Friday, September 03, 2010

MYANMAR: Rural poor hit by arbitrary “taxes”, says report

BANGKOK, 2 September 2010 (IRIN) - Myanmar’s military government, with soldiers scattered throughout the country, is arbitrarily levying fees from the rural poor, pushing some into hunger and debt, experts say.

“In Burma taxation has become associated with violence and human rights abuses,” said Alison Vicary, researcher for Burma Economic Watch at Macquarie University in Australia. She has just written a report on “taxation” for the Network for Human Rights Documentation - Burma (ND-Burma).

The report, released on 1 September, says many people in rural areas are forced to relinquish property and assets at the will of soldiers who, as a matter of course, live off of locals.

Ten percent of the country is food insecure, with more than 90 percent persistently on the brink of hunger in some regions, according to the World Food Programme and the Food and Agriculture Organization.

“I grew up knowing that the army has the absolute right to demand anything they want, but we didn’t realize how systematic and widespread [arbitrary taxation] really is. This report makes it clear,” Cheery Zahau, an activist campaigning for the rights of the Chin ethnic minority and ND-Burma adviser, told IRIN.

The World Bank estimates 50 percent of the population live in rural areas and ND-Burma says random demands for money, land or property - are taking a serious toll on some of the most vulnerable.

People do not know when, how much or what they will be taxed on, which creates an atmosphere of fear, Vicary said.

“In an agricultural setting, people don’t have savings or even a bank account,” she said. “When the tax is levied they can’t pay and are forced to borrow money or sell their property and assets.”

Fees disguised as “taxes” are rarely accounted for and very little of the money ends up in services such as education and health care, ND-Burma says.

Furthermore, checkpoints and road and bridge tolls restrict movement, making trade unprofitable, and at times impossible, and the requisitioning of land and labour for government projects such as roads and pipelines is also common, ND-Burma says.

Myanmar’s first national election in 20 years is scheduled for 7 November.

See REPORT

Wednesday, September 01, 2010

PHILIPPINES: Bracing for La Niña

MANILA, 1 September 2010 (IRIN) - The Philippines is bracing for severe flooding over the next few months as a result of the La Niña weather effect, which is expected to whip up heavy storms. Some specialists are saying the country is not adequately prepared.

With the country’s infrastructure and emergency safety mechanisms still reeling from the effects of Tropical Storm Ketsana and super typhoon Parma last year, the country is now racing against time to prevent large-scale destruction, said Heherson Alvarez, chairman of the country’s Climate Change Commission.

“We anticipate an escalation of more serious flooding because the country has not been able to adequately repair damage from last year,” Alvarez told IRIN, adding: “On a scale of one to 10, I give the country only four in terms of the level of preparedness.”

The country needed specifically to speed up the acquisition of weather monitoring systems to be installed at key points across the archipelago, which lies in the Pacific’s typhoon belt and sees an average of about 20 typhoons a year, he said.

La Niña, an ocean-atmosphere phenomenon that is the counterpart of El Niño, is characterized by unusually cold ocean temperatures in the eastern equatorial Pacific Ocean, enhancing rainfall over the western half of the ocean region encompassing Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and northern Australia.

Unseasonal heavy rain has been pounding Manila and other parts of Luzon Island nearly every day since the start of the August, causing minor inconvenience but providing a portent of things to come.

“Our defence systems must depend on early warning signals, which means the installation of a machine that can read the onslaught, the volume of the rain, the velocity of the winds,” Alvarez said. “But the machines that we have now are only in certain key points of the archipelago. We are not really prepared yet.”

Poor preparedness

International experts and donors have long lamented the Philippines apparent lack of coordination and preparedness during annual disasters that usually leads to fatal consequences.

Last year Ketsana led to the nation’s worst flooding in 40 years, destroying large parts of the city and exposing the lack of community planning. Nearly 700,000 people were forced into shelters, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

Later on, Parma struck, hitting northern areas. The two storms killed over 1,000 people and affected about 10 million people. The consequences are still being felt today.

In August, President Benigno Aquino sacked the head of the country’s weather bureau for wrongly forecasting the movement of Typhoon Conson. The error resulted in the deaths of 111 people, mostly in areas southeast of the capital.

According to Maplecroft’s Natural Disasters Risk Index 2010 of 229 countries surveyed, the Philippines (population nearly 100 million), ranked ninth in terms of vulnerability to natural disasters.

Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Lionrock, Kompasu & Nam Theun, & others….Cyclones in NW Pacific 30 August 2010

Monday, August 30, 2010

Pakistan: Help makes the difference between hope and despair (ECHO)

In Pakistan I met a young man called Gul-a-Lala, which in Pashtun means “Flower of Paradise”. He is an Afghan refugee who lives in the village of Azakhel, in Nowshera district, which is north of Pakistan’s capital Islamabad.

Gul-a-Lala escaped from war in Afghanistan to make a new life in Azakhel. But at the end of July the Monsoons arrived. His house was flooded together with the rest of the village. And when the waters receded they left behind a mess of bricks, broken wood and mud. Like many other victims of the floods in the north of Pakistan, he has been hit twice: he lost everything in the war and then he lost everything again with the floods. His traditional clothes were dirty, and his bare feet muddy. When he knew who I was he asked me in perfect English: “What is Europe going to do to help us?” For his village I had an answer - we were there to assess how a cash-for-work programme can help them rebuild, and relief is on the way. But this is just one drop in a sea of troubles. With more than 17 million people affected, spread all the way from north to south, and often in hard to reach places, Pakistan needs all the help it can get.

As soon as the scale of this disaster became clear the reaction from Europe has been fast and generous. The EU member states and the Commission have committed 220 million euros for immediate relief. I have deployed a team of 18 experts to coordinate our assistance with the UN and the Pakistani authorities. This means that we are able to reach as many people as possible, especially those in the most urgent need: children, women and isolated communities.

So how is Europe going to help? Today, we must focus all our energy on life-saving support: food, shelter, sanitation, medical care, hygiene kits, drinking water. Tomorrow, when the waters retrieve, we will need to shift efforts to helping the agriculture sector and restoring key road links. Farmers have lost a large part of their crops and their livestock. If they don’t plant soon, they may also lose the next harvest, creating a food crisis in a years time. We also need to focus also on sanitation to prevent the outbreak of water borne diseases.

In the long run, Pakistan will need substantial help with reconstruction since the floods have washed away roads, houses, hospitals, schools. An it is important that this help will be delivered in a way that increases the resilience of Pakistan to natural disasters. It is one of the countries most vulnerable to climate change (as well as massive earthquakes), and needs to work hard to be better prepared for when the next disaster hits.

We have a huge task ahead of us. Most of the 70 million euros approved by the Commission has already been contracted in different programs. But we need to continue to move fast because failure to provide relief could lead to social unrest and even degenerate into chaos. Faced with this challenge the support of Europe and others in the international community can make a profound difference. The difference between hope and despair, between peace and conflict. We have done a lot but the rains are still pouring. There is still much more to do.

Kristalina Georgieva
European Commissioner for International Cooperation, Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Response 
European Commission’s Directorate-General for Humanitarian Aid and Civil Protection (ECHO)

Friday, August 27, 2010

Pakistan: Reaching flood victims by truck, mule and chopper

ISLAMABAD, 27 August 2010 (IRIN) - Getting food and other aid to eight million or more people in urgent need is a logistical challenge. Based on World Food Programme (WFP) costs and times, IRIN takes a look at the main options for transporting 100 tons of food 100km.

