Archive for category: Global Poverty

Key articles and information on global poverty.

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Efforts to Improve Water Quality in Costa Rica


Only four percent of Costa Rica’s water has been treated so far in 2017, and many of its residents lack access to sanitation areas. However, efforts are being made to enhance the country’s wastewater and sewerage systems. Past projects focused more on water supply than on sanitation. The following organizations and initiatives are working to improve water quality in Costa Rica.

6 Efforts to Improve Water Quality in Costa Rica

  1. The Development Bank of Latin America predicts that the U.S. will spend $33 billion on water sanitation and $80 billion on sewage infrastructure between 2010 and 2030. While the monetary investments are large ones, they are necessary in order to increase the country’s water sanitation over the next decade. With this level of funding, Costa Rica could benefit from a 50 percent improvement in its water quality.
  2. The World Bank continues investments in wastewater treatment for countries such as Costa Rica. By providing much-needed guidance and promoting integrated approaches to pollution control, the World Bank could significantly improve the country’s water quality. Costa Rica established its first national policy on sanitary wastewater this year, along with a plan to spend $520 million in infrastructure and provide environmental and public health services.
  3. AyA (Acueductos y Alcantarillados), Costa Rica’s public water and sewerage utility, is taking action to fulfill the PNSAR’s (Política Nacional en Saneamiento de las Aguas Residuales’) established goals, one of which is the U.S.’s $345 million environmental improvement program for San José, Costa Rica’s capital city. The program was launched in 2015, and San José’s sewage network is already expanding. PNSAR will focus on building water treatment institutions, procedures for wastewater management and financial sustainability.
  4. Los Tajos is a planned wastewater treatment plant designed by ACCIONA Agua and AyA intended to alleviate pollution in the country’s Tiribí, María Aguilar and Torres rivers. It will serve over a million people, 65 percent of San José’s population. Phase one of the project involves rehabilitating and extending the sewerage network over 360 kilometers, and phase two focuses on cleaning the basin from the Tárcoles River and reducing pollution in San José’s aquifers. It will be the country’s largest wastewater treatment plant when completed.
  5. The Costa Rica-U.S. Foundation, along with various other institutions, undertook a project that would help several aqueducts in the country’s Central Pacific region to function through solar energy. With the panels expected to save residents up to 50 percent in electrical costs, the leftover funding could provide means to increase water quality in Costa Rica. Virginia Reyes, the project’s coordinator, says water in dry areas is necessary for attracting tourists and commercial activities.
  6. In October 2015, the Latin American Water Funds Partnership launched Agua Tica, Costa Rica’s first water fund specifically designed to benefit the country’s millions of residents whose water supply comes from the polluted rivers of the Río Grande de Tárcoles. Agua Tica will invest in regenerating soils, restoring degraded areas and other strategies to improve water quality in Costa Rica. Edgar Gutierrez, the Minister of Environment and Energy, calls the water fund a “sign” of how Costa Rica’s citizens can work together in ensuring their resources.

Much of Costa Rica’s water supply is in need of sanitation, but notable efforts are being made. Time and money will determine the quality of improvements, but organizations and constituents will continue to invest in bettering water quality in Costa Rica. If the efforts prove successful, all of Costa Rica’s residents may gain access to clean, healthy water.

– Rhondjé Singh Tanwar

Photo: Flickr

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10 Facts About the IFAD

10 Facts About the IFAD
The IFADs work is a critical component for addressing food security across the globe and helping to reduce poverty.

The International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) is a specialized agency under the umbrella of the United Nations. It works to educate families in developing regions and to provide them with access to resources for sustainable agricultural practices. Here are 10 facts about the IFAD.

