One of any civilization’s most important resources is its water supply, and in Guyana, the importance of water quality is paramount. Guyana’s top exports and leading industries are agricultural, which requires a massive proportion of the country’s water withdrawals (94.4 percent in 2010). The country’s long-term average annual precipitation is 2.4 meters, and the average actual renewable water resources total around 600,000 gallons a year.
According to U.N. Water, Guyana invested around $36 million into water-related infrastructure and programs from 2003 to 2011, and more than 37 percent of that money, approximately $13 million, was put into the large water supply and sanitation systems. “In 2003, water supply and sanitation – large systems received 7.9 million constant 2010 U.S. dollars, representing the largest amount invested by the government in one water-related category over this period,” the U.N. Water Guyana country brief states.
In that seven-year span, official development assistance totaled more than $84 million, of which nearly 35 percent, or $29 million, went toward large water supply and sanitation systems. The U.N. Water report on Guyana states that water, sanitation and hygiene factors contributed to more than 300 deaths in 2004, which is nearly 3.5 percent of all deaths in the country. Since 1990, the under-five child mortality rate has dropped from a probability of 65 per 1,000 lives births to fewer than 30 per 1,000 live births in 2010. This may be due to the increased number of children with access to improved drinking water sources and sanitation facilities.
The U.N. water report also states that 94 percent of the country’s 758,000 people used an improved drinking water source in 2010, compared to 88 percent in 1994. In addition, the number of people with access to improved sanitation facilities rose 10 percentages points in those 16 years.
The report notes that little data is available on drinking water quality in Guyana. It clearly states that the country faces water-related challenges, including contamination of potable water supplies, which lead to water-borne diseases such as vector-borne lymphatic filariasis and leptospirosis. It also notes that there is a lack of highly qualified personnel within water sector institutions.
According to the World Health Organization and the Center for Disease Control (CDC), these diseases are generally associated with standing water, mosquito-borne lymphatic filariasis and contaminated (water related) leptospirosis.
A July 2014 news release from the Inter-American Development Bank (IADB) states that water quality in Guyana may soon vastly improve with The Program to Improve Water and Sanitation Infrastructure and Supply.
The IADB loaned Guyana Water Incorporated more than $16 million while the European Union invested more than $14 million, in part to educate residents on proper hygiene practices.
This program could help decrease the prevalence of leptospirosis as it is commonly correlated with coming in contact with waters contaminated by animal waste, according to the CDC.
– Shaun Savarese
Photo: Flickr
Water Quality in Germany: The Gold Standard
Water quality in Germany has been regulated by an effective water management division. The country’s water technology and purification processes are highly regarded internationally. The German government implemented water protection procedures such as water waste charges, the preservation of natural habitats and laws to penalize water pollution.
Germany has an abundance of fresh water; 2.2 percent of the country’s surface area is covered by 11 predominant rivers, 291 dams, and other natural lakes. Approximately 11.7 percent of the fresh water is assigned to drinking water protection.
In 1998 the European Union (EU) adopted the ‘Drinking Water Directive’ (DWD), which set a foundation for high-quality standards for European drinking water. The DWD guidelines include parameters that must be fulfilled to assess drinking water quality.
Currently, the German Association of Energy and Water Industries (BDEW), represents 80 percent of drinking water production and 60 percent of wastewater disposal in Germany. BDEW supports sustainable energy, the protection of water supply and proper wastewater disposal.
On October 4, 2016, BDEW convened with the Federal Ministry for Environment to state its opinions on major energy developments to be implemented over the next 15 years. The meeting focused on “the future of public services in the water sector.” Key results of the collaborative effort include extending fresh water and groundwater protections to unused resources, creating an “integrated cross-sectoral environmental legislation,” as well as implementing consequences for “enforcement deficiencies in the environmental law.”
As the water quality in Germany increases, the cost of tap water rises as well. A solution to water inflation is the re-use of wastewater, also known as water recycling. By reusing processed water, the required heating and cooling energy are lowered, saving energy and money. Recycling water also reduces the cost and effort needed to filter and purify unprocessed water. When the processed water is reused, it is already free from unwanted micro-organisms and harmful elements.
Germany’s strict environmental legislation and multiple industrial measures have enhanced its water quality and advanced long-term sustainability.
– Madison O’Connell
Photo: Flickr
Poverty in Israel Economy
Poverty in Israel is widespread despite the nation’s booming economy. Approximately 22 percent of the population, or one in five Israelis, live in poverty according to a report by the National Insurance Institute in 2015. Among developed nations, Israel has the highest poverty rate, according to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.
The statistics on poverty differ depending on family structure. As the report establishes, families with children are more likely to be in poverty, with the rate holding at about 23 percent. Such is especially true for single-parent families or families with only one working parent. The rates also differ based on population group, with ultra-Orthodox families seeing a poverty rate of about 49 percent and Arab families about 53 percent.
