Month: October 2024

Helda Martínez

BOGOTA, Nov 21 2007 (IPS) – Local residents of shantytowns on the outskirts of the Colombian capital complain that sand, gravel and limestone quarries operating in the area pose serious risks to their health as well as the danger of landslides. But they are afraid to speak out.
The people of Ciudad Bolívar and Soacha poor, high-crime suburbs in the hills on the southeast edge of Bogotá who talked to IPS did so on the condition of anonymity.

Sand and limestone began to be extracted on a small scale in the early 1950s by local campesinos (peasant farmers), when the area was still rural. Since then, vast slum neighbourhoods have grown up in the hills, largely populated by tens of thousands of people displaced from their land and villages by the four-dec…

Philip Rouwenhorst

UNITED NATIONS, Dec 26 2007 (IPS) – In a six day hunger strike in cooperation with a Belgian and Swiss radio station, Dutch station 3fm raised 12.6 million dollars for clean drinking water and sanitation programmes around the world. Locked in glass houses on major squares in The Hague, Leuven and Geneva, deejays raised the money by auctioning artist memorabilia and having listeners pay to request songs.
Gerard Ekdom, deejay at 3fm, participated in the glass house event for the fourth consecutive year. Every year the Red Cross finds us something they say is a major problem in the world that so far has not been on the radar screen of world society and press. These are the so-called silent disasters . This year they chose the problem of clean drinking water an…

Abra Pollock

WASHINGTON, Feb 1 2008 (IPS) – Investing in young women and girls in developing regions must be a top priority for governments, multilateral agencies and the private sector, say the authors of a report released here this week.
Titled, Girls Count: A Global Investment Action Agenda, the 89-page report highlighted the systematic disadvantages faced by girls and women in developing countries in areas ranging from health, education, and nutrition to workforce participation and the burden of household tasks.

Countries that do not address these significant disparities risk perpetuating a cycle of poverty within their populations, the report said yet by investing in women and girls, countries can reap significant benefits in the spheres of political and economic…

Thalif Deen

UNITED NATIONS, Apr 11 2008 (IPS) – The United Nations warns that a sharp decline in international funding for reproductive health is threatening global efforts to reduce poverty, improve health and empower women worldwide.
This is especially evident in the case of funding for family planning where absolute dollar amounts are lower than they were in 1995, says Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, in a report released here.

If this trend is not reversed, he cautions, it will have serious implications for the ability of countries to address the unmet need for such services, and could undermine efforts to prevent unintended pregnancies and reduce maternal and infant mortality.

Compounding the problem further, the largest share of population funding is now…

Thalif Deen

UNITED NATIONS, May 23 2008 (IPS) – The ongoing food crisis, characterised by growing shortages and rising prices of staple commodities, has far reaching implications for the world s scarce water resources, says a new study released here.
More food is likely to come at a cost of more water use in agriculture, according to the report titled Saving Water: From Field to Fork .

The emerging challenges facing the food sector include growing water scarcity; unacceptably high levels of under-nourishment; the proliferation of people who are overweight or obese; and of food that is lost or wasted in society.

All these challenges mean that a narrow perspective on food security in terms of production and supply is no longer sufficient, the study notes.

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Ali Gharib

WASHINGTON, Jun 18 2008 (IPS) – A new poll reveals that three-quarters of respondents in 18 geographically and culturally diverse countries reject the use of criminal penalties to discourage abortions.
The poll, released Wednesday by World Public Opinion (WPO) a website managed by the Programme on International Policy Attitudes at the University of Maryland found that 17 of 18 countries polled have majorities that reject punitive measures, such as fines and imprisonment for those who give and receive the procedure, as deterrents to abortion.

While it does appear that many people around the world are uncomfortable with abortion, few think that the government should use punitive means to try to prevent it, said WorldPublicOpinion.org director Steven Kull.