NAIVASHA, Kenya (PAMACC News) - After weathering the strain of decreasing water levels, Lake Naivasha, the largest fresh water body in Kenya’s Great Rift Valley, is faced with a new threat: pollution.Solid waste load from the surrounding economic society is on the rise. Filthy water used to clean fish is drained back into the lake. As pastoralists stress the lake further by driving their livestock into the water body for a thirst break.But it is the increasing volumes of effluent from the surrounding horticultural farms that has led the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP) to sound alarm about the threat facing the lake.According to Joakim Harlin, head of the Freshwater Unit at UN Environment, nutrient loading from the use of fertilizers and other chemicals by the farm is leading to the spread of colonizers like the water hyacinth.“This has led to the death of fish populations in the lake and the clogging of waterways used by fishermen, leisure boats and wildlife,” says Harlin. Pollution is also putting pressure on the Lake Naivasha habitats, argues Fleur Ng’weno, of Nature Kenya.According to her, hundreds of migratory bird species which nest in the Lake could be affected by the increasing pollution.Unique plant life found there too is being affected by pollution, including the irregular rise and fall of water levels, she says.Yet, the Nakuru County government depends on tourism flow there, which is second to Mombasa, to boost its revenues. The community also depends on the lake to feed their domestic water needs, she adds.“Lake Naivasha is now supporting a powerful horticultural industry, a growing population of flower farm workers, geothermal energy production, intense fishing and a runaway building boom,” says Ng’weno.However, not everything looks cloudy for the lake. UNEP, in collaboration with partners pooled a group of volunteers to help clean Lake Naivasha to mark the World Water Day.The volunteers managed to collect solid waste weighing hundreds of tonnes, which was later taken to the community cooker for incineration, according to Lis Mullin Bernhardt, the cleanup lead.“The purpose of the cleanup was to raise awareness about the increasing pollution facing the lake and show the community that they are not alone in conserving this water body of international importance,” said Bernhardt, who is also the UNEP Freshwater Unit Programme Officer.

DURBAN, South Africa (PAMACC News) - Arising from the 2017 World Water Day Celebrations and the Global Launch of the UN World Water Development Report 2017 entitled: “Wastewater: The Untapped Resource" which ended yesterday in Durban, the Republic of South Africa, water and sanitation ministers from across Africa have adopted the Durban Political Declaration for accelerating the implementation of the sustainable development goals (SDGs). The adoption of the political declaration which coincided with the announcement of the “Call for Action” towards the implementation of the SDGs with particular emphasis on Goal-6 (Water and Sanitation) was graced by members of the High Level Panel on Water (HLPW), leaders of the African Ministers’ Council on Water (AMCOW), Inter-sectoral Ministers, UNESCO Special Envoy for Water in Africa, UN Agencies, private sector and civil society leaders. The Durban Political Declaration agreed by all Political leaders mirrors the key principles, pillars and vision of the African Union, AMCOW, and HLPW Action Plan in support of the implementation of the SDGs. The Political Declaration seeks to encourage the acceleration plans and programmes and commit to the rollout of the Action Plan initiative. In this latest declaration which recalled the African Union Heads of State and Government decision on the implementation of the July 2008 Assembly Declaration on the Sharm El Sheikh Commitments for Accelerating the Achievement of Water and Sanitation Goals in Africa; the eThekwini Declaration on Sanitation and its accompanying actions adopted in South Africa in February 2008; as well as the recent Dar Es Salaam Roadmap for Achieving the N’gor Commitments on Water Security and Sanitation in Africa adopted in Dar Es Salaam, United Republic of Tanzania 26th July 2016, water, sanitation and inter-sectoral ministers from the five Africa sub-regions resolved and committed themselves to supporting and strengthening the implementation of SDG-6 and related goals by ensuring coherence in the implementation of our policies in line with the HLPW Action Plan. The ministers also declared their commitment to supporting and sharing the best Practice Models initiatives championed by regional leaders who serve as members of the High Level Panel on Water, notably Presidents of Senegal, South Africa and Mauritius. This, according to the declaration, is in line with the Africa Water Vision 2025 which envisages “an Africa where there is an equitable and sustainable use and management of water resources for poverty alleviation, socio-economic development, regional cooperation, and the environment”. Recalling the aspirations and commitments espoused in Africa’s Agenda 2063 which envisions the optimal use of Africa’s resources towards ensuring positive socio-economic transformation; the 2004 Sirte Declaration on integrated development of Agriculture and Water in Africa; and the 2008 Tunis Declaration on Accelerating Water Security for Africa’s Socio-Economic Development; the High Level Political Declaration commits African governments to increasing budgetary allocation to match the central role of water security and sanitation in Agenda 2030 and in line with the Sharm El Sheikh declaration. To drive this, the ministers urged the African Ministers’ Council on Water (AMCOW, African Development Bank (AfDB) and African Union Commission…