Truck: The most common means of transporting aid.
Volume of food: Each truck can carry 10 tons of food
Number needed: 10 trucks to transport 100 tons
Time required to travel 100km: 3 hours
Total cost: US$1200

“This is not an easy job. We have been stopped by desperate people who have tried to remove the food. We understand the situation of flood victims, but it is our job to get consignments to the places they are being sent to,” Muhammad Faizan, a truck driver, told IRIN in Muzaffargarh, Punjab Province.

“I would say reaching people is the most difficult of all, due to the broken roads, washed away bridges and so on,” Chris Lom of the International Organization for Migration (IOM), told IRIN in Islamabad.

Mule: Damage caused to roads and bridges by the floods has meant mules and donkeys have been used by the Pakistan army, WFP and other organizations, notably in Swat and Shangla districts, to reach marooned people.
Volume of food: One army mule can carry about 38kg of food
Number needed: About 2,632 mules to transport 100 tons
Time required to travel 100km: 2 days
Total cost: $5,000

“One of my mules died due to exhaustion. Other owners have lost animals which slipped on a track narrowed by a landslide. It is very hard work for us to walk along with the animals and keep them moving on, but we know it is vital to get food to people,” said mule owner Ali Hassan in Swat.

Helicopter: The inaccessibility of flood-hit mountainous areas means for many access is possible only by air. “We estimate about 800,000 people are currently in areas to which access is only possible by helicopter - either in the north because key roads and bridges have been washed away and links may take weeks or even months to re-establish, or further south where floodwaters have left communities marooned,” Marcus Prior, a spokesperson for WFP, told IRIN.
Volume of food: 3.5tons per sortie
Number needed: About 30
Time required to travel 100km: 30 minutes
With eight helicopters 100 tons of food can be delivered in one day.
Total cost: $360,000

“It is wonderful to hear a helicopter whirring overhead because we know it means food. The army helicopters have also rescued people who need to be taken away,” said Azam Khan, a flood victim in Kohistan District of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Province (KP).

“We work on moving the food by the most feasible, cost-effective and time-efficient manner. A helicopter would only be used where there is no other option - otherwise we use trucks, which is the most cost-effective means.” Similarly with mules: “We are only using them in Shangla [in KP] at present as this is the only option we have there,” said Prior.

Hue - Microdis Asian Symposium on Disasters

VietNamNet Bridge – Southeast Asia is considered as the world’s storm center and Vietnam is among the top ten countries most affected by natural calamities and climate change.

As many as 60 experts from 20 Asian countries and the United Nations met in the central province of Thua Thien-Hue on August 25 to evaluate the impact of natural disasters in the region.

According to the conference, natural calamities in Asia account for nearly 40 percent of global losses caused by natural calamities; this continent accounts for nearly 60 percent. Southeast Asia is the storm center and one of the regions most hit by natural disasters and most vulnerable to climate change. Vietnam is one of ten countries most affected.

Representatives from the World Meteorology Organisation revealed that the agglomeration of carbon dioxide and substances that creates the greenhouse effect has reached its highest level so far. The result is climate change and the increase in number and intensity of storms in the world. The clearest evidence is the drought for two consecutive years in 2009-2010 in Australia, Vietnam and Africa, ice-melting in the two poles, and floods and landslides in China and Pakistan.

A professor of social anthropology noted that Vietnam doesn’t have earthquakes, but complex storms and floods force Vietnam to have long-term strategies on urban and land planning. Research presented at this conference showed that, in India, more modern houses collapsed in earthquakes than houses built by traditional techniques and designs. This is why countries need to share their experience and knowledge to confront natural disasters.

Neil R. Britton, a senior expert on natural disaster risk management from the Asian Development Bank (ADB), remarked that his bank has given top priority to natural disaster control programs and is ready to cooperate with social and non-government organisations.

From 1987 to 2009, ADB disbursed over $9.6 billion in aid to Asian countries to cope with natural disasters, including 19 percent in relief aid, 45 percent in control programs and 36 percent in resettlement. The biggest development bank in Asia has funded 11 relevant projects worth over $ 428 million for Vietnam during this period.

The three-day workshop co-sponsored by Hue Economic University, the University of Delhi, India, and the Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters, Belgium, is part of the Microdis project (funded by European Union), short for “micro-analysis of disasters.”

The project aims to strengthen prevention, mitigation and preparedness strategies to reduce the impact of natural disasters on health, social and economic developments in Asia.

Thursday, August 26, 2010

Viet Nam: Cyclone N°3 Mindulle claims 10 lives in central region

Dammage / 26 August 2010

- Death: 10 people (Nghe An: 06, Ha Tinh 3 and Quang Binh 1) (most from drowning, of which one commune official from Ha Tinh, 2 other people died when protecting their house).
- Missing: 1 person in Quang Binh on his way to work.
- Injured: 64 people (Nghe An: 49, Ha Tinh: 15, Quang Tri: 03, Thua Thien Hue: 11). 
- Houses collapsed: 461 houses (Nghe An: 389; Quang Binh: 07; Quang Tri: 02; Ha Tinh: 58; Thanh Hoa: 07).
- Houses flooded or with damaged roofs: 47,079 houses (TT. Hue: 312; Quang Tri: 29; Quang Binh: 31; Ha Tinh: 11,039; Nghe An: 35,731; Thanh Hoa: 278).
- Classrooms collapsed or flooded: 6 rooms in Nghe An.
- Classrooms damaged or unroofed: 659 (TT. Hue: 02; Quang Binh: 30; Ha Tinh: 310; Nghe An: 279, Thanh Hoa: 40).
- Public offices and buildings damaged: 91 (Nghe An: 90; Quang Tri: 01).
- Hospitals and health centers damaged: 1003 (Ha Tinh: 38; Nghe An: 965).

Monday, August 23, 2010

Bao N°3 Mindulle (Dandelion - Dent de lion, name from N. Korea) is visiting Hue ? (24 Aug 2010)

Viet Nam Government urges Labor Ministry to issue new poverty standards

VietNamNet Bridge - The Government has recently urged the Ministry of Labor, War Invalids, and Social Affairs (MOLISA) to quickly issue new poverty benchmarks.

Vietnam has adjusted its poverty standards five times. The country is implementing a national program on poverty reduction for 2006-2010, which aims to reduce the poverty rate from 18.2 percent in 2006 to 10-11 percent in 2010.

According to the current standards, poor households are defined as those whose average monthly income is no higher than 200,000 dong and 260,000 dong per person for rural and urban areas respectively.

Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Sinh Hung said that the new poverty standard must serve to encourage the poor’s self-reliance and prevent their dependence on State assistance.

The new poverty standard will be developed based on the following six criteria: scientific calculation, minimum spending needs, suitability and comparability to international and regional standards, priority for mountainous and rural areas, compatibility with State resources, and support for provincial officials to survey households.

The MOLISA suggested that the poverty baseline should be 500,000 person/month and 400.000 person/month for urban and rural areas, respectively. If the above suggestion is passed, Vietnam will still have around 3.3 million poor households, the equivalent of 16.5 million poor people.

It is estimated the new program on poverty reduction will need an additional 5,700 billion dong.

The new poverty benchmark will be the basis for provinces and cities throughout the country to set their own poverty baseline so that they are in line with actual conditions.

Currently, nine cities and provinces have higher poverty standards than the average, including HCM City, Hanoi, Binh Duong, Da Nang, Dong Nai, Khanh Hoa, Ba Ria-Vung Tau, Binh Phuoc, and Long An.

