Marcela Valente
BUENOS AIRES, Apr 29 2009 (IPS) – More than half of all children in Argentina are at risk of illness because of lack of access to clean, running water, while a large proportion are also threatened by polluting industries and the use of pesticides in agriculture, according to a study by the ombudsman s office.
Los efectos de la contaminación ambiental en la niñez. Una cuestión de derechos (The Effects of Environmental Pollution on Children: A Question of Rights) is the title of a report released this month by the national ombudsman s office, carried out with support from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the United Nations children s agency (UNICEF), the International Labour Organisation (ILO) and the Pan-American Health Organisation (PAHO).<…
New research on the high prevalence of kidney disease in Sri Lanka’s farming areas mentions a possible link to heavy metals in the water, associated with fertiliser and pesticide use. Credit: Amantha Perera/IPS
COLOMBO, Aug 21 2012 (IPS) – A new report links the high prevalence of chronic kidney disease in Sri Lanka’s main agricultural production regions with the presence of heavy metals in the water, caused by fertiliser and pesticide use.
Over the past two decades, dozens of studies have been conducted on the large number of kidney patients in Sri Lanka’s agro-rich north-central region. However, none had conclusively identified a clear cause.
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BAMAKO , Dec 28 2012 (IPS) – In the southern Senegal village of Kael Bessel, female genital mutilation is no longer a taboo subject. Sexagenarian Fatoumata Sabaly speaks freely about female circumcision and girls rights with her friends.
We ve found it necessary to abandon cutting – abandoning the practice has advantages for women, she told IPS. Female circumcision has consequences such as haemorrhaging and it can even lead to death.
In Senegal, like other West African countries, grandmothers like Sabaly are generally the ones who decide girls should be circumcised. A 2008 survey in Vélingara, also in the south of Senegal, found nearly 60 percent of older women supported female genital mutilation. But a 2011 survey carried out by the Grandmother Project found fully …
Slum populations in the developing world have increased from 650 million in 1990 to 863 million in 2012. Credit: Naimul Haq/IPS
SINGAPORE, Jun 5 2014 (IPS) – With over 20,000 international participants, a triple summit wrapping up today in Singapore is generating an abundance of ideas on sustainable cities.
Combining the World City Summit, Singapore Water Week and the CleanEnviro Summit into one mega-event (at one venue), the country has brought together urban policy-makers, environmentalists, water experts and business people to discuss the future of urban planning, even as U.N.-Habitat warns that the number of city dwellers could double by 2050 to n…