role in initiating the largest single natural disaster in the history of the Canadian province of Alberta in June, 2013.”
In his paper, “Come Hell and High Water: Hydro-Climatic Change and its Consequences,” Sandford says “predicted rises in temperatures of between 2 ̊C and 6 ̊C would result in further amplification of the hydrological cycle by 15 to 40 percent or more. This game change is not going to go away.”
“Researchers are concerned that the kinds of storms we will have in the future may be fundamentally different in character than what we are used to experiencing. At a recent international conference in Canada, it was demonstrated that many of our recent floods were similar in a number of ways. Each involved rotating low pressure systems that remained in the same place for an unusual period of time bringing continuous precipitation up from the south, resulting in long duration, heavy rainfall events that covered very large areas.”
“While exhibiting all these characteristics, another major flood in Colorado in 2013 was different, in that it occurred in September. Researchers are also examining other anomalies. The behaviour of the storms suggests that its precipitation may have been generated by processes of raindrop formation more typical of the tropical region where the storms originated, than local temperate conditions. The Colorado State climatologist Nolan Doeskan, noted that the storms ‘shattered all records for the most water vapour in the atmosphere.'”
“From this we might surmise that the floods of 2013 offer us a glimpse into the wild weather we might expect in a warmer world.”
Says Dr. Sandford: “The loss of ice and snow in the Arctic will not only impact northern nations, cultures, and development subject to the immediate effects of this loss, but will also impact human well-being and prosperity further south in ways that will likely impact national water security, and will almost certainly affect agricultural productivity, human health, and economic sustainability at mid-latitudes.”
Among other highlights:
Jean Chrétien, Prime Minister Of Canada (1993-2003):
“Members of the InterAction Council still remain hopeful, as we stated in The Hiroshima Declaration, that not only will nuclear weapons be eliminated in (the Middle East) region, but eventually in the world as a whole. It may be a tall order, but in 2013 diplomacy showed that it still has some power.”
Andres Pastrana, President Of Colombia (1998-2002):
“The Red Sea-Dead Sea agreement on water supply and distribution, the successfully negotiated Arms Trade Treaty, the September 2013 Russia-U.S. brokered agreement with the Assad Regime to fulfill the UN security council resolution to destroy Syria’s entire arsenal of chemical weapons, and the November 2013 interim agreement with Iran and the Western powers on a Joint Action Plan to freeze Iran’s development of potentially destabilizing nuclear capacity, demonstrate that diplomacy still has a role in trying to make the world a safer place.”
Goh Chok Tong, Prime Minister of Singapore (1990-2004):
“The world is in fact undergoing a profound transition of power and ideas … when President Barack Obama announced at the G20 Summit in Pittsburgh in September 2009, that the G20 would replace the G8, he was in effect acknowledging the end of the post-World War II era.”
“The last decade has shown that the U.S. cannot effectively exercise power alone. It must negotiate coalitions, such as the G20, to manage the international economy. It is widely recognised that the G20 had coordinated a global response to the 2008-2009 financial crisis, and helped avert a global economic depression. The current G20 is by no means the final or only possible configuration. But it is clear that there is no going back to G8 to solve the world’s problems.”
George Vassiliou, President, Republic Of Cyprus (1988-1993):
“Sectarianism … is the opposite of tolerance, which is a willingness to admit the validity of seemingly contradictory viewpoints… Ultimately, sectarianism will only be diminished if people of good will take a stand.”
James Bolger, Prime Minister Of New Zealand (1990-1997):
“Recognizing that water, energy, and food are highly connected systems, and that population growth is putting pressure on all three, we will only make progress by assessing the three components together. Trade-offs between them will be inevitable. This will not be easy but that is what global political leadership should be all about.”