Saturday, August 21, 2010

The breathing earth simulation

Welcome to Breathing Earth.
This real-time simulation displays the CO2 emissions of every country in the world, as well as their birth and death rates.
Please remember that this real time simulation is just that: a simulation. Although the CO2 emission, birth rate and death rate data used in Breathing Earth comes from reputable sources, data that measures things on such a massive scale can never be 100% accurate. Please note however that the CO2 emission levels shown here are much more likely to be too low than they are to be too high.

See Breathing Earth Site

August 21 is Earth Overshoot Day

August 21st marks an unfortunate milestone: the day in which we exhaust our ecological budget for the year. Once we pass this day, humanity will have demanded all the ecological services – from filtering CO2 to producing the raw materials for food – that nature can provide this year. From that point until the end of the year, we meet our ecological demand by liquidating resource stocks and accumulating carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

What is Earth Overshoot Day?

Every year, Global Footprint Network calculates nature’s supply in the form of biocapacity, the amount of resources the planet generates, and compares that to human demand: the amount it takes to produce all the living resources we consume and absorb our carbon dioxide emissions. Earth Overshoot Day, a concept devised by U.K.-based new economics foundation, marks the day when demand on ecological services begins to exceed the renewable supply.

What is Overshoot?

For most of human history, humanity has been able to live off of nature’s interest—consuming resources and producing carbon dioxide at a rate lower than what the planet was able to regenerate and reabsorb each year.

But approximately three decades ago, we crossed a critical threshold, and the rate of human demand for ecological services began to outpace the rate at which nature could provide them. This gap between demand and supply—known as ecological overshoot—has grown steadily each year. Global Footprint Network’s most recent data show that it takes one year and five months to generate the ecological services (production of resources and absorption of CO2) that humanity requires in one year.

The Cost of Ecological Overspending

Of course, we only have one Earth. The fact that we are using (or “spending” natural capital) faster than it can replenish is similar to having expenditures that continually exceed income. In planetary terms, the results of our ecological overspending are becoming more clear by the day. Climate change – a result of carbon being emitted faster than it can be reabsorbed by the forests and seas – is the most obvious and arguably pressing result. But there are others as well: shrinking forests, species loss, fisheries collapse and freshwater stress to name a few.

How is Earth Overshoot Day Calculated?

Put simply, Earth Overshoot Day shows the day on which our total Ecological Footprint (measured in global hectares) is equal to the biocapacity (also measured in global hectares) that nature can regenerate in that year. For the rest of the year, we are accumulating debt by depleting our natural capital and letting waste accumulate.

[ world biocapacity / world Ecological Footprint ] x 365 = Earth Overshoot Day Day

The day of the year on which humanity enters into overshoot and begins adding to our ecological debt is calculated by calculating the ratio of global available biocapacity to global Ecological Footprint and multiplying by 365. From this, we find the number of days of demand that the biosphere could supply, and the number of days we operate in overshoot.

Figure tracks for Viet Nam the per-person resource demand (Ecological Footprint) and resource supply (Biocapacity) in Viet Nam since 1961. Biocapacity varies each year with ecosystem management, agricultural practices (such as fertilizer use and irrigation), ecosystem degradation, and weather.

More details on Global Footprint network

Friday, August 20, 2010

MYANMAR: Nargis now a development issue, says Yangon

ANGON, 20 August 2010 (IRIN) - Myanmar’s government surprised the international aid community this week by ending centralized coordination of the response to Cyclone Nargis, which in 2008 devastated the Delta region, leaving tens of thousands of families without adequate shelter two years later.

The government inherited its coordination role from the Tripartite Core Group (TCG) at the end of July.

On 16 August, Myanmar’s Ministry of Social Welfare Relief and Resettlement (MoSWRR) told international NGOs and UN agencies that the post-Nargis Delta recovery should be “mainstreamed into development activities, and the responsibility of coordinating those activities will therefore no longer fall to the MoSWRR, but the respective line ministries, and will therefore require new memorandums of understanding.”

The Ministry of Social Welfare will continue in its traditional role as line ministry for disaster risk reduction activities.

The ministry furthermore announced that no Nargis-related visas would be extended, and no new visas would be granted under the old arrangement, which allowed humanitarian aid workers fairly easy access to the affected areas to support post-Nargis recovery efforts. More than 90 humanitarian workers with international NGOs or UN agencies now have an uncertain visa status.

“It comes as a surprise, but we are appealing for an interim period with extensions of agreements and visas, during which the agencies can apply for their new memorandums of understanding,” Bishow Parajuli, UN Resident Coordinator in Myanmar, told IRIN.

“With the election period coming up, we know everyone will be very busy, so we are concerned that it might take too long to get new memorandums of understanding, and assistance might be interrupted, which would have negative consequences for the people in need of continued assistance,” Parajuli said.

Recent assessments conducted in the delta, including Periodic Review 4 and Social Impacts Monitoring 3, concluded that some areas of Labutta and Bogale are still in an emergency state, more than two years after Nargis hit the Ayeyarwady Delta in May 2008.

“There is still a great need for assistance in the Delta, and the ministry made it clear that they welcomed continued assistance at the meeting. We had very good cooperation with the MoSWRR and TCG, people were benefitting, and it is possible to deliver aid effectively in Myanmar,” Parajuli said.

On 18 June, at the Third Recovery Forum held in the capital Nay Pyi Taw, the humanitarian community was assured by ministries present that recovery would continue beyond the TCG, suggesting that the decision was made by more senior members of the government.

The Post-Nargis Recovery and Preparedness Plan (PoNREPP), recovery plan approved by the government, is a three-year programme that has reached its halfway mark.

Cyclone Nargis claimed more than 138,000 lives and affected 2.4 million people, leaving nearly half needing assistance.

The TCG’s mandate, whose duration was stipulated by the government, ended on 31 July. The TCG - comprising the government, the UN and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations - was established after Nargis to facilitate access to the country’s Ayeyarwady Delta, assess the needs, and develop a recovery plan.

Thursday, August 19, 2010

Deux français lauréats de la Médaille Fields

La médaille Fields, considérée comme le “Nobel des mathématiques”, a été décernée jeudi 19 août à deux Français Cédric Villani et Ngo Bao Chau, ainsi qu’à l’Israélien Elon Lindenstrauss et au Russo-suédois Stanislav Smirnov, selon les organisateurs.

Les prix ont été remis aux lauréats par le président indien Pratibha Patil à l’ouverture du Congrès international des mathématiciens (CIM) 2010 qui doit réunir plus de 3.000 mathématiciens du monde entier à partir de jeudi et jusqu’au 27 août à Hyderabad, dans le sud de l’Inde.

Cédric Villani, 36 ans, directeur de l’Institut Henri Poincaré (IHP) à Paris depuis juillet 2009 et professeur à l’Ecole normale supérieure de Lyon, est récompensé pour des travaux portant notamment sur “l’amortissement de Landau” et l’équation de Boltzmann, physicien et mathématicien autrichien de la fin du 19e siècle.

Ngo Bao Chau, 38 ans, né en 1972 à Hanoi et naturalisé français en 2010, qui enseigne à l’université de Paris-Sud, a reçu la médaille Fields pour sa démonstration, en 2008, du “Lemme fondamental”, une conjecture formulée en 1987.
Récemment vérifiée par les experts du domaine, cette démonstration de plus de 150 pages a été citée en décembre dernier dans le magazine Times “comme l’une des dix plus belles découvertes scientifiques de l’année”, rappelle l’université de Paris-Sud dans un communiqué.

