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The Ethiopian girl's mother says she feels "lifeless" knowing the perpetrator may win his appeal.

Central Downtown Astana with Bayterek tower. Credit: Wikimedia Commons

By Katsuhiro Asagiri
TOKYO/ASTANA, Aug 19 2024 (IPS)

In a world increasingly shadowed by the threat of nuclear conflict, Kazakhstan is stepping up its efforts in the global disarmament movement. On August 27-28, 2024, in collaboration with the United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs (UNODA), Kazakhstan will host a critical workshop in Astana. This gathering, the first of its kind in five years, is set to reinvigorate the five existing Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zones (NWFZs) and enhance cooperation and consultation among them.

This initiative aligns with UN Secretary-General António Guterres’s Agenda for Disarmament, particularly Action 5, which emphasizes the strengthening of NWFZs through enhanced collaboration between zones, urging nuclear-armed states to respect relevant treaties, and supporting the establishment of new zones, such as in the Middle East. This effort reflects the global community’s ongoing push to reduce the nuclear threat and foster regional and global peace.

Kazakhstan’s Historical Commitment to Disarmament

Kazakhstan’s vision for a nuclear-free world is deeply rooted in its leadership in global disarmament efforts. This vision is not just aspirational; it is grounded in the country’s lived experience of the devastating impact of nuclear weapons. The Semipalatinsk Test Site in northeastern Kazakhstan, often referred to as “the Polygon,” was the site of 456 nuclear tests conducted by the Soviet Union between 1949 and 1989. These tests exposed over 1.5 million people to radiation, resulting in severe health consequences, including cancer and birth defects, as well as environmental degradation.

Kazakhstan’s dedication to disarmament is further highlighted by its initiative to establish August 29 as the International Day against Nuclear Tests, recognized by the United Nations. This date commemorates both the first Soviet nuclear test at Semipalatinsk in 1949 and the closure of the site in 1991, serving as a reminder of the horrors of nuclear testing and a call to action for the global community.

The Role of NWFZs in Global Security

NWFZs are critical components of the global nuclear non-proliferation and disarmament architecture. There are five established NWFZs, created through treaties: Treaty of Tlatelolco (Latin America and the Caribbean), Treaty of Rarotonga (South Pacific), Treaty of Bangkok (Southeast Asia), Treaty of Pelindaba (Africa), Treaty of Semey (Central Asia) In addition, Mongolia’s unique status as a self-declared nuclear-weapon-free state, recognized through a United Nations General Assembly resolution, exemplifies a national commitment to nuclear non-proliferation.

These zones prohibit the presence of nuclear weapons within their territories, reinforced by international verification and control systems. NWFZs play a crucial role in maintaining regional stability, reducing the risk of nuclear conflict, and promoting global disarmament.

Astana Workshop: A Critical Gathering for Disarmament

The upcoming workshop in Astana is a critical opportunity for states-parties to the five NWFZ treaties, alongside representatives from international organizations, to engage in vital discussions aimed at overcoming the challenges facing these zones. This gathering is particularly timely, given the escalating geopolitical tensions in regions where nuclear capabilities remain central to national security.

A key focus of the workshop will be on enhancing cooperation among the NWFZs, as outlined in the Secretary-General’s Agenda for Disarmament. This includes facilitating consultation between the zones and encouraging nuclear-armed states to adhere to the protocols of these treaties. The workshop builds on the 2019 seminar titled “Cooperation Among Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zones and Mongolia,” co-organized by UNODA and Kazakhstan in Nur-Sultan(Astana), which produced key recommendations aimed at revitalizing cooperation among NWFZs.

Participants will discuss strategies to advance the objectives of NWFZs, with an emphasis on strengthening security benefits for member states and fostering more robust consultation mechanisms. The workshop will also address the challenges posed by the reluctance of certain nuclear-armed states, particularly the United States, to ratify protocols related to several NWFZ treaties. Despite being a party to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), the U.S. has yet to ratify protocols to treaties covering the South Pacific (Treaty of Rarotonga), Africa (Treaty of Pelindaba), and Central Asia. This reluctance has impeded the full realization of the security benefits these zones could offer.