10 Facts About the IFAD

  1. The fund started in 1977 as a specialized agency of the United Nations. The framework came out of the 1974 World Food Conference in Rome.
  2. Continuing to pursue the vision of five presidents before him, Gilbert F. Houngbo has been leading the fund since April 2017. A Togo native, Houngbo has dedicated 30 years to working with the world’s poor in rural areas. Houngbo led field operations in over 100 different countries as the deputy director-general of the International Labour Organization. He served as prime minister in the Republic of Togo from 2008 to 2012.
  3. The IFAD currently has staff members in over 40 countries and subregional offices. There are more than 600 people on staff.
  4. The agency works to provide developing nations with low-interest loans and grants used to fund agricultural projects in developing rural areas. It focuses on passing on integral skills and essential access to natural resources to individuals and families in developing nations.
  5. The agency falls under the jurisdiction of a governing council and an executive board. A president and vice-president manage it, including an array of departments such as financial operations and corporate services.
  6. Rome, Italy houses the IFAD headquarters.
  7. The fund is one of three multilateral institutions working to improve agricultural practices in Africa. It is also the only institution that has an exclusive focus on smallholder development — meaning a focus on farmers who cultivate small plots of land and rely on family for labor. IFADs outreach stretches across five continents, where impoverished rural areas benefit from a focus on smallholder development.
  8. Ongoing projects are located in areas of Asia and the Pacific, East and Southern Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean, Near East, North Africa, Europe, Central Asia and West and Central Africa. These areas receive financial support and agricultural technologies.
  9. Thus far, IFAD has distributed over $12.5 billion in grants and low-interest loans, leading to 860 different projects, and impacting more than 370 million people. Those benefiting from the fund’s efforts have been able to achieve better food security for their families.
  10. IFAD is working to mobilize more funds and resources to be invested in developing rural areas and to improve the quality of its programs through partnerships with other nations. The fund looks for the best ways to address each country’s evolving needs with Agenda 2030, a global initiative working to eradicate poverty and hunger. Agenda 2030 will work to further expand IFADs outreach, starting in 2016 and continuing through 2025, and will focus on sustainable agricultural models.

– Leah Potter

Photo: Flickr

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10 Facts About Refugees in Lithuania


Since August 2015, more than one million refugees have entered the EU, many of them fleeing conflicts in Syria, Afghanistan, and Iraq. Under block rules, refugees faced relocation to Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia. As these countries are among the poorest in the European Union, refugees relocated to Lithuania are fleeing elsewhere out of fear of starvation. Here are ten facts about refugees in Lithuania.

10 Facts About Refugees in Lithuania

  1. Through the EU relocation plan, refugees from Syria, Afghanistan, and Iraq have been sent to live in Lithuania, a small country on the Baltic Sea, north of Poland.
  2. While Lithuania is home to less than three million people, it has a quota of about 1,100 refugees to take in within two years. So far, there have been around 90 refugees sent there. Lithuania’s interior minister Tomas Zilinskas noted that even the small number of accepted refugees in Lithuania faced opposition by half of the country’s citizens.
  3. As benefits in Lithuania are already extremely limited, a refugee family of four receives €450 a month for half a year, after which the payment halves.
  4. A whopping 72 out of 90 of those granted refugee status in Lithuania have left. Many refugees claim living in a refugee center somewhere else is better than life in the Baltic States. As Mohamed Kamel Haj Ali, a refugee sent to Lithuania said: “The ones who left for Germany said they left Syria out of fear of death from bombs, but here they feared they would die from hunger.”
  5. EU rules dictate that refugees are to be forbidden from work or to claim refuge in other member states. Some destroy their identification documents before leaving Lithuania, hoping to claim asylum in richer countries amidst Western Europe.
  6. Refugees in Lithuania struggle to find work due to an insufficient amount of jobs available. As NPR’s Corey Flintoff states, “Lithuania cannot supply enough jobs for its own citizens. Hundreds of thousands of them have had to find work in other countries. Still, Lithuania’s current government considers it an obligation to do its part to help solve the migrant crisis among its fellow EU members.”
  7. After the discovery of a new route through Lithuania’s eastern border, a gateway into Western Europe allows refugees in to enter the country. Renatas Pozela, acting commander of the Lithuanian State Border Guard Service, states, “We are also seeing constant attempts to open new corridors [to Europe], mostly by Syrian and Iraqi refugees who are trying to reach Scandinavian countries.”
  8. While Lithuania joined the EU in 2004, its population has shrunk 12 percent to 2.9 million people over the past decade, as refugees and citizens alike flee in search of higher wages and better job availability.
  9. As Lithuania continues to depopulate, refugees help to sustain local businesses, such as a barber shop operated by Vilius Leveris.  Leveris finds most new staff for his barber shop in the refugee hostel. Since Leveris opened his business four years ago, he has taken on 12 employees from Turkey, Libya, Syria, Morocco and Colombia. Leveris states, “I couldn’t find anyone here. Even getting a wet shave is a completely new thing… Now, if a refugee who was a barber at home arrives in Lithuania, the refugee center calls me at once.”
  10. Ilmars Latkovskis, head of the Latvian parliament’s Citizenship, Migration, and Social Cohesion Committee, said to make staying in Lithuania feasible for refugees, it was necessary to have benefits increased “to a level which would be very unpleasant for our population, which is not that well-off.”