For your shelves ! New publications

Advancing climate change adaptation in developing countries: an overview of the UNDP-GEF adaptation portfolio

This overview highlights projects supporting measures that minimize climate change damage by reducing the risk, or the adverse effects, of climate change, through support to LDCs, advancing achievement of the Millennium Development Goals, and supporting grassroots actions for policy change. The UNDP-Global Environment Facility (GEF) projects in climate change help developing countries and economies in transition to contribute to the overall objective of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)

See Document

Cuba risk reduction management centres, best practices in risk reduction

This document aims to systematize the best practices of the Cuban model of Risk Reduction Management Centres, which have been supported by United Nations Development Programme Cuba through diverse initiatives. This model establishes the possibility of mitigating disaster impacts through an informed, coordinated, multi-disciplinary and decentralized approach which focuses on identifying hazards and acting pre-emptively to reduce risks. This approach has contributed to the excellent track record in Cuba of protecting human life and livelihoods through preparedness and institutional capacity building at a local level.
See Document

Land and natural disasters: guidance for practitioners

The Guidelines provide a holistic approach to addressing land issues from the immediate aftermath of a natural disaster through early recovery and reconstruction phases. Disaster risk reduction is included as a sector from a humanitarian perspective in section 5, Land as a cross-cutting issue, sections: 5.2 Land and the landless; 5.4 Land use and settlement planning; 5.5 Access to land for relocation and infrastructure; among other references.
It is targeted at humanitarians and land professionals, as well as government officials. The Guidelines take an inter-disciplinary approach to land, one that also brings together humanitarian emergency relief and early recovery perspectives. Throughout the text, readers will find many short cases illustrating practical aspects of bringing land issues into the post-disaster recovery process. Tools and other useful references are also included. The information provided in these Guidelines will be of interest and use to anyone directly working to support rapid yet sustainable recovery of human settlements following a natural disaster. The Guidelines were produced through a partnership between UN-HABITAT, the Global Land Tool Network (GLTN), FAO and the Early Recovery Cluster.
See Document

3rd international disaster and risk conference IDRC Davos 2010: major conference outcomes
This outline of the IDRC Davos 2010 conference outcomes, with its motto “Risks, Disasters, Crisis and Global Change – From Threats to Sustainable Opportunities”, marks the conference as another milestone toward the integration of the ever more complex and interwoven portfolio of risks, security and disaster related topics, themes and trends. It outlines the many thematic areas addressed including: integrated risk, sustainable development and the MDGs, climate change adaptation and policy, drought and desertification, critical infrastructure, information and communication technologies, urban risk, and risk, culture, ethics and behavioural change.

See Document

Why is the world not responding as Pakistan drowns?

NEW DELHI (AlertNet) - Scant international donations to flooded Pakistan are being driven by a multitude of factors ranging from the financial crisis, donor fatigue, a low death toll and scepticism that the government can translate the contributions into effective aid, say relief workers and analysts.

The disaster, which has killed up to 1,600 people and affected 20 million, is one of the biggest humanitarian crises in recent years - bigger than the Indian Ocean tsunami in 2004 or the earthquake in Haiti earlier this year, according to the United Nations.

Yet despite the television images broadcast across the world showing large swathes of land submerged, villages and towns decimated and hundreds of thousands of people living in makeshift camps with no food and water, the world has been slow to react to calls for aid.

While some donations in cash and kind have been provided bilaterally or channeled via smaller appeals, only about 45 percent of the $459 million of the main U.N. appeal has been met by international donors - far less than in other recent disasters.

“It’s pretty much fair to say that there has been a lot less money generated for the Pakistan floods than the other major disasters that it has been compared to, like Haiti and Kashmir earthquakes or the tsunami,” said Jan Kellett, leader of Global Humanitarian Assistance, a programme that monitors trends in humanitarian financing run by British-based Development Alternatives.

“For example, on day 16 after the tsunami, commitments of aid were more than $1.4 billion, whereas the Pakistan flooding has received $200 million over the same period. So there is a huge difference.”

NO MONEY LEFT?

Stretching from the far north of the country to the deep south - an area the size of England, Pakistan’s floods have overwhelmed aid workers and authorities since they began almost three weeks ago.

Highways and bridges have been washed away, marooning hundreds of villages. Millions are now in danger of contracting diseases carried through contaminated water and insects such as diarrhoea, cholera and malaria.

Aid workers say the lack of funds has meant that only a tiny fraction of the 8 million people in need of urgent assistance have received food rations, clean drinking water and shelter.

Donor fatigue has, as in most disasters, become a significant challenge to getting the funds required, aid workers say.

“The disaster has not come at a good time,” said Tammy Hasselfeldt, Pakistan director for the International Rescue Committee, an aid group, and chairwoman of the Pakistan Humanitarian Forum, a coalition of 37 of the biggest aid agencies in the country.

“First, it comes during the financial crisis and then it comes after the Haiti earthquake where donors have already made a huge aid commitment… It may be hard for them to fund another major disaster in a given fiscal year due to their budgetary restraints.”

Others say the complexity of the disaster - the varying flood patterns and degree of help required in different parts of the country - may have made it difficult for donors to understand its effects.

“I think the sheer scale of the disaster means it is very hard for people to comprehend and put it into context,” said Ben Ramalingam, head of research and development at ALNAP, a network of major international humanitarian agencies.

“I suspect the low death toll of about 1,600 has also played a part in slow response. Some might argue that if more people died, then sadly it would be easier to mobilise donors. While we have seen pictures of the floods on our TV screens and maps of the affected areas, it may be that there hasn’t been enough of a human face to this disaster yet.”

TARNISHED IMAGE?

As the Pakistani military has been spearheading relief efforts, the civilian government has been criticised for its ineffective response and President Asif Ali Zardari has been slammed for going ahead with an official visit to Europe while the disaster unfolded.

Many survivors have received no aid and public anger is growing. Some flood victims have blocked highways to demand government help or to try and snatch relief goods from passing trucks.

Some analysts believe this tarnished image of the government - and a more general perception of corruption in Pakistan - could be discouraging donors from coming to the rescue. But other experts disagree.

“No government anywhere, including in the developed world, would have been able to deal with a calamity of this magnitude on its own,” said Samina Ahmed, South Asia project director for the International Crisis Group.

“Zardari’s visit to Europe was a bad political call, but you have to look at the facts on the ground, at the size of the disaster, instead of looking for scapegoats.”

Some observers draw parallels with the earthquake in Haiti, which attracted around $3 billion in international aid despite concerns over corruption and the collapse of the entire government machinery.

GLOBAL ATTENTION

According to the latest figures from the U.N. Financial Tracking System, the top donor has been the United States - a key ally of Pakistan - contributing almost 40 percent of the $208 million committed so far to the U.N. appeal.

Australia and the United Kingdom have each provided almost 13 percent of the money, while the European Commission has provided less than 1 percent.

Neva Khan, Pakistan director at aid group Oxfam, said the British government had made “a good start” pledging more than 30 million pounds ($47 million).

“But it can and should do much more to help the people of Pakistan. This is a disaster on an unprecedented scale which needs an equally robust response. Britain should be leading from the front by committing more aid money and pressing other wealthy countries, especially its EU partners, to do the same. So far, the response from Europe has been feeble,” she added.

Experts say everyone - Pakistan’s government, the United Nations and aid agencies - need to do more to grab donors’ attention.

The weekend visit by U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki Moon to Pakistan where he described the plight of survivors as “heart-wrenching” has gone some way towards that, but that is not enough.

