Food, water security by Sikeli Qounadovu

Thursday, July 06, 2017: THE Pacific Community (SPC) believes it has found the solution in the adaptation and mitigation processes for climate change in as far as food and water security is concerned.

The solution was found through an extensive research which started in 1985 and has the ability of maintaining global temperature below 2C.

Crop production and extension co-ordinator for SPC Dr Siosiua Halavatau said the solution was a traditional knowledge which was practised by forefathers.

He said through this process the Pacific should be able to adapt to the effects of climate change such as long droughts.

"Climate change is here but we have adaptation measures to use to adapt to climate change to produce the goods and this has been practised by our ancestors," he said.

"If you try and increase carbon dioxide to the soil by 0.4 per cent in the year, that should be enough to contribute to making sure global warming does not go more than 1.5 or 2 degrees.

"The soil can fix all carbon dioxide released by fossil fuel, so this is a simple thing and we want to promote this."

He said the simple process was increasing the organic carbon in the soil and the introduction of trees back in the system.

Dr Halavatau said increasing soil organic carbon would help "reduce soil erosion, improve water holding capacity of the soil, improve soil fertility and in the process increase food production".

"Most of the soil in the atolls are limited to plant nutrients like potassium, iron, copper and manganese.

"Find plants or leaves that are high in these nutrients and then you make your compost with that, so when you add to your crop you are adding the nutrients to the soil.

"For high islands I was proposing using cover crop. This cover crop is amazing. It will fix nitrogen from the air and give it to the crop.

"For soil like here in Fiji there is a problem called phosphorus fixation, this mucuna (cover crop) can fix this. It also improves the organic matter in the soil and it will also help improve the soil health and improve the yield of the crop.

"Peach cowpea which grows a lot in atolls is high in iron, so if you add this to the compost it will add iron, for potassium if you bring your fire ash or the wood ash and you add it to the compost it will strengthen the potassium of the soil."

Dr Halavatau said these natural processes were researched and practised in eight countries in the Pacific and had proven to be a success with the most successful story being the revival of the dalo industry in Taveuni.

The European Union head of infrastructure and natural resources Jesús Lavina believes it is about time that traditional knowledge are also incorporated as world leaders look for adaptation and mitigation measures because of climate change. More

Sustainable development of water security a must

The Nile at Cairo

CAIRO - July 07, 2017: Suhail Bin Mohammed Faraj Faris Al Mazrouei, Minister of Energy, highlighted the UAE’s support for Arab cooperation on the sustainable development of water security.

He made this statement while chairing the 9th session of the Arab Ministerial Council for Water, at the headquarters of the General Secretariat of the League of Arab States in Cairo.

He stated that the Ministry of Energy has produced a draft water strategy for 2036, in cooperation with relevant UAE authorities, to guarantee the provision of sufficient quantities of water, according to international standards, during both regular periods and emergency shortages that affect the country.

He stressed that this strategy will cover the country’s entire water supply chain, with an emphasis on the strategic production of water resources, storage, transport networks and the supply network linking the nation’s various emirates.

The council discussed a range of important issues and reviewed the implementation of a strategic executive plan for water security in the Arab region, as well as ways of cooperating to address the challenges and future requirements of sustainable development.

It also discussed the implementation of its sustainable development plan for 2030, regarding water, and addressed ways of cooperating on a regional initiative to link the energy, water and food sectors. More

The Vanishing Nile: A Great River Faces a Multitude of Threats

The Nile River is under assault on two fronts – a massive dam under construction upstream in Ethiopia and rising sea levels leading to saltwater intrusion downstream. These dual threats now jeopardize the future of a river that is the lifeblood for millions

Though politicians and the press tend to downplay the idea, environmental degradation is often an underlying cause of international crises — from the deforestation, erosion, and reduced agricultural production that set the stage for the Rwandan genocide of the 1990s to the prolonged drought that pushed rural populations into the cities at the start of the current Syrian civil war. Egypt could become the latest example, its 95 million people the likely victims of a slow motion catastrophe brought on by grand-scale environmental mismanagement.

It’s happening now in the Nile River delta, a low-lying region fanning out from Cairo roughly a hundred miles to the sea. About 45 or 50 million people live in the delta, which represents just 2.5 percent of Egypt’s land area. The rest live in the Nile River valley itself, a ribbon of green winding through hundreds of miles of desert sand, representing another 1 percent of the nation’s total land area. Though the delta and the river together were long the source of Egypt’s wealth and greatness, they now face relentless assault from both land and sea.

The latest threat is a massive dam scheduled to be completed this year on the headwaters of the Blue Nile, which supplies 59 percent of Egypt’s water. Ethiopia’s national government has largely self-financed the $5 billion Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), with the promise that it will generate 6,000 megawatts of power. That’s a big deal for Ethiopians, three-quarters of whom now lack access to electricity. The sale of excess electricity to other countries in the region could also bring in $1 billion a year in badly needed foreign exchange revenue.

http://e360.yale.edu/features/vanishing-nile-a-great-river-faces-a-multitude-of-threats-egypt-dam