These were ten facts about refugees in Lithuania. It is evident from the significant number of refugees in Lithuania fleeing the country, as well as the other neighboring Baltic nations, many areas within the European Union need assistance in their efforts to aid refugees worldwide.

– Kendra Richardson

Photo: Flickr

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Infrastructure to Maintain Water Quality in Barbados


Barbados sits near the end of the Lesser Antilles arc of the Caribbean. It is surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, the country’s water source, which supplied the public via ponds, springs and wells in Barbados’ early days. Methods to provide water to the public developed from hauling well water up with buckets to steam-driven pumps to the first electric pump in 1944.

Water quality in Barbados is maintained by its two wastewater treatment plants: the Bridgetown Sewage Treatment System, commissioned in 1982 and the South Coast Sewage Treatment System, commissioned in 2003.

A brackish water reverse osmosis desalination plant in Spring Garden, Saint Michael also contributes to water quality in Barbados. It supplies potable water to 44,000 people.

Barbados now has a cultivated irrigation system. The Golden Ridge Reservoir, the Castle Grant Reservoir and the Spring System provide water to parishes including St. Andrew, St. John, St. Joseph and St. Thomas.

According to the Barbados Water Authority (BWA), these very parishes experience long-term reduced water supply.

In 2015 the Caribbean shifted the focus of its strategies and programs from storms and floods to droughts. Climate change and El Nino increased the severity and frequency of drought conditions in the Caribbean. As a result, Barbados is one of the top 10 water-stressed countries.

The drought caused the Barbadian cost of living to rise, increasing the number of kitchen gardens and water demands from local water systems. Agriculture is Barbados’ largest water user, and there are about 120 privately owned wells to contend with this heavy usage.

Consequently, the functionality of water in Barbadian homes changed. In early 2016, the BWA implemented a three-month water ban. The ban prohibits filling and supplying tanks, swimming pools, baths and ponds as well as washing roadways, pavements, paths, garages, out rooms and vehicles. It requires Barbadian domestic tanks be connected to their water supply and sewerage system.

In 2016 the BWA established long-term water management solutions to ameliorate water scarcity. The first goal is the installation of eight water tankers to provide water for residents of St. Joseph, St. Andrew and St. John. The second is rehabilitating a well in St. George to provide an additional 500,000 gallons of water to the Golden Ridge and Castle Grant systems. The third is completing the pumping station at the Lazaretto, St. Michael, pushing desalinated water into the St. Peter’s system for St. Peter and St. Lucy.

The final goal is the commencement of the St. Philip Water Augmentation Project. After conducting hydrogeological investigations in the St. Philip aquifer and constructing new wells, improved water quality in Barbados will be a reality for the people of St. Philip.

– Tiffany Santos

Photo: Flickr

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Four Things You Never Knew About Hunger in the Bahamas


The Bahamas isn’t just full of vacationers lounging in the sun or carefree islanders living a life of luxury. The country known for sandy beaches and tropical excursions can’t escape the universal problem of hunger. Trying to understand persistent hunger the Bahamas is complicated.

More than 20,000 Bahamians are undernourished, meaning they don’t eat enough to maintain their health and stave off hunger. What follows is an explanation of the various factors contributing to the country’s food insecurity and what’s being done about it.

Here are four things to know about hunger in the Bahamas:

  1. The country’s climate and geography are largely to blame. Only around 1.5 percent of the land is suitable for agriculture. The country consists of several islands made mostly of limestone rock, which, unlike other types of bedrock, does not form soil when it weathers. The soil that does exist is of little agricultural value and requires expensive machines to prepare for farming.Fertilizers further prepare the land for crops, and pesticides, fungicides and other materials must be imported to maximize yields. Adding destructive natural disasters and a harsh climate to the mix makes the farming outlook worse. Around 3 percent of Bahamian workers make their living through agriculture, and the farming industry contributes around 2 percent of the country’s total GDP.
  2. Rising food prices make hunger worse. To compensate for the Bahamas’ lack of agricultural resources, it imports more than a billion dollars worth of food, a third of the country’s $3 billion trade deficit. The imported food is sometimes processed and often unhealthy, but the there is little choice. Food prices in the Bahamas fluctuate based on conditions in exporting countries.A study from the University of The Bahamas found that prices of essential food items, like sugar, grits and cheese, have substantially increased since 2014, in one case by as much as 282 percent. Without money to pay for food, thousands of Bahamians eat less and go hungry. The money that is spent on imported food isn’t staying in the country. Most of the revenue goes to foreign sellers, leaving the Bahamas in a cycle of food dependency, aggravated by a lack of funds to support Bahamian farmers and agribusiness.
  3. High unemployment contributes to food insecurity. The unemployment rate is 14 percent, and among youth it is around 30 percent. Lacking sufficient incomes makes Bahamians vulnerable to food insecurity, as does living in poverty. One in eight Bahamians is impoverished, causing families to make sacrifices as far as what, if anything, goes on the dinner table.
  4. There is hope. Despite large-scale hunger in the Bahamas, the number of people without access to food is falling. The undernourishment rate is 5.6 percent, far lower than in other Caribbean nations. The archipelago is on its way to meeting the Sustainable Development Goal of eliminating hunger. World leaders have vowed to take on the eight goals as a way to eradicate extreme poverty and improve the lives of millions, if not billions.

To address hunger in the Bahamas, nonprofits are helping bridge the gap from shelf to stomach. One organization, Hands for Hunger, collects edible food from restaurants, stores, hotels and more to give to people who need it. Since 2008, the group has reallocated more than one million pounds of surplus food.

Bahamians are learning that investing in domestic farmers moves the country closer to food security. Supporting local agricultural workers through grants, easier land acquisition and small-business initiatives are all ways to give Bahamian farmers a better chance against international competition.

Experts have determined more efficient ways of farming on little land and poor soil. Hydroponics, for example, is a method of growing crops that requires no soil and less water than traditional methods. Companies that provide hydroponic systems are already serving the Bahamas. Another soilless option, aquaponics systems, are set up next to fisheries to grow vegetables. Aquaponics would help reduce the country’s trade deficit, as well help produce fish for a country that loves seafood.

Inefficient agricultural land and dependency on exporting nations constrain the Bahamas. But despite that, scientists, leaders and nonprofits are determined to eliminate hunger in the Bahamas.

– Kristen Reesor

Photo: Flickr

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Water Quality in Libya: A Country’s Most Precious Resource


As a primarily desert country, Libya is a place where clean water is one of the most valuable commodities, used for agricultural production and human consumption. Increased levels of pollution from oil drilling and the salt water contamination of natural aquifers, however, have strained the water quality in Libya and made an already scarce water supply increasingly difficult to attain.

Rising sea levels and increased oil drilling have particularly plagued Libya and exposed its already limited and crucial water supply to pollutants and contamination.

Most of Libya’s water exists in naturally formed aquifers located underneath the country’s vast deserts. The only geographic area to receive more than 100 millimeters of rainfall a year is the coastal region, which accounts for less than 5 percent of Libya’s land area. Because of this, water purity is an increasingly crucial issue.

Since the 1950s, the sea level in Libya has advanced approximately one to two kilometers inland due to global warming and rising ocean levels. The slow move inward has caused a dramatic increase in the salinity of groundwater found in natural aquifers, from 150 parts per million in 1950 to 1,000 parts per million in 1990, according to Rajab M El-Asswad, a professor at Al-Fateh University Tripoli. As a direct consequence, the amount of water available and the water quality in Libya is becoming increasingly stretched.

In addition to limiting the amount of water that can be accessed, the increased salinity of seawater has made the overall process of obtaining water in Libya more expensive due to the need for desalination.

As aquifer water salinity and the need for water increases, the Libyan government must expand its desalinization processes. Unfortunately, desalinization is expensive and may require the diverting of funds necessary to help a nation develop.

Coinciding with the water pollution seen from natural causes like rising sea levels, man-made activities like oil drilling also creates pollution. The increase in standard drilling procedures and techniques such as fracking have exposed the vast natural aquifers to contaminants and chemicals, another negative effect on the water quality in Libya.

As the population of Libya continues to grow and the supply of water slowly declines, increased foreign aid funding becomes more important. Funds could be used to help complete the Great Manmade River Project, which aims to install hydraulic equipment necessary to withdraw and transport water from beneath the desert to high population centers for consumption and agricultural purposes.