Aid workers say Zardari should declare a national emergency because it would help the world understand the seriousness of the crisis and draw in more funds.

Explaining the scale and nature of the disaster, what the needs are and exactly how aid is going to be delivered could also help.

“We are planning a whole series and sequence of events from the autumn into the winter to maintain the crucial international attention and focus on the extent of the crisis and the massive needs of the people of Pakistan,” said Kilian Kleinschmidt, deputy to the U.N. Secretary General’s Special Envoy to Pakistan, adding that the U.N. General Assembly would hold a special session on Pakistan on Thursday.

“Pakistan will require our continued and sustained engagement to recover.”

Wednesday, August 18, 2010

Viet Nam: IFRC - VNRC Shelter reconstruction programme with DWF technical Assistance

Summary:
... In shelter, considerable strides have been taken forward in terms of actual construction beginning in the second half of July in seven of the selected provinces; and technical training sessions for Viet Nam Red Cross (VNRC) chapter staff and people’s committee representatives at province, district and commune levels as well as local builders. Working with VNRC, the programme’s technical partner (DWF) under this operation conducted field surveys, with special attention to ethnic minority communities in the Kon Tum and Gia Lai provinces. House designs which take into consideration the various cultural norms, geographical locations and common hazards of each community were also presented to and selected by beneficiaries themselves. These designs also conform to Vietnamese national and local government standards.

See Full report IFRC MDRVN006 N°9 18th August 2010

Extreme weather unlikely to help climate talks

* Weather extremes seen adding stridency, not solutions
* But still deadlock at U.N. talks between rich and poor

OSLO, Aug 17 (Reuters) - Extreme weather in 2010 will spur more strident calls for action to combat global warming but is unlikely to break a deadlock at U.N. climate talks about sharing the burden between rich and poor.

Islamabad, for instance, has blamed mankind’s emissions of greenhouse gases for devastating floods that have killed up to 1,600 people. And Russian President Dmitry Medvedev similarly directly linked the summer heat wave on global warming.

But there is no sign so far that major emitters—Moscow is the number three greenhouse gas emitter behind China and the United States—are offering to do more to combat climate change to overcome gridlock at U.N. talks.

One delegate at the last U.N. talks, in Bonn in early August, said there was a “huge sense of inertia” despite worries about extreme weather and U.N. projections that 2010 would be the warmest year since records began in the 1850s.

And there are risks that extreme weather will add to rather than resolve tensions between rich nations, historically most to blame for global warming, and poor countries most vulnerable to floods, droughts and cyclones.

Climate change might even supplant decades-old debate about the legacy of colonial rule as a cause of friction between rich and poor nations.

“Global warming could turn into the post-colonial argument, which could destroy much of the negotiating possibilities,” said Johan Rockstrom, head of the Stockholm Resilience Centre at Stockholm University.

MORE REAL

“Climate change is becoming a much more firm reality on the ground for many countries,” said Saleemul Huq, a senior fellow at the International Institute for Environment and Development in London.

He said that would bring a greater sense of urgency at the next annual U.N. climate talks of environment ministers in Mexico, from Nov. 29-Dec. 10, after the Copenhagen summit last December agreed only a non-binding deal to slow climate change.

Rich and poor nations are already split about how to share out needed curbs on greenhouse gas emissions. Developing nations say the rich must make far deeper cuts while the rich want poor nations to do more to limit their growing emissions.

Experts doubt major breakthroughs at the Cancun talks, partly because the United States has not joined other developed nations in capping emissions.

Russia and Pakistan have squarely linked extreme weather to global warming—going beyond the views of most climate scientists that climate change merely loads the dice in favour of extreme weather but cannot be linked to individual events.

Pakistan’s Environment Minister Hameed Ullah Jan Afridi said global warming was the “main cause” of floods and noted that Pakistan emits just 0.4 percent of world greenhouse gases. Up to 1,600 people have been killed and two million made homeless in Pakistan’s worst floods in decades [ID:nSGE67G084].

Medvedev said of wildfires and Russia’s drought on Aug. 4: “Unfortunately, what is happening now in our central regions is evidence of this global climate change, because we have never in our history faced such weather conditions in the past.”

“That’s a very good sign for the Russian public, which still has a lot of doubts about climate change,” said Alexei Kokorin of the WWF conservation group in Russia. He said many Russians doubted that global warming was caused by mankind.

Arild Moe, an expert on Russian climate policy at the Fridtjof Nansen Institute in Oslo, said Medvedev had sometimes failed to carry out hints of tougher policies in the past.

“Medvedev has said many correct things on many issues, from corruption to the role of NGOs, but they have not got embedded in a legal process,” Moe said.

And Moscow’s goal for greenhouse gas emissions in 2020 foresees a rise from current levels. Russia’s emissions tumbled after the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union and were still 33 percent below 1990 levels in 2008 [ID:nLDE63K17Z].

China, the top greenhouse gas emitter ahead of the United States, has not directly blamed climate change for floods and landslides that have killed more than 2,000 people.

But a commentary in the Beijing Daily last week said that an increased frequency of disasters meant that “climate change presents a real threat to China’s natural ecological systems and economic and social development.”

China’s Xie Zhenhua, head of the powerful National Development and Reform Commission, called in January for an “open attitude” to climate science, saying some believed change was caused by “a cyclical element of the nature itself”

Tuesday, August 17, 2010

Rebuilding after Pakistan floods could reach $15 bln

* Cost of reconstruction could reach $15 billion
* Full assessment of damage yet to be carried out
* Death toll estimated at 2,000 and still rising
* The floods have “dislocated everything”

LONDON, Aug 16 (Reuters) - The cost of rebuilding Pakistan after its devastating floods could exceed $10 to $15 billion, the country’s High Commissioner to Britain said on Monday.

He said this was a rough estimate because an assessment of the extent of the damage caused by the floods—which have affected 20 million people—had yet to be carried out.

But the number gave an indication of the scale of the reconstruction needed after the floods swept away roads, bridges and telecommunications, and destroyed crops for food supplies, exports and cotton for its vital textile industry. “It will take at least five years,” High Commissioner Wajid Shamsul Hasan told Reuters in an interview. Asked about the cost of rebuilding, he said, “I think more than $10 to $15 billion.”

Pakistan, already embroiled in a battle against Islamist militants, is appealing for international aid to help it cope with one of the worst natural disasters in its history.

The United Nations says only a quarter of the estimated $459 million in international aid needed just for immediate relief has arrived so far.

Hasan said about 2,000 people had died—earlier estimates put the death toll at 1,600—and said this number was expected to rise as people began to die of disease.

But if dealing with the immediate crisis was hard enough, an even bigger challenge would be in rebuilding the country.

Failure to provide relief and reconstruction would be exploited by Islamist militants fighting to overthrow the state—bringing with it instability which would engulf the region.

“If something happens to Pakistan, the whole region will be plunged into Balkanisation. You can’t stop it there.”

MEMORIES OF CYCLONE BEFORE 1971 WAR

He said he was not suggesting Pakistan would collapse, but nonetheless drew a parallel with a cyclone which hit then East Pakistan in 1970 which fuelled resentment against the government—then, as now, it was accused of not doing enough.

This fall-out from the cyclone exacerbated tensions which led to a war in 1971 in which East Pakistan, with help from India, broke away to become Bangladesh.

And comparing the devastation from the floods to that of the cyclone, he said, “It is worse than that.”