Furthermore, a discrepancy exists due to age, with approximately 30 percent of children and 22 percent of the elderly living in poverty. Leket Israel food bank CEO Gidi Kroch said, “Israel is the poorest of the Western countries, with the widest gaps between the rich and the poor — a situation where the weakest populations, the elderly and children are suffering the most.”
Although the causes of such poverty are mixed, it can be attributed in part to low wages and employment rates, which may stem from poor education. In response to this impoverishment, the Israeli government has introduced a number of measures. Child benefits and the minimum wage have both been increased, leading to an advance in familial income. As for the elderly, welfare and disability allowances have also increased.
However, Israel’s welfare minister Haim Katz contends that welfare and tax benefit increases are not drastic enough. Average salary, as Katz points out, does not determine welfare benefits. He plans on changing this, declaring: “If we linked income support to average salaries we would immediately remove 187,000 from poverty.”
In addition to adapting the welfare system, the Israeli government should pursue a better standard of education. Regardless of which measures the government pursues, it is evident that poverty in Israel must be addressed immediately. “If things continue as they are,” Israeli economist Dan Ben-David reports, “we are heading to a third-world economy.”
– Gigi DeLorenzo
Photo: Flickr
Water Quality in Guyana Improving
One of any civilization’s most important resources is its water supply, and in Guyana, the importance of water quality is paramount. Guyana’s top exports and leading industries are agricultural, which requires a massive proportion of the country’s water withdrawals (94.4 percent in 2010). The country’s long-term average annual precipitation is 2.4 meters, and the average actual renewable water resources total around 600,000 gallons a year.
According to U.N. Water, Guyana invested around $36 million into water-related infrastructure and programs from 2003 to 2011, and more than 37 percent of that money, approximately $13 million, was put into the large water supply and sanitation systems. “In 2003, water supply and sanitation – large systems received 7.9 million constant 2010 U.S. dollars, representing the largest amount invested by the government in one water-related category over this period,” the U.N. Water Guyana country brief states.
In that seven-year span, official development assistance totaled more than $84 million, of which nearly 35 percent, or $29 million, went toward large water supply and sanitation systems. The U.N. Water report on Guyana states that water, sanitation and hygiene factors contributed to more than 300 deaths in 2004, which is nearly 3.5 percent of all deaths in the country. Since 1990, the under-five child mortality rate has dropped from a probability of 65 per 1,000 lives births to fewer than 30 per 1,000 live births in 2010. This may be due to the increased number of children with access to improved drinking water sources and sanitation facilities.
The U.N. water report also states that 94 percent of the country’s 758,000 people used an improved drinking water source in 2010, compared to 88 percent in 1994. In addition, the number of people with access to improved sanitation facilities rose 10 percentages points in those 16 years.
The report notes that little data is available on drinking water quality in Guyana. It clearly states that the country faces water-related challenges, including contamination of potable water supplies, which lead to water-borne diseases such as vector-borne lymphatic filariasis and leptospirosis. It also notes that there is a lack of highly qualified personnel within water sector institutions.
According to the World Health Organization and the Center for Disease Control (CDC), these diseases are generally associated with standing water, mosquito-borne lymphatic filariasis and contaminated (water related) leptospirosis.
A July 2014 news release from the Inter-American Development Bank (IADB) states that water quality in Guyana may soon vastly improve with The Program to Improve Water and Sanitation Infrastructure and Supply.
The IADB loaned Guyana Water Incorporated more than $16 million while the European Union invested more than $14 million, in part to educate residents on proper hygiene practices.
This program could help decrease the prevalence of leptospirosis as it is commonly correlated with coming in contact with waters contaminated by animal waste, according to the CDC.
– Shaun Savarese
Photo: Flickr
10 Facts About Jamaican Refugees
Jamaica is an island country situated in the Caribbean Sea, consisting of the third-largest island of the Greater Antilles and housing a population of 937,700 people. It is the third most populous Anglophone country in the Americas and the fourth most populous country in the Caribbean.
Jamaica is a small developing country that is seeking to promote human rights, safeguard the rule of law and protect refugees facing persecution. Here are 10 quick facts about Jamaican refugees:
10 Facts About Jamaican Refugees
Most Jamaican refugees are educated at the tertiary level in Jamaica, but have sought asylum for both economic and social opportunities. The loss of the country’s skill base of working professionals has had a tremendously negative impact on the productivity and education in the country, which are important factors that drive the Jamaican economy.