Clean water is essential for life and agricultural growth and is necessary for a healthy ecosystem. The issue of water pollution in Libya has devastating effects on the country’s people and ecosystems and is a cause deserving of increased foreign aid.

– Garrett Keyes

Photo: Flickr

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10 Facts About the Famine in Yemen

10 Facts About the Famine in Yemen

Nestled between Saudi Arabia and Oman, Yemen was declared to be in a state of emergency on March 13, 2017, by the World Food Program. The World Health Organization reports that acute shortages of clean water and sanitation face eight million people. Furthermore, the U.N. International Children’s Emergency Fund says, “There are 2.2 million children in Yemen at risk of acute malnutrition and 462,000 severely and acutely malnourished.”

Millions of people live on the fringe of starvation in Africa as a result of drought, crop failure, population imbalance, government policies and war. The ongoing famine in Yemen affects 17 million people today, roughly 70 percent of its population.

According to the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), “The situation in Yemen is characterized by widespread insecurity, large-scale displacement, civil strife, political instability, chronic food shortages, a breakdown of social services, endemic poverty, and refugee influxes.”

Here are ten key components of the situation that you should know:

  1. According to the OCHA, Yemen is the poorest country in the Middle East and North Africa. A lack of financial resources and infrastructure have created an economy that is unable to support growing conflicts between opposing political factions. The situation has escalated and resulted in the current famine in Yemen.
  2. With a shortage of funding and deep-rooted poverty, more than 50 percent of families in the country are buying food on credit. The situation has accentuated the need for a global humanitarian response in terms of providing medicine and food. These needs are especially paramount for women and children, who represent the most vulnerable of a population during a period of famine or conflict.
  3. A lack of access to food and nutritional resources is not a new situation in Yemen. A locust infestation in the country last April posed a viable threat to food security that has not abated.
  4. The famine in Yemen is due in part to internal conflict between a coalition that is loyal to the internationally recognized government of President Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi and the Houthi rebel movement. The conflict has been exacerbated due to an air campaign by Saudi Arabia, with its goal being to restore the Hadi government.
  5. In response to the famine in Yemen, various nations and organizations have contributed resources to mitigate its impact, as well as rebuild its infrastructure and provide medical supplies. The U.N. responded to the crisis with a conference in Geneva in April. Unfortunately, only 15 percent of the $2.1 billion goal was pledged to help resolve the famine in Yemen.
  6. In addition, U.N. aid chief Stephan O’Brien has urged member countries to keep the port of Hodeidah open. The port is the location for the reception of incoming food imports.
  7. The United States government has also responded to the famine in Yemen, with President Donald Trump reiterating his commitment to fighting global famine during his May visit to the Vatican. Although relief funds from the U.S. face severe cuts for the next fiscal year, the momentum has begun for a more proactive global relief program.
  8. One of the strongest responses has been initiated by the WHO, which launched the Yemen Humanitarian Response Plan 2017. To achieve success, the plan requires $326 million from a variety of health partners, including $126 million from the U.S. Targeted beneficiaries of the funding will include women and children.
  9. The WHO reported that it had coordinated the operation of 406 general health and nutrition teams in 266 Yemeni districts in 2016, with funding coming from a variety of donors: Japan, the League of Arab States, the U.N. Central Emergency Response Fund, the United Arab Emirates, the UNOCHA Common Humanitarian Fund and the U.S.
  10. There have also been responses to the famine from private organizations and individuals. Muslim Aid is running a campaign to raise donations for water and medical aid to Yemen.

Because the famine in Yemen has yet to abate, opportunities remain for humanitarian organizations, governments and private individuals to respond with food products, medicine and financial assistance. The momentum has already begun through the efforts of organizations like WHO and Muslim Aid, and through the contributions of private donors.

– Hannah Pickering

Photo: Flickr

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What Does UNESCO Stand For?

What Does UNESCO Stand For?

The organization UNESCO is a crucial part of any discussion of peace and unity among foreign powers. However, few people know the mission of this global organization, let alone its role in decreasing global poverty. So, what does UNESCO stand for?

UNESCO stands for the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. According to the organization’s official website, it is responsible for fostering transnational ties in the areas of scientific advancements, equality in education, cultural development and freedom of expression.