The World Bank has said that $1 billion in crops have been lost. On top of that is damage to infrastructure, to schools, hospitals and houses, to dairy farming, and to industry. “These floods have really dislocated everything,” Hasan said.

The government has been criticised for its slow response to the floods, while President Asif Ali Zardari was slammed for pressing ahead with a visit to Britain and France as the scale of the disaster became clear.

Misgivings about the government, and concerns about corruption, have been cited by some analysts as a reason for a relatively slow response by western donors to the floods.

Hasan also acknowledged that in a world still struggling to come out of economic crisis, finding the money would be hard.

“That is how our tragedy has been compounded.”

But he said given the scale of the disaster, the government was doing its best, adding that 85,000 people had been rescued by the navy.

He also noted Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani and opposition leader, former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, had agreed to set up an independent commission—made up of people “of impeccable integrity”—to oversee relief work to ensure there would be no accusations of government misuse of funds.

After the flood waters receded, the World Bank and other institutions would have to assess the damage.

“In the longer term, when the water subsides, we need reconstruction ... We’ll have to have a long-term plan, something like the Marshall Plan.”

Friday, August 13, 2010

Adaptation to climate change: linking disaster risk reduction and insurance

Considering insurance in reducing disaster risk and advancing adaptation
Authors: K. Warner; N. Ranger; S. Surminski / Publisher: International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (ISDR), 2010

Full text of document

Development gains are increasingly at risk from climate change among other pressures. Adverse changes are already being observed in the amount, intensity, frequency and type of precipitation, resulting in drought, floods and tropical storms. Climate change threatens to undermine poorer countries to absorb loss and recover from disaster impacts. This paper addresses the potential role of insurance in reducing disaster risk and advancing adaptation. The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) identified disaster risk reduction strategies and risk transfer mechanisms including insurance as potential elements in a new climate agreement.

The document cautions, however, that insurance has the following limitations:

* it does not prevent the loss of lives or assets
*  it is not always the most appropriate option to manage risks, in terms of affordability
*  with climate change, insurance tools will be challenged to cover increasingly frequent and intense events
*  traditional insurance may not be the appropriate tool for longer term foreseeable risks like sea-level rise and desertification
*  insurance alone is not the solution because it could fail to reduce risk and to advance adaptation unless it is implemented along with disaster risk reduction measures.

The authors also state that collaboration between the insurance industry and the public sector can promote risk reduction in a number of ways:

- awareness raising and risk education: insurers and government can partner to make available risk data and information systems
- risk pricing: by accurately pricing risk, insurers can incentivise risk reducing decision making
- enabling conditions and regulation of insurance programs: through legislation, financial oversight and monitoring, government can provide incentives for insurance to promote risk-reducing activities
- direct financing of risk reduction measures: insurers can invest directly in risk reduction measures to avoid large compensation claims
- risk reduction as a prerequisite for insurance: as a prerequisite for coverage, insurers can require that policy holders undertake specific disaster risk reduction measures.

Appropriately embedded among risk reduction measures and with the right incentives, insurance has important potential to reduce disaster risk and advance adaptation. The paper identifies the following considerations for designing insurance programs:

¤ careful planning and close coordination in the implementation of insurance with disaster risk reduction measures
¤ raising community risk awareness
¤ investing in the gathering and dissemination of risk information
¤ government regulation to ensure a longer term focus on risk reduction from insurers
¤ government regulation to ensure insurer solvency, licensing and insurance distribution.

Thursday, August 12, 2010

Impacts of climate change on agriculture and policy options for adaptation - The case of Vietnam

Source: International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI)
Date: 10 Aug 2010

Vietnam is likely to be among the countries hardest hit by climate change, mainly through rising sea levels and changes in rainfall and temperatures. Agriculture can be extensively affected by climate change, and designing effective adaptation strategies will be critical for maintaining food security, rural employment, and foreign exchange earnings. This paper examines these critical issues and thereby makes two contributions to the literature. First, we estimate the impacts of climate change on agricultural and water systems in Vietnam based on crop simulation, hydrological simulation, and river basin models. We then present a yield function approach that models technology advances and policy interventions to improve rice productivity and mitigate the impact of climate change, using a multilevel mixed effects model. This two-pronged approach allows rice yield changes to be linked with both biophysical and socioeconomic conditions. The results indicate that rice production is likely to be severely compromised by climate change. However, investment in rural infrastructure, such as irrigation and road, and human capital can mitigate the negative impacts of climate change. Due to substantial regional variations in impacts and responses, localized policy packages will be key for effective mitigation. Government policies targeting ethnic-minority and poor communities will be especially important components of climate change adaptation strategies.

See Report

Tuesday, August 10, 2010

Rising temperatures threaten rice yield growth—study

* Rice yields threatened by higher temperatures
* Study finds daily minimum temperatures rising faster
* Farmers need to adapt practices to beat the heat impacts

SINGAPORE, Aug 10 (Reuters) - Rising temperatures could slow the growth of rice production unless farmers adapt by changing management practices and switch to more heat-tolerant varieties, scientists say.

Rice is among the world’s most important crops and a staple for people in Asia and Africa, with Asia producing and consuming more than 90 percent of the world’s output.

A drop in production could lead to higher prices, fears over food security and more hunger in a world with a rising human population.

A team of researchers led by Jarrod Welch of the University of California, San Diego, found that rice yields drop as night time temperatures rise over time, although the exact reasons why are not perfectly understood.

“With few exceptions, most statistical studies on temperature and rice yield have focused on the impact of daily mean temperature,” the team says in the study, published online in the latest issue of the U.S. journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Previous research had found that higher maximum day time temperatures can be beneficial up to a point, beyond which they can be harmful. But higher daily minimum or night-time temperatures can trim or wipe out any gains.

The study is believed to be the first to look at the impact of daily maximum and minimum temperatures on irrigated rice production in farmer-managed rice fields in tropical and subtropical regions of Asia.

The team, which included researchers from the International Rice Research Institute in the Philippines and the U.N.‘s Food and Agriculture Organisation, studied data from 227 irrigated rice farms in six Asian countries.

UNIQUE

The data covered six years from 1994-1999 based on a major study by IRRI on the productivity of intensively managed irrigated rice farms in China, Vietnam, the Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand and India.

“Our study is unique because it uses data collected in farmers’ fields, under real-world conditions,” Welch said.

Using longer-term data, the researchers found that rising temperatures during the past 25 years have already cut the yield growth rate by 10-20 percent in several locations in the study areas.

Temperature increases at night, depending on the quarter of the year and the site, were anywhere from 0.3 degrees Celsius to 0.6 deg C. on an aggregate basis.

“We see some increases in maximum temperatures but we see much more consistently increases in night-time temperature,” Welch told Reuters by telephone.

This meant that future yield losses caused by higher night-time temperatures would likely outweigh any gains from slightly higher day time temperatures.

But sharply higher day time temperatures will also lead to lower yields as the plants become too stressed, IRRI and other researchers have found.

IRRI has already been developing heat-tolerant varieties. Welch said farmers in some areas could adapt by shifting the main growing season into the cooler months.

“There’s also the possibility that areas where rice is currently grown becomes too warm and production shifts to cooler areas,” Welch said.

But some areas such as Vietnam grow three rice crops a year in the Mekong Delta, with the highest yielding crop during the dry season. Shifting production to cooler areas could be a huge challenge.