– Rochelle R. Dean
Photo: Flickr
10 Facts About Refugees in the Netherlands
The Netherlands has various strategies in terms of accepting refugees. There is the Dutch Council for Refugees, which works to improve the lives of migrants in the country. Despite having an organized council, there are still problems that accompany taking in refugees and handling their living arrangements.
Close to 60,000 refugees were admitted into the Netherlands in 2015.
Refugees in the Netherlands are housed in former prisons. The country’s crime rate has dropped drastically over the last several years, causing many correctional facilities to close down. The Central Agency for the Reception of Asylum Seekers (COA) decided to use these empty prisons as temporary housing for refugees. Before they are granted asylum status, refugees are normally stuck in temporary housing for at least six months.
A report shows that the Netherlands approved 70 percent of refugee applications made in the first nine months of 2015. In comparison, EU approval averaged 47 percent.
There have been many difficult housing issues in small Dutch towns caused by an influx of refugees. Some refugees were housed in cramped cities or hastily built homes in the suburbs. Although many have been able to find temporary homes, there are many others who have struggled.
A group founded in 2012 called We Are Here helps refugees in the Netherlands find temporary shelter in unoccupied buildings in Amsterdam. The group has more than 200 members and helps those who have a hard time integrating into society.
Thankfully, there have been projects to help refugees in the Netherlands. For example, a project called A Home Away from Home allowed Dutch people to design temporary houses for refugees.
There has been some controversy regarding refugees in the Netherlands paying for their living situation. In total, refugees in the Netherlands have paid more than EUR 700,000 over the past four years. According to a regulation placed in 2008, working refugees have to pay 75 percent of their income toward food and housing.
Once they have been living in the Netherlands for six months, refugees are required to work at least 24 weeks per year.
Back in mid-2016, the Netherlands made an agreement with Germany. It pledged to return the last half of 900 refugees that were sent to the Netherlands after Germany could not grant them formal asylum.
The Dutch Council for Refugees works with 14,000 volunteers and a few hundred paid employees to support refugees with legal rights and the asylum process. The organization also used “NGO twinning projects,” which is a process used to facilitate work with other refugee-assisting organizations.
– Emma Majewski
Photo: Flickr
Poverty and the Environment: Ways to Help the World’s Poor
Solid Waste Management
Better solid waste management reduces air and water pollution caused by open burning and chemical seepage. Open burning in backyards or public spaces is a common method of waste disposal, particularly in developing nations. This is due to a lack of efficient disposal infrastructure. Open burning releases copious amounts of carbon monoxide and dioxide, carcinogens and other air pollutants detrimental to human and environmental health.
Improve Sanitation
Improved sanitation decreases chemical and waste runoff, reduces the risk of disease and creates a better environment for people, plants and animals.
Adequate sanitation is essential to human health, but approximately 2.5 billion people still lack access to it. This is a problem because human waste often leaches into surrounding groundwater when it is not disposed of properly or latrine pits are unlined. Also, if the latrine is lined, when it is emptied, it remains common practice to simply dump its contents into the nearest body of water, or onto the ground. This poses great health risks in terms of disease epidemics, bacterial infection and water pollution.
Water Purification
Water purification helps alleviate water pollution and decrease the risk of bacteria harmful to the habitat and the people who inhabit it.
Nearly 85 percent of the world’s population lives in the driest parts of the planet and 783 million people lack access to a clean water source. Due to inadequate sanitation and practices like open burning, there is a far greater risk to the poorest, most rural segments of the population living in developing nations when it comes to disease outbreak and water contamination. However, water pollution does not just hurt people, it also hurts the plants and animals that draw their source of life from the same body of water. Water purification would decrease the risks to human and environmental health posed by chemical runoff, waste seepage and acid rain.
Ending Harmful Practices
Education spreads awareness that would help reduce the frequency of harmful practices such as open burning, slash-and-burn agriculture or overfishing.
Slash-and-burn agriculture is a common method of food production in which a patch of land is cleared of its forestation, after which the remaining vegetation is burned. This is an agricultural practice that accelerates deforestation. Meanwhile, overfishing hurts future fish populations making it harder to secure food in the future and damaging the marine ecosystem from which the fish came. Education is a simple method to help alleviate the problems that are posed by poverty and the environment by promoting conscientiousness and discouraging unsustainable practices such as these.
Caring about people entails caring about the environment in which they live. Helping one helps the other. Currently, many developing nations are forced to resort to practices that hurt the environment out of sheer necessity or lack of knowledge concerning their effects. Therefore, efforts to reduce problems surrounding poverty and the environment act cyclically to benefit each other.
– Jaime Viens
Photo: Flickr
10 Facts About Sierra Leone Refugees
The U.N. projects that there are more displaced people in the world now than at any other time since World War II. Most of these refugees come from Africa, which has put large demands on European and African countries. Future refugee projections continue to rise due to ongoing conflicts and the effects of climate change. Case studies in Sierra Leone show us the importance of rehabilitating governmental institutions and economic markets in conflict-prone regions.
