Google Dengue Tracker

Another reason to love Google.

Dengue is a virus spread by mosquitoes. Symptoms include fever, skin rash, joint pain and headaches. There is currently no vaccine against this disease.

From first hand experience I have never felt anything like it before in my life – it is known as the bone-breaker disease for a reason. 18hours on a bus from Kathmandu with early symptoms starting to show I thought I had somehow broken my back. It took me almost 3 months to recover.

Figure shows Dengue Google Activity for Brazil in blue against information provided by the Ministry of Health in orange

“For the first time in history all kids get great vaccines”

Donors from around the world have pledged $4.3bn for a programme that aims to vaccinate 250 million of the world’s poorest children against life threatening diseases, principally pneumonia and diarrheal diseases. With $1bn coming from the Bill Gates Foundation.

Check out Bill Gates talking on Aljazeera.

In the past it took 20years for vaccines to be affordable in developing countries, now, by changing the business model these important medicines are now being made available to everyone.  “For the first time in history all kids get great vaccines.”

Adaptation and cities: 2011 World Congress

A slight divergence from the usual WATSAN updates: climate adaptation! With increasing attention on climate change and the need to look at water and sanitation, and general infrastructure with greater holisticity, this post is a short review of last week’s Resilient Cities 2011 – 2nd world congress on adaptation and climate change.

Globally it is anticipated that we need to spend between US$80-100 billion per year on climate adaptation activities, and it is believed that 80% of this funding needs to spent in cities. It is therefore increasingly important that we understand how we can build it right in the first place, how we can modify existing infrastructure and what is the best way to fund such action.

Dig toilets, not graves

Dig toilets, not graves.

Check out WaterAid’s latest campaign ‘dig toilet’s not graves’ demonstrating the chilling reality of the impact of diahhroeal diseases in developing countries. To help WaterAid to provide santiation to some of the world’s poorest people click on the link and donate.

Pakistan Flood Appeal: Slow response

Today I received a text alert from Orange calling for donations to the Pakistan Flood appeal on behalf of UNICEF. It’s great that Orange are doing something and finding easy ways to allow their customers to donate to what was recently termed by the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon as  “a slow-motion tsunami”. BUT my question is why it has taken weeks for Orange to respond and put out a message? I’m pretty sure the text for Haiti was much much quicker.

Is Orange’s tardy call actually representative of many corporates and national donations? Oxfam recently described the aid response as feeble and woefully inadequate.

Questioning the reasons behind the “sluggish and ungenerous” donations by the international community when compared with other disasters I ask:

• Is it the recession?
• the unpopularity of Pakistan? That this is a muslim country?
• Related to Pakistan’s link to Afghanistan and the numerous British military deaths this year?
• The growing vilification of Afghanistanis – stereotyped as supporters of the Taliban (supported largely by British media)?
• Is Pakistan too distanced from the UK (with very few people understanding what life is like there,  due to the low level of tourism when compared to places like Thailand and Haiti)?
• Are people worried about accountability with organisations such as DEC (i.e. BBC’s ‘justification‘ for not showing the DEC appeal for Gaza in 2009)?
• or could it be that politically (for nations and corporates alike), responding any other way could also stir up bad press as they could be seen to be supporting countries for which there is little public compassion?

What do you think?

New York Times: New Delhi can neither quench its thirst, nor adequately get rid of the ever bigger heaps of sewage that it produces

Great article by the New York Times on India’s struggles for clean water and sanitation.

The article is supported by a series of videos and photos.

Clean water on the go: UV Sterilisation water bottle

Check out one of the entries for the James Dyson Award.

‘A Portable water bottle for filtration and UV sterilisation of water anywhere in the world in 2 minutes. The water bottle works by first filling the outer chamber with dirty water from any lake, stream or dirty puddle. The inner chamber is plunged though the outer chamber and the water is filtered though a custom designed filter, down to 4 micron in particle size. Once the water is clear it is sterilised for 90 seconds using a wind-up Ultra Violet bulb. Once complete the water is safe to drink. The whole process takes 2 minutes.’

UK: There is no sufficient legal basis under international law to declare or recognise water or sanitation as free standing human rights

Those were the words of  British delegate Nicola Freedman talking about yesterday’s U.N. General Assembly.

The non-binding measure, was presented by the Bolivian Assembly and said the right to safe and clean drinking water and sanitation was “a human right that is essential for the full enjoyment of life and all human rights.” The resolution passed with 122 votes in favor, none against and 41 abstentions. Abstentions from many developed nations including the UK, Canada and the USA – perhaps worried about the demands placed on development programmes?

Asking myself why states would abstain from voting these are the only answers I have been able to find:

• USA:  “It was not drafted in a transparent, inclusive manner, and the legal implications of a declared right to water have not yet been carefully considered in this body or in Geneva,” said John F Sammis, a member of the US mission to the UN.
• Canada: convention might force Canada to “share” its water with the United States (???)
• UK: Cameron doesn’t like the addition of sanitation….. (eh?). David: sort it out!

Belgium, Italy, Germany, Spain and Norway supported the resolution and obviously understand the role that water AND sanitation play in underpinning all other sectors of development; healthcare, education, employment, economic development!

Apologies for any poor taste, but I couldn’t help but find the irony when last week’s political talks in India on business subjects poles apart – brought people to the streets protesting ‘David Cameron… The Loos Mouth!’ – If only he had a loo-mouth!

David, stop stirring up shit and start talking sanitation!!!

Dirty Water in the Big Apple

Check out this awesome video from UNICEF!

Extremes in the North West of England: calls for changes to abstraction licensing

November 2009

May 2010

It was only 6 months ago we witnessed Cockermouth in North West England hit by a 1 in 1,000 year flood event causing an estimated £3m worth of damage.

Today however there is a different story hitting the headlines, as the same area is predicted to be reaching drought status within weeks. The Environment Agency this week said that this is a result of the combination of recent high temperatures, one of the sunniest Aprils in a century and five months of below-average rainfall.The image below (Environment Agency 2010)  shows that many rivers in the North West are already “notably” and in some cases “exceptionally” below-average levels for the time of year.