Sunday, August 08, 2010

Pakistan troops evacuate thousands in flood disaster

* Evacuations in two provinces
* Military leads rescue efforts
* Army takeover unlikely

SUKKUR, Pakistan, Aug 8 (Reuters) - Pakistani troops, spearheading relief efforts in the worst floods in 80 years, evacuated several thousand people in two provinces overnight after flood waters burst through river embankments, an official said on Sunday.

President Asif Ali Zardari’s civilian government has been overwhelmed by the biggest floods in 80 years which have killed over 1,600 people, disrupted 12 million lives and ruined many crops vital for the agriculture-based economy.

Pakistan’s military, which has maintained a dominant role in foreign and security policy even during civilian rule, is at the forefront of rescue and relief efforts, as it has done in previous crises in Pakistan.

Saleh Farooqui, director general of the National Disaster Management Authority in Sindh province, told Reuters up to 10,000 people were evacuated overnight in Punjab province, and several thousand in Sindh. Rescue efforts are still under way.

Zardari drew heavy criticism for leaving the country for officials visits in Europe during the crisis. He has said the prime minister was handling the crisis and reporting developments to him.

Even though relief efforts may have improved the military’s standing, and widened the perception that Pakistani civilian governments are too weak and inefficient to cope with disasters, analysts say a takeover bid is highly unlikely.

The army is busy fighting Taliban insurgents and does not want to be strapped with Pakistan’s enormous problems—from costly rebuilding after the floods to the struggle to attract foreign investment in a troubled economy to widespread poverty.

“I don’t think they are willing to dump Zardari,” said Kamran Bokhari, Regional Director, Middle East and South Asia at global intelligence firm STRATFOR.

“The current army leadership…is very clear that there is a war that needs to be waged.”

Floodwaters have roared down from as far away as Afghanistan and India through the northwest to the agricultural heartland of Punjab and on to southern Sindh along a trail more than 1,000 km (600 miles) long.

Heavy rain is expected to lash the country again raising the prospect that more homes and crops will be swept away.

Many people are still stranded. Others have been evacuated from their villages but are living out in the open, with little food or drinking water.

Flooding has also taken a toll over the border in the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir, where rain was hampering rescue and relief efforts. Flash floods have killed at least 132 people in the Himalayan region of Ladakh.

Mudslides engulfed a town in northwest China on Sunday, killing at least 80 people and leaving 2,000 residents missing as rescue teams dug through crushed homes and readied a blast to dislodge debris blocking a river. (Additional reporting by Augustine Anthony in Islamabad; Editing by Nick Macfie)

Saturday, August 07, 2010

Viet Nam: Evacuation measures only partially effective for annually flooded central region

Date: 04 Aug 2010

A host of central residents relocated to resettlement areas have lamented that the policy has left them in less than ideal circumstances, as they now lack land for agricultural production.

In the historic flood of 1999, which severely devastated the central region, the Vu Gia riverside village Phuong Trung was eliminated in Dai Quang Commune, Dai Loc District, Quang Nam Province. The village residents had nothing left as their houses together with other properties were swept into the sea.

Local authorities then decided to build a new village on a hill, 3 kilometers from the old village, to evacuate residents without any plan for farming production. Over the past ten years, people there have lived a difficult life.

Le Thi Kim, 62-year-old woman said that she is single but has to bring up her brother’s two orphaned children and her 86-year-old mother. Everyday, she leaves the village early in the morning to seek any work, including doing housework and taking care of other children in order to buy food.

“I am old now and just wish to have a garden to cultivate rice and vegetables,” she said.

Another village inhabitant named Pham Van Vinh said that he could not raise pigs or chicken as they all die due to the sweltering weather. He said his family earned VND30 million from breeding and selling groceries each year when they lived in the old village.

Also after the 1999 flood, 18 households in Ha Lac Village, Quang Loi Commune, Quang Dien District, Thua Thien-Hue Province were evacuated to a resettlement area. After over 10 years, they continue to experience a rough existence without electricity, paved roads, fresh water or schools. As a result, 14 of the 18 households have left their resettlement homes to return the old village or have traveled to other provinces and cities to earn livelihoods.

Hundreds of resettlement areas have been built in Thua Thien-Hue since 2005, in response to floods and storms. However, several residents have left the new houses to return to their old homes. As a result, the number of people that must evacuate when floods and storms occur still tops 80,000 in the province each year.

Resettlement

Hundreds of tottery houses are found dangerously close to waves that crash along the beaches in Hoai Nhon, Phu My and Phu Cat districts and Quy Nhon town of Binh Dinh Province.

One year after his house was swallowed by ocean tides, Vo Ngoc Van’s family, in Nhon Ly Commune of Quy Nhon town, is still awaiting resettlement.

Van’s house fell into the sea due to heavy rains caused by a tropical low-pressure system that swept through the area in May of 2009. His family has had to live with relatives. He said that local authorities have promised to arrange resettlement for his family, but one year has gone by and they have done nothing.

Most households said they agreed to evacuate from landslide prone areas to new resettlement areas, according to Pham Dung, who resettled at An My Commune in Phu My District. However, life remains difficult for them; to build a new house costs tens of millions, while the State only assists each family with VND10 million (US$526).

Binh Dinh People’s Committee has arranged resettlement for nearly 2,300 households in the province. However, they reported difficulties implementing this plan, due to a lack of capital.

Effective solution

The first flood-prevention houses in the central region were built in Ngu Hanh Son District of Danang City. Each two-story home was built solidly on 300 square meters and include a bathroom, reading room, kitchen and container that can hold 1,000 liters of fresh water.

Last year, when local people rushed to these houses to avoid floods, rescuers easily delivered rice and instant noodles to each house using motorboats.

The Central Natural Disasters Relief Fund has sponsored construction of 21 works to prevent natural disasters in low-lying areas in 10 central provinces and cities, said the fund director Nguyen Dang Lam.

The houses are used not only for avoiding floods, but also for other activities including musical performances, medical checks and treatment and teaching.

The fund will continue financing the building of another 30 works, including 15 flood-prevention houses in the region this year, Lam revealed.

On the other hand, Nguyen Thi Tuyet Mai from Quang Binh Province said that the State should provide residents with loans to rebuild or reinforce their houses, which would ease the local authorities’ pressure to evacuate residents during storm and flood seasons.

Thursday, August 05, 2010

Hellman/Hammett grants for free expression

(New York) - Human Rights Watch announced Hellman/Hammett grants today for 42 writers from 20 countries in recognition of their commitment to free expression and courage in the face of political persecution.
All are writers whose work and activism have been suppressed by their governments. Beyond their own experiences, they represent numerous other writers and journalists whose personal and professional lives have been disrupted as a result of repressive government policies that aim to control speech and publications.
The Hellman/Hammett grants are administered by Human Rights Watch and given annually to writers around the world who have been targets of political persecution. The grant program began in 1989, when the American playwright Lillian Hellman stipulated in her will that her estate should be used to assist writers in financial need as a result of expressing their views.
“The Hellman/Hammett grants aim to help writers who dare to express ideas that criticize official public policy or people in power,” said Marcia Allina, Hellman/Hammett grant coordinator. “Many of the writers share a common purpose with Human Rights Watch: to protect the human rights of vulnerable people by shining a light on abuses and building public pressure to promote lasting, positive change.”
Governments have used military and presidential decrees, criminal charges, and libel and sedition laws to try to silence this year’s Hellman/Hammett awardees. They have been harassed, assaulted, indicted, jailed on trumped-up charges, or tortured merely for providing information from nongovernmental sources. In addition to those who are directly targeted, many others are forced to practice self-censorship.
Hellman was prompted to create the assistance program for writers by the persecution that she and her longtime companion, the novelist Dashiell Hammett, experienced during the 1950s anti-communist witch hunts in the US, when both were questioned by congressional committees about their political beliefs and affiliations. Hellman suffered professionally and had trouble finding work. Hammett spent time in prison.
In 1989, the executors of Hellman’s estate asked Human Rights Watch to devise a program to help writers who were targeted for expressing views that their government opposed, for criticizing government officials or actions, or for writing about things that their government did not want to come to light.
Over the past 21 years, more than 700 writers from 92 countries have received Hellman/Hammett grants of up to US$10,000 each, totaling more than $3 million. The program also gives small emergency grants to writers who have an urgent need to leave their country or who need immediate medical treatment after serving prison terms or enduring torture.