In full:
“Water, Energy and the Arab Awakening”
http://bit.ly/1xWU0um
Present State of the World
Introduction:
Andres Pastrana, President of Colombia
Comment:
Goh Chok Tong, Former Prime Minister of Singapore
Uprisings in the Arab World: The Reality Beyond the Failure of Politics and Policies
Abdel Salam Majali, Former Prime Minister of Jordan, and
Moneef R. Zou’bi, Director General, Islamic World Academy of Sciences
Conventional Arms and the Arms Trade Treaty
Arias Foundation for Peace and Human Progress, Costa Rica
The Arab Pseudo-Spring? A Snapshot of the Underlying Politics and Economics, and the Challenge of Water Insecurity
Moneef R. Zou’bi, Director General, Islamic World Academy of Sciences
Water Overuse and Debt as Challenges to Sustainability
Peter Brabeck-Letmathe, Chairman, Nestlé SA
THE WATER-ENERGY-FOOD NEXUS
Introduction:
James Bolger, Former Prime Minister of New Zealand
Energy in the Twenty-First Century: Challenges and Opportunities
Majid A. Al-Moneef, Secretary-General, Supreme Economic Council
Water, Energy, and Food: The Ultimate Nexus;Rabi H. Mohtar, TEES Endowed Professor, Biological and Agricultural Engineering, and Zachry Department of Civil Engineering, Texas A&M University
Energy and Climate Security: Then and Now
Carole Nahkle, Energy Economist, Surrey Energy Economics Centre
Come Hell and High Water: Hydro-Climatic Change and its Consequences
Robert Sandford, InterAction Council Senior Water Advisor; EPCOR Chair, Canadian Partnership Initiative, United Nations ‘Water for Life’ Decade
Bridging Science and Policy in the Management of Water Resources
Henry Vaux Jr., Chair, Rosenberg International Forum on Water Policy; Professor Emeritus, University of California, and
Daniel Dooley, Senior Vice President, University of California System
BRIDGING THE RELIGIOUS DIVIDE
Introduction:
George Vassiliou, Former President of Cyprus
Dialogue Versus Sectarian Strife
Gholamali Khoshroo, Former Deputy Foreign Minister for Legal and International Affairs, Islamic Republic of Iran
Tolerance: An Under-appreciated Virtue in our Sectarian Age
Thomas S. Axworthy, Secretary-General of the InterAction Council; Distinguished Senior Fellow, Munk School of Global Affairs
The Risks of Sectarianism Nicholas Fogg, Former Head of Religious Studies, Marlborough College
The Dynamics of Arab Uprisings and Middle Eastern Geopolitics
Ahmad Moussalli, Professor of Political Science and Islamic Studies, American University of Beirut
NUCLEAR NON-PROLIFERATION
Introduction:
Jean Chrétien, Former Prime Minister of Canada; Co-Chair, InterAction Council
Denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula: A New Perspective
Nobuyasu Abe, Vice Chairman, Japan Atomic Energy Commission; Former Director, Centre for the Promotion of Disarmament and Non-proliferation, Japan Institute of International Affairs
The Necessity to Reduce and Eliminate Nuclear Threats and Weapons in the Middle East and Internationally
Rebecca Johnson, Executive Director, Acronym Institute for Disarmament Diplomacy
The Nuclear Problem on the Korean Peninsula: Searching for Solutions
Alexander Zhebin, Director, Centre for Korean Studies, Institute for Far Eastern Studies
* * * * *
News release in full, click here
The Canadian Press: click here
InterPress Service: English, click here, French, click here
Agencia EFE (Spain): click here
Scientific Russia, click here
Voice of America, Spanish, click here
BBC World Service Radio, click here
Coverage summary: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AlbF9zth54L8dEZMbXlJd01TUWxEREU5LWIxM0NzeEE&usp=drive_web#gid=0
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Business-as-usual management policies risks well-being of 2 billion+ people
Leading international environmental and marine scientists today published a joint call for societies to introduce and enforce use zoning of Earth’s coastal ocean waters, mirroring approaches commonly used to manage and protect land resources.