Kazakhstan’s Leadership in the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW)

Kazakhstan’s role in nuclear disarmament extends beyond NWFZs to include leadership in the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW). In March 2025, Kazakhstan will host the 3rd Meeting of State Parties to the TPNW at the United Nations, further solidifying its position as a champion of nuclear disarmament.

Kazakhstan has been a vocal advocate of the TPNW and has actively pushed for the creation of an international fund to support victims of nuclear testing and remediate environments affected by nuclear activities, in line with Articles 6 and 7 of the treaty.

The Vienna Action Plan, developed during the First Meeting of States Parties to the TPNW（１MSP）, outlines actions for implementing these articles, including exploring the feasibility of an international trust fund and encouraging affected states parties to assess the impacts of nuclear weapons use and testing and to develop national plans for implementation.

At the Second Meeting of States Parties (2MSP), co-chaired by Kazakhstan and Kiribati, progress was made, but challenges remain. The informal working group on victim assistance, environmental remediation, and international cooperation presented a report, and its mandate was renewed, with the goal of submitting recommendations for the establishment of an international trust fund at the 3rd Meeting of States Parties (3MSP). Kazakhstan’s leadership in this area underscores its commitment to addressing the humanitarian impacts of nuclear weapons, drawing from its own experience with the devastating consequences of nuclear testing at Semipalatinsk.

Civil Society’s Crucial Role

As a part of the two day event, Soka Gakkai International (SGI) from Japan and the Center for International Security and Policy (CISP) will hold a side event in the evening of September 28 to screen the documentary “I Want to Live On: The Untold Stories of the Polygon,” highlighting the survivors of nuclear testing at Semipalatinsk. This documentary, produced by CISP with SGI’s support, was first shown at the UN during the second meeting of state parties to the TPNW in 2023. This side event is part of a broader initiative by SGI and Kazakhstan, which have co-organized several events focusing on the humanitarian consequences of nuclear weapons at UN, Vienna, and Astana in recent years.

Also coinciding with the Astana workshop, the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) will hold a conference convening civil society organizations and activists including Hibakusha from some countries. This confluence of governmental and civil society efforts in Astana marks a significant moment in the global disarmament movement. While diplomats and state representatives discuss policy and cooperation during the official workshop, the parallel activities organized by civil society will amplify the humanitarian message and emphasize the urgent need for a world free of nuclear weapons.

As global tensions rise, the Astana workshop represents a beacon of hope, a critical moment in the global journey toward disarmament. Through cooperation, dialogue, and a shared commitment to peace, the dream of a world free of nuclear weapons remains within reach. Kazakhstan, with the support of the international community, is at the forefront of this vital effort.

INPS Japan/IPS UN Bureau

 

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A mother and her 9-month-old daughter visit a health center run by Action Against Hunger in the Tando Muhammad Khan NSC district. Credit: Action Against Hunger

By Muhammad Aamir
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, Aug 19 2024 (IPS)

In May, temperatures soared above 52° Celsius (125.6° Fahrenheit) in Pakistan’s southern province of Sindh. To cope, Samina Kanwal, a community health worker with Action Against Hunger, began work at 7:00 am — the earliest time possible given neighborhood security protocols — to travel door-to-door helping vulnerable with the health consequences of extreme heat including heatstroke, difficulties with brain function, and even hunger.

Of course, these consequences extend beyond Pakistan with the world experiencing the hottest day ever recorded this summer. The health implications are real — and they are growing with the heat.

Heat is a Health Risk

Over time, heat strains the body as it tries to cool itself, worsening chronic conditions from asthma to diabetes. It is also causes pregnancy and birth complications, with the rates of premature births increasing after heat waves.

Heat-related illness occurs because of exposure to high temperatures. Heatstroke can develop in just a few hours and can involve seizures, heart complications, and brain swelling, with high fatality rates. In fact, heat-related deaths worldwide increased by 74% from 1980 to 2016, and researchers attribute nearly 40% of those deaths to climate change.