10 Facts About Sierra Leone Refugees.
Sierra Leone ended its 11-year long civil war in 2002 and has since re-established democratic institutions. This restructuring process strengthened Sierra Leone’s government and was essential to the reception of 60,000 Liberian refugees in 2005. Sierra Leone is a shining example for current conflict-rode regions as they look towards the future.
– Josh Ward
Photo: Flickr
10 Facts About United Kingdom Refugees From Syria
In response to the Syrian refugee crisis, the United Kingdom initially had a policy of offering a generous amount of humanitarian aid to Syria’s neighbors instead of accepting Syrian refugees in the U.K. The logic behind this policy is that it is safer for refugees to remain where they are instead of making dangerous trips across Europe. Here are 10 facts about United Kingdom refugees.
10 Facts About United Kingdom Refugees From Syria
These 10 facts about United Kingdom refugees demonstrates that the country has one of the best refugee policies. Additionally, the U.K. is the second-largest donor to the Syrian refugee crisis with a commitment of £2.3 billion.
– Mary Barringer
Photo: Flickr
Malnutrition in India
India is one of the fastest growing economies in 2017, yet it has the highest number of children suffering from malnutrition, according to World Bank data. Forty-four percent of the children below the age of five are underweight, 72 percent of the infants have anemia and 194.6 million people are undernourished.
A quarter of undernourished people in the world live in India. India’s dependence on carbohydrates with low protein in their diet is the main cause of malnutrition, according to Nobel Prize winner for economics Angus Deaton. Poor sanitation has triggered infection-borne deficiencies in nutrients.
According to United Nation estimates, 2.1 million children die in India every year before reaching the age of five and four die every minute. One thousand children die every day because of diarrhea. Forty-eight million children under the age of five are stunted. According to a study, malnutrition in India could cost the economy $46 billion by 2030. Five states and 50 percent of the villages account for 80 percent of the malnutrition.
Reasons for this challenge stem from a lack of an institutional framework to address malnutrition, a lack of monitoring and accountability in publicly funded nutrition programs and a lack of convergence among multiple governments on an approach to address this issue.
Overcoming malnutrition in India would require a multifaceted approach including education for girls, availability of safe drinking water and vaccinations and public interventions focusing on socioeconomic development. More research is required in this area to tackle this challenge.
Political commitment is essential for a well-planned and long-term project that can enhance development. Nutritional planning focused on improving production and distribution of food is needed to reach the grassroots of the society. Making food available through public distribution systems and increasing the purchasing power of people in low-income countries is crucial. Nutrition education and early detection of malnutrition are factors which can empower society against this challenge.
Although India has taken many programs including improving salt iodization, improving breastfeeding and improving large-scale food fortification, the country needs to make fighting malnutrition a national priority to overcome this tremendous challenge.
– Aishwarya Bansal
Photo: Flickr
Striving For a Better Education in Benin
Over the past decade, issues with the system of education in Benin have been met and addressed with an increased sense of urgency by government officials.
The U.N. has set into place extensive measures directed at addressing the common problem of educational inequality within the country. As a result, the “Ten-Year Plan for the Development of Education” was created to ensure the implementation of these measures.
In the ten-year development plan, financial resources for education in Benin have been directed towards greater recruitment of teachers, technical and vocational training, tuition support and improvements in secondary education. Between 2006-2013, there was a 16.5 percent increase in public spending for education in Benin. Government officials are looking to continue increasing the spending budget for both primary and secondary education.
According to the Global Partnership for Education, Benin faces geographic and social inequalities due to a “high absenteeism of teachers and a lack of capacity to manage the education system overall.” Since 2013, government officials have implemented measures increasing the availability of education, funding research, advancing literacy of national languages and improving sector management.
The overall system of education in Benin will continue to advance due to the “2017-2025 Education Sector Plan Development Grant,” passed and approved in March of 2016 by the Global Partnership for Education. Totaling $428,794, the grant money will be used to create the strategy and analytical framework for the plan’s development.
Furthermore, because studies have shown that increased access to education can be a direct correlation of decreased child exploitation in developing countries, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has also been dedicated to helping towards the advancement of education in Benin. Some of the preventative measures implemented by UNICEF include, “establishing partnerships with community and religious leaders; providing furniture and school supplies; and upgrading schools through the provision of latrines and safe drinking water.”
UNICEF has also created a monopoly and trivia style board game called “Anaylse en Boite” that is specifically designed to teach children about their educational rights and how to better protect themselves from criminal exploitation when the opportunity for such exploitation arises.
– Lael Pierce
Photo: Flickr