Writing in the journal Marine Pollution Bulletin, the 24 scientists from Canada, the USA, the UK, China, Australia, New Caledonia, Sweden and Kenya underline that one fifth of humanity — mostly in developing countries — lives within 100 km of a tropical coastline. Growing populations and worsening climate change impacts ensure that pressures on tropical coastal waters will only grow, they warn.
Lacking in most locations are holistic, regional-scale management approaches to balance the growth in competing demands from fisheries, aquaculture, shipping, oil, gas and mineral extraction, energy production, residential development, tourism and conservation.
Says lead author Peter Sale of the UN University’s Canadian-based Institute for Water, Environment and Health: “We zone land for development, for farms, for parks, for industry and other human needs. Required today is a comparable degree of care and planning for coastal ocean waters.”
“We have tended to think of the seas as our last great wilderness,” he adds, “yet we subject them, particularly along tropical shores, to levels of human activity as intense as those on land. The result is widespread overfishing, pollution and habitat degradation. Coastal marine management efforts today are just woefully inadequate to avoid irreparable degradation of the bounty and services on which so many people depend for food and well-being.”
A major effort and strong political will are needed to build the holistic, regional-scale management of coastal waters now lacking in most locations. Dr. Sale and colleagues advocate substantially expanded use of Marine Spatial Planning (MSP): an objective procedure for partitioning portions of the coastal ocean among competing uses. But using MSP also forces the regional-scale, holistic approaches to coastal management that nations desperately need.
“We propose making expanded use of marine spatial planning and zoning as a framework that will apportion coastal waters for differing activities, while forcing a multi-target and multi-scale approach, and achieving agreed ecological, economic and social objectives,” says Sale.
According to the paper, coastal fisheries and aquaculture, for example, are in frequent and growing conflict. Both are of major importance to the food security of tropical coastal populations. Easily remedied coastal pollution is ignored, degrading habitat and reducing the capacity of both fisheries and aquaculture efforts. Employment opportunities, health and quality of life all are reduced, along with ecological resilience when environmental health degrades.
MSP can be expected to help address such use conflicts while also protecting and conserving ecologically critical areas to allow healthy ecosystem function. Its real value, however, will lie in the way its use brings multiple stakeholders together around a holistic vision of environmental management, addressed at ecologically appropriate spatial and temporal scales.
“At the moment, we are trying to map uses onto marine spaces with insufficient attention to competing needs,” says co-author Tim Daw of the UK’s University of East Anglia. “More systematic planning is clearly required along tropical coasts, where so much of the population depends directly on the adjacent sea for livelihood and well-being. Here, we face a challenge, and an opportunity, to put in place truly effective management of coastal waters, and improve the lives of millions of people.”
According to the authors, management attempts frequently fail today because they:
- are mounted at too small a geographic scale and/or over too short a period of time
- focus on single issues (conservation, fisheries enhancement, land-based pollution) without regard to other problems that act together to degrade coastal environments
- are imposed from “outside,” often in a one-size-fits-all or cookie-cutter approach, without the consultation and consensus-building needed to gain real traction with the local community, management agencies or governments.
“While there are a few exceptional places,” the paper says, “all too often, current management of development, habitat destruction, pollution, and overfishing is seriously inadequate, and if this management is not improved we are confident in stating the following:
- Most coastal fisheries will be chronically overfished or collapsed
- Loss of reef habitat will further reduce fisheries production and strain food security.
- Land-based pollution will increase to the extent that hypoxia and harmful algal blooms are routinely present
- Pressures of coastal development will combine with sea level rise and more intense storms to further intrude on and erode natural coastlines, severely reducing mangrove, salt marsh and sea grass habitats
- The cost of dealing with these impacts will further strain coastal economies, and the future for people on tropical coasts in 2050 will be substantially more bleak than at present.”
Co-author comments
“In hand today are technologies and know-how to substantially improve the way we manage tropical coastal seas, but they aren’t applied effectively and as a result many management initiatives fail. While integrated coastal management has been discussed for years, too much of the management of tropical coasts is piecemeal, short-term, and done with little effort to ensure gains made are permanently secured. In meeting the challenges to come, more of the same is simply not good enough.”