A drought and a heat wave hit the Baluchistan region of Pakistan in June 2024. Credit Action Against Hunger

Diarrhea – the third leading cause of death in children younger than five in average temperatures – is much more severe in extreme heat when the symptoms of severe dehydration and fluid loss are compounded. While people typically are advised to drink more fluids as temperatures rise, that assumes access to clean water, which isn’t the case for more than 2 billion people worldwide.

Brain health is impacted by extreme heat: cognitive function decreases as temperatures rise. One study found that for every degree above 22° Celsius (72° Fahrenheit), standardized test scores fell 0.2% — assuming that school takes place at all. In communities with limited resources, climate-controlled buildings are rare. To protect students, Pakistan’s Punjab province closed schools for a week this summer, leaving 52% of school-age children at home.

Mental health also suffers due to extreme heat. Hot days are associated with higher risk of emergency room visits for substance abuse, mood and anxiety disorders, schizophrenia, and dementia. Studies show that every 1° increase in temperature can increase suicide rates. The effects are pronounced in agricultural areas, where heat damages crops and economic prospects.

During May’s heatwave, the need for antibiotics and antipyretics (also known as fever reducers) became so great that Action Against Hunger, local authorities, and other partners quickly came together to prevent shortages and manage other health risks, like filling and carrying jugs of clean water. To reduce the impacts on the women and girls that this task typically falls to, we expanded shaded areas around community water sources.

Heat and Hunger

Drought and crop failure are obvious consequences of heat that impact food accessibility. High temperatures can dry soil, lowering crop yields and driving up food prices. These impacts become more widespread as climate change accelerates, and it’s already impacting nutrition among vulnerable populations.

Extreme heat intensified chronic and acute malnutrition in multiple West African countries, an area vulnerable to deadly heat waves. Over a 90 day period, just 14 days of temperatures between 86 and 95° led to a 2.2% increase in child “wasting,” which happens when a child loses muscle and fat tissue, becoming too thin for their height.

For every 100 hours of exposure to a temperature above 95° Fahrenheit, the “stunting rate” among children — where a child is too short for their age — increased by 5.9%.

Today, one in four children is undernourished. But researchers have warned that if the global temperature increases by 2°, the rate of stunting due to heat exposure will nearly double. Without a concerted effort from the global community to mitigate climate change, the world is on track to surpass this threshold, leading to devastating health impacts for children, families, and communities.

Low-income countries will feel these effects the most, as most poorer nations are located in regions that will be two to five times more susceptible to heat waves than richer countries by the 2060s. These challenges are compounded by other climate impacts: Pakistan, one of the countries most impacted by climate change, suffered drought followed by historic flooding that submerged crops and killed thousands of livestock that people rely on for basic food and income.

This zig-zag between extremes has left more than two million people in need of emergency assistance. The climate crisis is a health crisis. Paradoxically, heatmakes it harder to engage in protective measures. And health systems are not well prepared to deal with an additional influx of patients alongside the burden that heat waves place on everything from supply chains to the power grid.

Solutions for the Future

The good news is that efforts are underway to create more climate-resilient health systems. Leaders increasingly recognize the need for a “one health” approach that acts on the interconnections between human and environmental health. We also need to ensure that the links between heat and hunger are central to that agenda.

Developing climate change early action plans and leading simulation exercises for key stakeholders is crucial to a solution. We have implemented programs, for example, that contributed to agricultural benefits over time: farmers were able to store 15% additional seeds for the next cultivation cycle, and preservation practices of rice and wheat stock improved by 100%.

Beneficiaries also reported a 25% decrease in soil-related issues due to flooding, which shows that the program had a positive impact on mitigating the effects of climate disasters. The introduction of irrigation systems and water management techniques helped farmers overcome weather-related challenges.

Solutions like income generation opportunities, promotion of climate-smart agriculture practices, climate-friendly irrigation systems, provision of treatment for severely malnourished children, and additive health services will be key to creating a sustainable and thriving world amid increasing temperatures.

Muhammad Aamir is Pakistan Country Director, Action Against Hunger

IPS UN Bureau

 

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By Thalif Deen
UNITED NATIONS, Aug 19 2024 (IPS)

Back in August 2003, the United Nations faced one of its violent tragedies when a terrorist attack on the UN headquarters in the Iraqi capital of Baghdad claimed the lives of 22 people.