ABUJA, Nigeria (PAMACC News) - Nigeria has reaffirmed its commitment to creating jobs for millions of its unemployed citizens through the completion of dam projects across the country. The Minister of Water Resources, Engr Suleiman Adamu, made this known on Wednesday in Abuja at an event held to commemorate the 2017 World Water Day.According to Engr Adamu, “the ministry has completed the construction of Galma Dam in Kaduna State, which will provide over 1.1 million jobs after the irrigation system has been properly deployed."“Other abandoned dam projects like Central Ogbia Water Supply, the Adada River Dam in Enugu State; among others, have been resuscitated," he said.The minister believes that the recently launched water sector roadmap for Nigeria articulates the objectives of the Federal Government in developing the nation’s water resources toward the actualisation of the sector’s potential over short, medium and long term periods.“The road map will support sustainable development in the water sector, the nation’s food security goals and guarantee lasting prosperity for Nigeria“ he added.Engr. Adamu also linked the theme for this year’s celebration “Water and Wastewater“ to the Federal Government’s commitment to harnessing wastewater resources for sustainable development.Speaking earlier, Mrs Rabi Jimeta, Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Water Resources, said the 2017 World Water Day highlights relationship between water and wastewater in the quest for sustainable development.“Participants at this meeting will get an opportunity to learn more about the theme of this year’s World Water Day, and how wastewater is perceived as valuable resources in the secular economy,“ she said.

EARTH MEANDERS ESSAY By Dr. Glen Barry PAMACC News - Given long-predicted and self-evident abrupt climate change and ecosystem collapse, and resultant perma-war and rise of fascism, despite decades of scientific warnings which went unheeded; will you now listen to science, embrace an ecology ethic, and act to avoid biosphere collapse and the end of being before it is too late? Essentially every warning from ecological and climate scientists regarding the limits to growth have come to pass. Climate models have been amazingly accurate, if anything under-predicting the magnitude of the climate apocalypse dramatically playing out in Polar Regions and radiating heat globally. Water, farmland, soil, wetlands, oceans, old-growth forests, and the atmosphere are, as forecasted, in precipitous decline.Whole regions are collapsing ecologically and are on track to being uninhabitable and will have to be abandoned. Yet demands for inequitable consumption placed upon nature by seven billion top predators continue to grow exponentially (as a billion live in opulent splendor, another billion face abject soul-sucking poverty, and a handful enjoy half of Earth’s wealth).There are few naturally evolved large ecosystems remaining to cut, burn, and otherwise plunder for short-term ill-gotten gains as the biosphere and society bear the unpriced external costs. Those natural ecosystems that remain are under threat as the oil oligarchy consolidates its power in order to access and burn every last drop of oil and chunk of coal, destroying our atmosphere and last natural ecosystems in the process.The global ecological system – our one shared biosphere that makes Earth habitable – is collapsing and dying as human industrial growth overruns natural ecosystems and the climate.Resource scarcity resulting from ecosystem loss, albeit delayed through the advent of information technology, nonetheless underlies the surge in uncontrolled mass migration and diminished economic prospects for the formerly affluent Western middle classes. Landscapes ravaged by industrial capitalism in the developing countries in particular are barren wastelands unable to support indigenous and other local self-reliant lifestyles that provided for quality lifestyles for millennium.As foreseen by this author and others, authoritarian fascism has arisen to exploit both environmental decline and surging inequity between the super-rich and multitudinous have nots. A state of perma-war and institutionalized war murders masked as a clash between cultures are more accurately depicted as a scramble for dwindling resources upon which to base overly consumptive and clearly unsustainable lifestyles for the privileged few for a while.Fascist demagogues have arisen that spout charlatan alternative facts as they stifle voices of ecological and other truths.Environmental and climate crises long perceived as distant or affecting others, but not you, are increasingly impacting average people in their daily lives, particularly in the over-developed world. Food and water systems are failing and prices rising, as regular patterns of seasonality are lost. Jobs based upon ravaging natural ecosystems are a thing of the past, as they are exhausted, and are not coming back. Foreigners from hard scrabble over-populated countries will work far harder for much less and increasingly take even domestic high-tech positions excluding locals.Our present…