Because of the interdisciplinary nature of the organization, UNESCO is able to effect change through a variety of platforms and to reach many populations. UNESCO’s extensive reach allows it to have a considerable influence on global issues, namely global poverty.

UNESCO defines the effects of poverty not only in terms of the economic disadvantage but also in terms of social, political and cultural hardships. UNESCO not only advocates for individuals living in absolute poverty but also for those suffering social exclusion and isolation as a result of relative poverty.

What does UNESCO stand for in terms of forming global alliances? UNESCO addresses these indirect consequences of poverty in several of its recent campaigns and goals. The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development was the most recent proposal by UNESCO to counteract the repercussions of poverty in the global community.

In this document, UNESCO identifies extreme poverty as the greatest global challenge to sustainable development and emphasizes several targets to focus on in the next 15 years, including peace, prosperity and partnership. This campaign contributed to an international alliance to end extreme poverty and set up time-bound goals that hold constituents of the U.N. accountable for their pieces of the partnership.

These goals prioritize the eradication of extreme poverty and hunger, education reform, women’s empowerment, environmental sustainability and several economic growth initiatives. The U.N. hopes to fulfill them by 2030.

In addition to providing resource-poor areas with necessities, UNESCO promotes a “culture of peace.” In order to establish this culture, the organization pushes for international cooperation through Water for Peace programs as well as geopark and biosphere reserve management. Another UNESCO priority is engaging community members by providing human rights education and sustainable development training.

One peace promotion and cultural inclusion strategy that UNESCO uses is funding and protecting World Heritage Sites. These sites are selected for their cultural, scientific or historical significance. The organization’s ultimate goals in protecting these sites are encouraging peacefulness in the present and contributing to these sites’ posterity. The Great Wall of China, the Sydney Opera House and Jerusalem, to name a few, meet World Heritage Site classification criteria.

What does UNESCO stand for? Over the years, UNESCO has contributed to a number of diverse campaigns, but its overarching mission remains the same. UNESCO stands for human rights advocacy, social inclusion and allowing every human being to fulfill his or her full potential with dignity and equality. These values will continue to be included in the organization’s agenda and initiatives.

– Sarah Coiro

Photo: Flickr

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Locally Grown Produce Can Help Prevent Hunger in Guadeloupe

Hunger in Guadeloupe

Residents of Guadeloupe bore witness to the 2009 food crisis in Haiti, watching as people protested in the streets, asked for more food from their government. Fights don’t occur over hunger in Guadeloupe; the people do what the government says, and do their best outside of that.

Guadeloupe authorities have neglected subsistence agriculture and have favored export crops, like bananas and sugarcane. These two crops cover half of the island’s cultivated land alone. While this is great for trading and exports to other nontropical countries, big-buck companies often dominate these trades, yielding high profits and strictly maintaining farmers and crops. Plus, agriculture only accounts for 3.3 percent of the workforce. Guadeloupe needs government support to start focusing on locally grown foods. Otherwise, hunger in Guadeloupe is inevitable.

Guadeloupe has good soil, although often polluted. Produce farming locally could be year-round due to its tropical climate. It also has a wide array of plants and animals, with more than 220 edible species including 60 vegetables and 130 fruits, because 43 percent of the island is a forest. All of the locally grown products are rich in antioxidants and Vitamins A, C and E. The two main causes of premature death in Guadeloupe are diabetes and cardiovascular disease, both of which can be helped by these vitamins and nutrients.

This would be great news for hunger in Guadeloupe, except that the French territory imports 80 percent of its food. People there have grown accustomed to importing their food. The locals prefer to consume imported food and don’t trust locally grown foods that they’ve never seen. They consume products that have likely been processed and only do so because the imported food is accessible and cheaper than locally grown produce.

Hunger in Guadeloupe is a difficult statistic to measure due to it being a part of France. However, most people agree that the islanders can still improve their way of living to avoid a hunger crisis. If the nation pushes for the purchase of local produce off shelves and for imported foods to go down from 80 percent, and tries to convince government officials and authorities that half the land isn’t needed to farm exported goods, Guadeloupe would save itself from the possibility of a future food crisis.

– Rilee Pickle

Photo: Flickr

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Infrastructure to Maintain Water Quality in the Maldives


The Republic of Maldives is an island nation located in the Indian Ocean comprised of more than 1,000 tiny coral islands split into 26 geographical atolls. The country spans 90,000 square kilometers and is the flattest country on earth. As such, even the smallest rise in sea levels can have extensive effects on the country’s land mass, infrastructure, agriculture and water quality.