Among those killed was Sergio Vieira de Mello of Brazil, the UN envoy in Iraq and High Commissioner for Human Rights, who had a long and distinguished UN career stretching over 30 years.

As the UN commemorated World Humanitarian Day on August 19, it continues to be confronted with rising death tolls among both its humanitarian workers and peacekeepers worldwide.

The commemorative day was established by the General Assembly in 2008 after the 2003 bomb attack in Baghdad.

At last count, at least 254 aid workers have been killed since the current 10-month-old war began in Gaza on Oct. 7 last year, and about 188 worked for UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees.

According to the UN, “2023 was the deadliest year on record for humanitarian workers and 2024 is on track to be even worse”.

In a statement ahead of World Humanitarian Day, Dennis Francis, President of the193-member General Assembly said aid organizations – from all over the world – have united to call for the protection of civilians and humanitarian personnel, as well as to ensure their safe and unhindered access, including across conflict lines.

Footage of destruction of Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza, following an Israeli siege. The World Health Organization (WHO) reiterated that hospitals must be respected and protected; they must not be used as battlefields. Credit: UN News

Attacks on humanitarian workers and humanitarian assets must stop, as well as on civilians and civilian infrastructure, he said.

Besides the UN and its agencies, some of the world’s humanitarian organizations in war zones include Doctors Without Borders, CARE International, Save the Children and the International Committee of the Red Cross and the Red Crescent.

Last April, seven members from World Central Kitchen (WCK) were killed in an Israeli air strike in Gaza. The WCK said its team was traveling in a deconflicted zone in two armored cars branded with the WCK logo and a soft skin vehicle.

Despite coordinating movements with the Israeli Defense Force (IDF), the convoy was hit as it was leaving the Deir al-Balah warehouse, where the team had unloaded more than 100 tons of humanitarian food aid brought to Gaza on the maritime route.

“This is not only an attack against WCK, this is an attack on humanitarian organizations showing up in most dire situations where food is being used as a weapon of war. This is unforgivable,” said WCK CEO Erin Gore.

The seven killed were from Australia, Poland, United Kingdom, a dual citizen of the U.S. and Canada, and Palestine.

“I am heartbroken and appalled that we—World Central Kitchen and the world—lost beautiful lives because of a targeted attack by the IDF. The love they had for feeding people, the determination they embodied to show that humanity rises above all, and the impact they made in countless lives will forever be remembered and cherished,” said Gore.

According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), more than half of the 2023 deaths were recorded in the first three months – October to December – of the hostilities in Gaza, mostly as a result of airstrikes.

Extreme levels of violence in Sudan and South Sudan have also contributed to the tragic death toll, both in 2023 and in 2024. In all these conflicts, most of the casualties are among national staff. Many humanitarian workers also continue to be detained in Yemen.

“The normalization of violence against aid workers and the lack of accountability are unacceptable, unconscionable and enormously harmful for aid operations everywhere,” said Joyce Msuya, Acting Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator.

“Today, we reiterate our demand that people in power act to end violations against civilians and the impunity with which these heinous attacks are committed.”

On this World Humanitarian Day, aid workers and those supporting their efforts around the globe have organized events to stand in solidarity and spotlight the horrifying toll of armed conflicts, including on humanitarian staff, she said.

In addition, a joint letter from leaders of humanitarian organizations will be sent to the Member States of the UN General Assembly asking the international community to end attacks on civilians, protect all aid workers, and hold perpetrators to account.

Everyone can add their voice by joining and amplifying the digital campaign using the hashtag #ActforHumanity.

Meanwhile, UN peacekeeping is considered virtually humanitarian—but with a military angle– in conflict ridden countries and war zones where they are also vulnerable to attacks.

At least 11 United Nations personnel — seven military personnel and four civilians — were killed in deliberate attacks in 2023, the United Nations Staff Union Standing Committee on the Security and Independence of the International Civil Service pointed out.