– Johann Bell, Wollongong University, Australia
“We’d be naïve to imply that success will come easily. It won’t. Changing management practice to the extent, and at the scale we propose will require very careful, sustained attention to socio- economic and governance dynamics. This is a major challenge for governments, for NGOs, for the multinational sector, and for coastal communities. And it needs to be tackled now.”
– Patrick Christie, University of Washington, Seattle, USA
“Humanity has the capacity to substantially improve coastal management; the futures of many millions of people living on tropical coasts depend on us collectively rising to that challenge.”
– David Obura, CORDIO East Africa, Kenya
Background
Worldwide, the 100 km wide coastal strip comprises 21% of all land, occupied by over 2.6 billion people at densities ranging from less than 20 to more than 15,000 per sq. km (average: 97). That’s over twice the density of inland regions (41 per sq. km).
Over half these people (1.36 billion) live on tropical coasts (just 7% of all land) at even higher densities (averaging 145 per sq. km). Tropical coasts hold 9 of 19 coastal megacities (over 10 million), and are most densely populated (mean: 198 per sq. km) in South and Southeast Asia In the world’s tropics, the coastal population is expected to grow 45% to 1.95 billion people by 2050, while the number of people occupying the inland tropics will grow by 71% to 2.26 billion.
However, the total area of inland tropical land is four times that of coastal regions, so tropical population density in 2050 is projected to be 57 per sq. km inland; 199 on coasts.
Coastal communities will generate increased local environmental stresses, although improved management may keep some or all of this increase unrealized.
Co-authors:
Canada
- Peter F. Sale, UN University Institute for Water, Environment and Health, Hamilton ON
USA
- Patrick Christie, University of Washington, Seattle WA
- Tundi Agardy, Sound Seas, Bethesda, MD
- Edward H. Allison, University of Washington, Seattle, WA
- Cameron H. Ainsworth, University of South Florida, St. Petersburg, FL
- Blake E. Feist, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Seattle, WA
- Phillip S. Levin, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Seattle, WA
- Kenyon C. Lindeman, Florida Institute of Technology, Melbourne, FL
- Kai Lorenzen, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL
- Robert S. Pomeroy, University of Connecticut-Avery Point, Groton, CT
United Kingdom
- Tim M. Daw, University of East Anglia, Norwich / and Stockholm University, Sweden
- Alasdair J. Edwards, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne
- Charles R.C. Sheppard, University of Warwick, Coventry
Sweden
- Megan I. Saunders, Stockholm University
- Tim M. Daw, University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK / Stockholm University
Australia
- Johann D. Bell, Wollongong University (co-author was previously with the Secretariat of the Pacific Community, New Caledonia)
- Ove Hoegh-Guldberg, University of Queensland, St. Lucia
- Peter J. Mumby, University of Queensland, St. Lucia
- Jennifer Corrin, University of Queensland, St. Lucia
- David A. Feary, University of Technology, Sydney
- Simon J. Foale, James Cook University, Townsville
- R.H. Bradbury, Australian National University, Canberra
Kenya
- Melita A. Samoilys, CORDIO East Africa, Mombasa
- David O. Obura, CORDIO East Africa, Mombasa
China
- Yvonne J. Sadovy de Mitcheson, University of Hong Kong
The United Nations University – Institute for Water, Environment and Health is a member of the United Nations University family of organizations. It is the UN Think Tank on Water created by the UNU Governing Council in 1996. The mission of the institute is to contribute to efforts to resolve pressing regional and global water challenges that are of concern to the United Nations, its Member States, and their people, through targeted research, capacity development, knowledge enhancement and transfer, and public outreach. It is hosted by the Government of Canada and McMaster University.
News release: click here
GreenWire: click here
Agencia EFE (Spain): click here
Coverage summary: click here https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AqxQrcaYWrPUdEJRSnBtSGpiRi1xZVZ4eXJjdWF0N3c&usp=drive_web#gid=0
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