Puy Kea*

PHNOM PENH, Oct 31 2007 (IPS) – A Cambodian public official has weathered assassination threats and a slow-moving bureaucracy in this post-conflict country to create one of the most trusted and safest water supply systems in Asia.
It was bureaucratic and it was full of incompetent staffers, Ek Sonn Chan, director of Phnom Penh Water Supply Authority (PPWSA) said of the organisation he joined in October 1993. I fired many staff and my friends told me that I would be assassinated.

But the 57-year-old water champion , as Asian Development Bank (AsDB) hailed him, prevailed and transformed the authority into a model public water utility in Asia. For his work, he was awarded the 2006 Ramon Magsaysay Award for government service, the Asian equivalent of the Nobel …

Ranjita Biswas

KOLKATA, Nov 30 2007 (IPS) – Sex workers in this eastern metropolis are being encouraged to put pleasure back into their services as one way of limiting the spread of HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases (STDs).
Rajyashree Choudhuri, chief of the Institute of International Social Development (IISD), a non-governmental organisation (NGO), said the idea proceeded from formal surveys which showed that sex workers in Sonagachi, the largest red light area in the city, entertained more than five clients a day on average.

Many of them were married or had regular relationships too. So we encouraged them to have fewer clients or maybe a fixed number of loyal clients, she told IPS.

When the sex workers said they feared their earnings could drop, I…

Matthew Cardinale

WAYNESBORO, Georgia , Jan 14 2008 (IPS) – Residents and environmental activists are in a bitter dispute with large U.S. energy corporations and the federal government over the safety of nuclear power, as more than a dozen corporations plan to, or have filed, paperwork to open new nuclear power plants, primarily in the U.S. South.

A recent protest at the Oak Ridge nuclear plant in Tennessee. Credit: Nicholas Foster/Atlanta Progr…

Thalif Deen

UNITED NATIONS, Feb 20 2008 (IPS) – When the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) holds a two-week session beginning next Monday, one of the lingering issues high on the agenda will be the continued under-funding of women s activities at the United Nations.
The primary theme of the two-week CSW session Feb. 25 through March 7 is financing for gender equality and the empowerment of women.

We believe it is impossible to discuss financing for gender equality without discussing the structural mechanisms including within the United Nations system to deliver needed resources to improve women s lives on the ground, said June Zeitlin, executive director of the New York-based Women #39s Environment and Development Organisation (WEDO).

Without a strong…

Brahima Ouédraogo

OUAGADOUGOU, Mar 25 2008 (IPS) – Water is the origin of life I come from Central Africa where we have a lot of water, but it was when I came here that I really understood the meaning of this expression, says Antoinette Dinga Dzongo, the African Development Bank s representative in Burkina Faso, in reference to the need for improved water provision in this West African country.
Now, Burkina Faso has taken a significant step to addressing this problem, launching a national water and sanitation programme at a cost more than a billion dollars.

Encompassing both rural and urban areas, the initiative will provide 17,290 wells and connections to potable water supplies. This should enable 90 percent of the approximately 14 million inhabitants of the nation …

Stephen Leahy* – Tierramérica

CAPE TOWN, South Africa, May 3 2008 (IPS) – When we harm nature, we are harming ourselves, says Aaron Bernstein, a doctor at Harvard Medical School and one of the authors of the upcoming book Sustaining Life: How Human Health Depends on Biodiversity .

Caribbean snail (Conus geographus). Credit: Kerry Matz

Few people realise that our health is directly tied to the health of the natural world, Bernstein told Tierramérica

Bernstein and Harvard colleague Eric Chivian wrote and edited contributions from more t…

Adam Morrow and Khaled Moussa al-Omrani

CAIRO, Jun 11 2008 (IPS) – For the last two months, controversy has raged over planned construction of a massive fertiliser plant near the port city of Damietta. Residents fear the plant could adversely affect the local environment.
With a popular campaign against the project gaining momentum, some critics blame poor planning on the part of the government.

The government should never have approved construction of an industrial zone only six kilometres from the city, Hamdi Abdelazim, economist and former head of the Cairo-based Sadat Academy told IPS. Industrial areas should be built at least 40 kilometres from population centres.

Last year, the government initially approved the project, which is to be built and operate…

Skye Wheeler

JUBA, Jul 10 2008 (IPS) – A vast pregnancy has swollen the tiny woman walking South Sudan s shining new maternity ward clutching two pieces of paper stapled together. She looks no more than 16, wide-eyed with recent pain.

Aid flowing to South Sudan following a 2005 peace deal is beginning to improve health care for women. Credit: Manoocher Degati/IRIN

Ateino Maclean, one of only two fully-tr…

Julio Godoy

BERLIN, Aug 7 2008 (IPS) – The decision by a German constitutional court against a partial ban on smoking has led to calls for a new nationwide ban.
The court ruled last week that the present ban violates the rights of small bar owners who cannot build separate rooms for smokers.

The court ordered lawmakers to amend the ban by the end of next year. In the meantime, the court ruled that it will not apply to bars with less than 75 square metres of space.

The present ban was passed last year by the federal states after the central government said it had no national jurisdiction in health matters. The federal states banned smoking in closed public buildings, schools, universities, hospitals, railway stations and airports, and also in bars, restaurants …

Mantoe Phakathi

MBABANE, Sep 26 2008 (IPS) – An abandoned straw hut slumps amidst overgrown bushes on a somewhat deserted homestead. Only a foot path leading past it indicates that the place is still occupied. Beside it is the mis-shapen tent that is Joseph Mathe s new home.

Thousands of Swazis are without adequate shelter. Credit: Mantoe Phakathi/IPS

Mathe emerges from the tent when his name is called. He appears a weary figure the 51 year old suffers from TB and walks with the support of a walking s…