And 32 UN peacekeeping personnel — 28 military and four police, including one woman police officer — were killed in deliberate attacks in 2022, the United Nations Staff Union said.

For the ninth year in a row, the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA) was the deadliest for peacekeepers with 14 fatalities, followed by 13 fatalities in the United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO), four fatalities in the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in the Central African Republic (MINUSCA) and one fatality in the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL).

The figures for preceding years are as follows: 2021 (25 killed); 2020 (15 killed); 2019 (28 killed); 2018 (34 killed); 2017 (71 killed); 2016 (32 killed); 2015 (51 killed); 2014 (61 killed); 2013 (58 killed); 2012 (37 killed); 2011 (35 killed); and 2010 (15 killed).

Roderic Grigson, who was with the UN Emergency Force (UNEF II) on the Egyptian- Israeli border, told IPS the duties of a peacekeeper are extremely hazardous.

“Our job as peacekeepers was to insert ourselves between two warring forces and keep them apart while peace negotiations were conducted at the UN HQ in New York or elsewhere”

Sometimes, he said, those negotiations took years to happen. “The environment we worked in was often a recent warzone, scattered with unexploded shells and mines and the detritus of war.”

“The opposing forces always considered the UN peacekeepers suspicious, and we had to work hard to earn their trust. When travelling through the front lines into the buffer zone, you had to keep your wits about you”.

“We were never alone and were always in touch with headquarters over UHF radios in the clearly marked UN vehicles,” said Grigson, currently a book coach based in Melbourne, who teaches, mentors and supports writers. while running a publishing house for authors who wish to self-publish their stories.

From personal experience, he said, “I can state that I have been shot at several times, had to wear a helmet and body armour while I was working, and have experienced shelling by the two opposing forces who wished to make a point during the ongoing negotiations.”

One of my colleagues was killed while driving the daily mail truck when the road was mined overnight, said Grigson,

https://www.rodericgrigson.com/shorts/

IPS UN Bureau Report

 

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The central bank says operations will not resume until their employee is returned.

Following a heated build-up to their fight at UFC 305, Israel Adesanya and Dricus du Plessis agree that Africa was the real winner of the night after the pair settled their differences.

Following a heated build-up to their fight at UFC 305, Israel Adesanya and Dricus du Plessis agree that Africa was the real winner of the night after the pair settled their differences.

Dricus du Plessis submits Israel Adesanya in the fourth round of a captivating contest to retain his middleweight title at UFC 305 in Perth, Australia.

Dricus du Plessis submits Israel Adesanya in the fourth round of a captivating contest to retain his middleweight title at UFC 305 in Perth, Australia.

Dricus du Plessis submits Israel Adesanya in the fourth round of a captivating contest to retain his middleweight title at UFC 305 in Perth, Australia.

A group of ‘barraghinas’, the micro-dams that retain water that runs off into the ground, benefiting vegetation and accumulating water in the soil to supply lagoons. Credit: Courtesy of Lucyan Vieira Listo

By Mario Osava
SETE LAGOAS, Brazil, Aug 18 2024 (IPS)

Water shortage is over, springs have emerged or become perennial, small ponds with fish have formed and pastures have become greener and more permanent, all thanks to the ‘barraginhas’, the Portuguese name given in Brazil to micro-dams that retain rainwater and infiltrate it into the soil.

This is a common claim among the many farmers who have adopted the technique developed and promoted by Luciano Cordoval, an agronomist and researcher at the Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation (Embrapa), a public entity comprising 43 research centres throughout the country.“The more the climate crisis worsens, the greater the need to capture rainwater and accumulate reserves”: Luciano Cordoval.

Cordoval has worked since 1983 at the Embrapa Maize and Sorghum unit, based in Sete Lagoas (Seven Lagoons, in Portuguese), a municipality with a population of 227,397 in the southern state of Minas Gerais, where he further specialised in irrigation and soil conservation.

His Barraginhas Project was launched in 1997 with government investment. But the specialist has been promoting micro-dams long before as a way to “capture water from streams and promote its storage in the soil, avoiding erosion, sedimentation and environmental pollution, with increased volume in the springs”, according to his resumé.