There are many reasons why there are troubles with water scarcity and poor water quality in the Maldives.

Changing climate conditions

The Maldives’ second greatest source of freshwater, after rainfall, comes from groundwater. The groundwater can be found under every island in what hydrologists call lenses. A lens refers to a curved layer of freshwater that floats on top of a denser layer of saltwater. However, as sea levels rise, groundwater becomes contaminated and salinized. Certain estimates state that if sea levels rise by one meter, it will reduce the capacity for groundwater by as much as 79 percent.Since the 1950s, the sea level in the Maldives has been rising by 0.03-0.06 inches every year and is expected to rise, at a mid-level scenario, 1.5 feet by 2100, losing 77 percent of the country’s land area. This will have a significant impact on water quality in the Maldives. Additionally, warmer temperatures continue to allow for high levels of evaporation, which reduces the amount of rainwater left to infiltrate through the ground into the aquifers.

Since the 1950s, the sea level in the Maldives has been rising by 0.03-0.06 inches every year and is expected to rise, at a mid-level scenario, 1.5 feet by 2100, losing 77 percent of the country’s land area. This will have a significant impact on water quality in the Maldives. Additionally, warmer temperatures continue to allow for high levels of evaporation, which reduces the amount of rainwater left to infiltrate through the ground into the aquifers.

Rising population and increase in water pollution

Groundwater that remains nonsalinized faces other obstacles, most notably, pollution from poor sewage systems. In the 1970s, rapid development in the capital city, Malé, caused an influx of immigrants from other islands to the capital. The quantity of water being extracted from aquifers increased tenfold, and groundwater pollution increased as well, due to more sewage in the system, causing poorer water quality in the Maldives.

Lack of government initiatives

The Maldivian government has been slow to assess the impacts of climate change and groundwater pollution and create policies around water resource management. However, many strides have been made and show positive potential future change.

The first important technique for managing quality water in the Maldives is rainwater harvesting. In 2013, in the Southern region of the Maldives, 69 percent of households had rainwater tanks, while only 36 percent of households in the South Central region had tanks. On the island of Muli, the capital of the South Central region, 80 percent of households had tanks. However, on the neighboring island of Ribudhoo, only 20 percent of households had tanks. Many islands do not have rainwater tanks whatsoever and have reported water shortages to the Maldive National Defense Forces and asked for emergency water supplies. Increasing the number of rainwater tanks could greatly improve access to clean water and overall water quality in the Maldives.

Saltwater desalination could help provide clean drinking water to not only the Maldivian islands, but to other island nations around the world. In February 2014, government officials met with from the Aquiva Foundation, Memsys, Aquaver, and STELCO, a local power company, to commission a desalination facility on the island of Gulhi. The goal was for the plant to produce up to 10 tons of quality water per day from seawater for drinking, cooking and hygiene.

Gulhi is a small island 600 meters by 300 meters with a population of 1,200 people. Seasonal rain does not provide adequately for year-round water needs, and the island has relied on imported water. Much of the population spent up to 50 percent of their income on safe water, and the rest of the population opted for cheaper, unsafe water which was causing diseases.

The new plant uses captured waste heat from energy generators and membrane distillation technology to power the desalination plants. The desalinated water is then mineralized using local coral sand. The water is distributed through taps at communal water kiosks and must be collected by citizens in reusable containers 1.5-20 liters. The water costs $0.05-$0.07 per liter, significantly lower than imported water.

In 2016, the Aquiva Foundation acknowledged the two-year anniversary of the desalination plant. Despite many bumps in the road, the plant has seen many great successes. It produces up to 10,000 liters of drinking water per day. It is energy efficient, reliable and consistent in producing high quality of water in the Maldives. The success of this plant provides hope to other island nations similar to the Maldives.

The best method to improve water quality in the Maldives is education. Thanks to ample understanding of climate change and NGOs educating citizens on the concerns of sea levels rising, there is potential for improvement. Creating sustainable irrigation to cut down on rainwater evaporation, increasing the number of rainwater tanks and building up infrastructure will all be vital in ensuring that the Maldives continues to have access to quality water.

– Phoebe Cohen

Photo: Flickr