Writers from Viet Nam
Bui Thanh Hieu who blogs under the name “Nguoi Buon Gio” (Wind Trader), is one of Vietnam’s best known bloggers. His blog critiques the government’s China policy, its approval of controversial bauxite mines, and its mishandling of Catholic prayer vigils. Hieu was arrested in August 2009 and held for more than a week on charges of “abusing democratic freedom.” His house was searched and his laptop confiscated. In March 2010, Hieu was summoned and questioned by police for several days. He remains under surveillance and could be arrested and jailed at any time.

Nguyen Ngoc Nhu Quynh  who blogs under the name of “Me Nam” (Mother Mushroom) was detained and questioned after being photographed wearing a T-shirt with the words “No Bauxite, No China: Spratly and Paracel Islands belong to Vietnam.”  In September 2009, she was taken from her home in the middle of the night by police and questioned about blog postings that criticized government policies on China and its disputed claims to the Spratly Islands. She was released after 10 days, but remains under surveillance by police, who continue to pressure her to shut down her blog. Her application for a passport was rejected.

Pham Van Troi  has used various pen names to write about human rights, democracy, land rights, religious freedom and territorial disputes between China and Vietnam. He was an active member of the Committee for Human Rights in Vietnam, one of the few rights organizations permitted to operate in Vietnam, Â Â He wrote for the dissident bulletin To Quoc (Fatherland). Since 2006, he has been repeatedly harassed and summoned by police. He was arrested in September 2008 and charged with disseminating anti-government propaganda. In May 2009, the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention determined that Pham Van Troi had been wrongfully detained. Despite its conclusion, he was sentenced in October 2009 to four years in prison, followed by four years of house arrest.

Tran Duc Thach  has written a novel, hundreds of poems, and articles and reports that condemn corruption, injustice, and human rights abuses. A veteran of the People’s Liberation Army, he is a member of the Nghe An Writers Club. His 1988 novel, Doi Ban Tu (Two Companions in Prison) described the arbitrary nature of Vietnam’s legal system and the inhuman conditions in Vietnamese prisons. Poems published under the title Dieu Chua Thay (Things Still Untold) speak about life without freedom and justice. Tran Duc Thach has been repeatedly harassed since 1975. In 1978, the pressure became so harsh that he set himself on fire and was badly burned. Since then, he has been arrested 10 times and brought to court four times, each time released for lack of evidence. In 2009, the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention determined that he had been wrongfully and arbitrarily detained after his last arrest in September 2008. Despite this he was sentenced to a three-year prison term, which will be followed by three years of house arrest.Â

Tran Khai Thanh Thuy a prominent novelist and journalist, writes about farmers’ land rights, human rights, corruption, and political pluralism. She is often critical of the government and the Vietnamese Communist Party. In October 2006, she was denounced in a show trial before hundreds of people. The next month she was fired from her job as a journalist and placed under house arrest. In April 2007, she was arrested at her home and held incommunicado in B14 prison in Hanoi for nine months. In 2008 and 2009, she endured repeated harassment from police and orchestrated neighborhood gangs, including at least 14 attacks by thugs throwing excrement and dead rodents at her house. Then in October 2009, she was arrested after trying to attend the trials of fellow dissidents and is serving a 42-month prison term. She has diabetes and tuberculosis but has been refused medical care while in prison.

Vu Van Hung is a teacher and contributor to the dissident bulletin To Quoc (Fatherland), who was dismissed from his job because of his involvement with democracy activists and dissident writers. He was detained for nine days in 2007, then placed under house arrest. He wrote Nine Days in Jail to tell the story of his interrogation. In April 2008, he was arrested and severely beaten for joining a peaceful demonstration against China when the Beijing Olympic torch passed through Ho Chi Minh City. He was arrested again in September 2008 for hanging a banner on a bridge calling for multi-party democracy and is currently serving a three-year prison term, which is to be followed by three years of house arrest. His 2009 trial took place just months after the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention determined that he was a victim of wrongful and arbitrary detention. He is thought to be imprisoned at Hoa Lo 2 Prison in Hanoi, where he is suffering from health problems as a result of severe beatings during interrogation and a one-month hunger strike.

Wednesday, August 04, 2010

Philippines: Cash-strapped government battling storm loans

MANILA, 4 August 2010 (IRIN) - The perennially cash-strapped Philippines government is struggling with massive loans tied to climate change mitigation efforts after storms struck the country late last year, officials said.

Multilateral lending institutions, as well as the UN and foreign governments, lent the Philippines US$1.09 billion to address disasters blamed on climate change, according to data obtained by IRIN from the Senate’s environment committee, which is now looking into how the funds were spent and whether repayments could affect the country’s budget.

Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile, who is heading the inquiry, said funds to help the Philippines get back on its feet after tropical storm Ketsana and typhoon Parma in late 2009 should come in the form of grants and not loans tied to certain conditions.

The back-to-back storms killed more than 1,000 people and affected more than 10 million, according to government data. A third typhoon, Mirinae, exacerbated the emergency situation in October; most of those affected belonged to the third of the country’s 92 million who live on less than $1 a day. [http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=89921]

Not our doing

“We must stop the current practice of seeking concessional loans even as they come with very low interest rates from developed economies for our adaptation and mitigation efforts,” Enrile told reporters recently.

“We must also avoid foreign grants that impose conditions for the same purposes. If it becomes necessary for us to borrow money from foreign lenders, we must see to it that project loans are not blended with climate-related programme loans.”

He said the government must instead ensure that climate change be a key priority reflected in the national budget.

“The tremendous damage we suffer due to the effects of climate change is not our own doing,” Enrile said. “[It arises] from acts done by developed and industrialized countries. We are the victims, why should we pay back monies and assistance that they extend to us for adaptation and mitigation measures?

“Instead of loans and charitable grants, developed countries must pay actual compensation to developing countries,” he said.

Little left in fund

The controversy over the loans comes as the Philippines is grappling with its cash position, with President Benigno Aquino admitting shock after finding out upon assuming office on 30 June that last year’s typhoons had nearly depleted the country’s disaster fund of $44 million.

“Of this minuscule amount, at a time when the rainy season has yet to set in, 70 percent was already spent,” Aquino said, adding that the funds were mismanaged by the previous administration of Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, who stepped down after nine years in power.

Part of the problem is that funds from donors were also partly used to bridge the huge budget deficit, according to evidence uncovered by the Senate. For instance, a 150 million euro ($198 million) loan from Agence Française de Développement was spent to service the deficit, which had risen by 12.1 percent in the first three months of the year to $3.04 billion.

“At the very least, 20 percent of the loan should have been earmarked for its intended purposes, especially at this time when the country is beginning to experience another season of violent typhoons and storm surges,” said Heherson Alvarez, who heads the Climate Change Commission.