Luciano Cordoval explains the functions of barraginhas in his office at the Maize and Sorghum unit of the Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation in Sete Lagoas, a municipality in central Brazil. Credit: Mario Osava / IPS

One hundred micro-dams create a lagoon

Antonio Alvarenga, a pioneer of the initiative, built 28 micro-dams on his 400-hectare farm in Sete Lagoas in 1995, with the support of Cordoval’s project. “These were degraded and dry lands, affected by major erosion,” he recalled.

In a short time, the barraginhas filled and emptied several times and water began to flow in the lower part of the farm, which had previously been totally dry. The engineer by profession, who became a part-time cattle farmer, was then able to have his dream pond, which after extensions now covers 42,000 square metres of his land.

With the other micro-dams already built, he now has “more than 100” and has plans for another 40. The effect can be seen in the recovered springs and the abundance of water that allows him to irrigate the pastures in the dry season and double his livestock productivity.

“Before I used to raise only one cow on two hectares, today there are two animals on each hectare,” he told IPS in Sete Lagoas, highlighting the good results of the innovation.

“I became a producer of water, which fills my ‘artificial’ lagoon. Water is everything,” he praised. The benefits visible to the naked eye encouraged his neighbours to build their own micro-dams, with help from the mayor’s office. In addition, a television report helped spread the word about this ‘social technology’, as it is called.

Some of the micro-dams built in 1998, including on the farm of engineer Antonio Alvarenga. Credit: Luciano Cordoval

Also in the Amazon

In Floresta do Araguaia, 1,800 kilometres from Sete Lagoas, in the southeast of the northern Amazonian state of Pará, another cattle farmer, with some 6,000 hectares and 2,000 head of cattle, also points out impressive data.

“This part of Pará is not rich in water,” contrary to the general belief that it rains profusely in the whole Amazon region, says Pedro de Carvalho, a veterinarian from Minas Gerais, a state in southeastern Brazil, but who lives in the eastern Amazon since 1974.

“It rains a lot in the last two months of the year, but not the rest of the year,’ he told IPS in a telephone interview from his ranch. There is cerrado, a kind of Brazilian savannah, in the area, not Amazonian forest, he adds.

“I didn’t have enough water, I had to buy it from tanker trucks, and a lot of my cattle died of thirst,” he recalled.

But having been friends with Cordoval since they were young, he knew his ideas and began to build his barraginhas. He believes he now has 168 in all, although he is uncertain of the precise number. He bought an excavator to build and improve them, “because everything can be improved.”

João Roberto Moreira in the lagoon formed by water from springs revitalised by a chain of 11 barraginhas on the hill of preserved forests on his 200-hectare property in Brazil. Credit: Mario Osava / IPS

Some sceptics of such innovation in the region recommended artesian wells. “Pure ignorance. Where you draw water and don’t replenish it, it tends to run out. The barraginhas supply the water table,” he observed.

An example is Unai, a city in Minais Gerais, which drilled many artesian wells and then had to deactivate 70% of them, “because they dried up,” he explained.

In his case, he no longer needs to buy water, having it stored in ponds where there are fish. Animals such as the capybara (Hydrochoerus hydrochaeris), a large rodent native to South America which lives around water, the collared peccary (Dicotyles tajacu, an American wild pig), various birds and even bees, wasps and ants have proliferated on his farm.

Carvalho, a veterinarian specialising in reproduction, was one of the pioneers of Amazon colonisation in the 1970s. He first settled near Araguaína, a municipality of 171,000 inhabitants in the north of the state of Tocantins, where he has a farm of “between 3,000 and 4,000 hectares”.

Today, however, he is more dedicated to the farm in Floresta do Araguaia, a municipality with only 18,000 people, but where he foresees a promising future due to the expansion of soya bean.

A group of 23 engineers from 20 African countries visited different experiences of the Barraginhas Project, a social technology of easy application to capture, collect and disseminate water in rural areas. Credit: Barraginhas Project Archive

The multiplication of water

The barraginhas have spread throughout Brazil, from large to small farms. Cordoval and Embrapa were directly involved in the construction of some 300,000, but he estimates there may be two million of these micro-dams nationwide.

The first project, sponsored by the federal government’s Water Resources Board starting in 1997, sought to build 960 units near Sete Lagoas, Cordoval recalled in an interview with IPS at his Embrapa office in Sete Lagoas.

Between 2005 and 2008, some 3,600 were built in the northeastern state of Piauí, in a project promoted by then congressman Wellington Dias, later governor of the state and now minister of Social Development.

From the beginning, a priority was to train disseminators. “The results often turn the beneficiaries into my ‘clones’, who incorporate the DNA of the barraginhas and disseminate them out of passion, without thinking about the money,” Cordoval said.

“Barraginhas are like financial savings. You should stockpile water when there is abundance, for times of scarcity. The more the climate crisis worsens, the greater the need to capture rainwater and accumulate reserves. The growth of the country, cities and population demands more water for water sustainability,” he explained.

In 2011, a group of 23 engineers from different parts of Africa came to Sete Lagoas to learn about the local experience with micro-dams.

This social technology has received several national awards that promote other technologies also seeking to produce or protect water.

This is the case of septic tanks and biodigesters that prevent contamination of the water table. They are small multi-purpose ponds with an impermeable canvas floor to prevent water losses and an irrigation system for family farmers.

An alternative for plots of land with a slope above 10%, which is the recommended limit for establishing barraginhas, is a linear ditch that follows the contour line and withstands torrents on slopes of up to 25%.

Barraginhas and their annexes are a health factor, by improving the availability of good quality water, reducing medical expenses and increasing family income. In addition, they contain erosion, thus reducing sedimentation of watercourses, Cordoval pointed out.

A variant of this technology is built on roadsides, precisely to prevent deterioration due to erosion.

Barraginhas also prevent erosion on unpaved roads near their edges. Credit: Courtesy of Luciano Cordoval

Reclaimed springs and wells

For João Roberto Moreira, a.k.a. Betinho, a small cattle farmer with a herd of about 50 dairy cows, the major benefit of the 11 barraginhas built in 1998 on the hill of his farm was to intensify and perpetuate the springs that supply the three families that share the 200-hectare property.

“It was a blessing. The springs used to dry up, the water didn’t drain to the houses and attempts to pump it failed. Now there is water all year round. I’ve never seen so much water reaching us by gravity”, through four hoses from the top of the hill, he said.

There is also water left over for three lagoons, where they raise fish.

In Cáceres, a municipality of 90,000 inhabitants in central-western Brazil, Samuel Laudelino Silva, a chemist and retired professor at the State University of Mato Grosso (Unemat), has built 43 barraginhas of different sizes and a kilometre-long ditch on his increasingly water-scarce farm.

A 208-metre deep well, which did not produce water after a landslide reduced it to a depth of 135 metres, now provides 2,640 litres per day, enough for essential needs on the farm. It has water starting at a depth of 48 metres.

“Governments should promote the large-scale installation of this technology, including as a way to mitigate the droughts and fires that have been plaguing the Pantanal, a large wetland area on Brazil’s border with Bolivia and Paraguay, in recent years,” Silva told IPS in an interview by email.

Cáceres is located in the upper Pantanal, in the state of Mato Grosso.

Mia Couto grew up in Mozambique during the colonial era, and joined its struggle for independence.

Mia Couto grew up in Mozambique during the colonial era, and joined its struggle for independence.

Mia Couto grew up in Mozambique during the colonial era, and joined its struggle for independence.

Liya’u Sa’adu cannot afford to rent a shack, let alone a room - like some 500,000 others in Nigeria’s main city.

Liya’u Sa’adu cannot afford to rent a shack, let alone a room - like some 500,000 others in Nigeria’s main city.

Liya’u Sa’adu cannot afford to rent a shack, let alone a room - like some 500,000 others in Nigeria’s main city.

Recent crackdowns on political opponents come as Zimbabwe's president takes over as regional Sadc leader.

Three presidential jets are grounded in Paris following a long-running business disagreement.

Ahead of the new Premier League season, Arsenal have released a new kit celebrating the club's connection to Africa.