Eva Bartlett
GAZA CITY, Jun 18 2009 (IPS) – Biddun mey, fish heyya , they say in Arabic for a universal truth: Without water, there is no life .
A cesspool in Gaza arising from Israeli bombing. Credit: Emad Badwan
While diminishing water resources are a global concern, in Palestine the struggle for water is not against global warming or multinational corporations, but for access to water, and against contamination of what precious resources there are.
Mohamed Ahmed, director of the Water Control Department in the Palestinian Wate…
Dalia Acosta
BÁGUANOS, Cuba, Jul 29 2009 (IPS) – Canta Rana, which somewhat ironically translates as Singing Frog , is more than just a neighbourhood in this town in the drought-stricken eastern Cuban province of Holguín. Here, at the highest point in the area, which provides a view of the entire town and the sugar mill tower, there is a huge tank marked by rust, the passage of time and the scarcity of water.
Canta Rana Credit: Jorge Luis Baños/IPS
Local residents would like to turn the page and forget about the severe drought that devastated the region for nearly a decade, but they can…
Thalif Deen
STOCKHOLM, Aug 19 2009 (IPS) – Dr. Bindeshwar Patak, the 2009 Stockholm Water Prize Laureate and founder of a grassroots sanitation movement in India, recounts the days before his country s independence in 1947 when toilets were a rare sight in remote villages and towns under British rule.
Dr. Bindeshwar Pathak at Water Week press briefing. Credit: Stockholm International Water Institute (SIWI)
An English woman, who was planning a trip to colonial …
NEW DELHI, Sep 24 2009 (IPS) – Here s a statistic that reveals the truth about gender relations in India.
Dr Sandeep Guleria: It is very rare for a husband to donate a kidney to his wife. Credit: Rahul/IPS
Of the roughly 4,000 kidney transplants performed across the country in a year, about 80 percent of donors are women, with wives making up more than 90 percent of spousal donations.
Significantly, 80 percent of beneficiaries are men. There is gender bias, declares Sandeep G…
Chryso D Angelo
UNITED NATIONS, Oct 6 2009 (IPS) – An estimated 13 million babies worldwide are born prematurely and more than one million die each year, say health experts.
Africa tops preterm birth rates around the world at 11.9 percent, followed by North America (10.6 percent) and Asia (9.1 percent), according to The Global and Regional Toll of Preterm Birth , a report from the March of Dimes charity based on statistics recently published in the Bulletin of the World Health Organisation (WHO).
The study, presented at the Fourth International Conference on Birth Defects and Disabilities in the Developing World Oct. 4-7 in New Delhi, India, reveals that Africa and Asia accounted for an overwhelming 85 percent of all preterm births combined in 2005, despite the fact t…
Mantoe Phakathi
MBABANE, Nov 12 2009 (IPS) – It is one of the world s oldest professions, dating so far back that it is even mentioned in the Bible. But in the deeply cultural and religious country of Swaziland, Senator Thuli Msane stirred a hornet s nest when she publicly challenged a new strict bill opposing prostitution.
Senator Thuli Msane spoke out against arresting sex workers. Credit: Mantoe Phakathi/IPS
Msane spoke out against arresting sex workers, when she said government should first address…
Neena Bhandari
SYDNEY, Dec 2 2009 (IPS) – Once a week lunch order from the school canteen was something Emily and Damien s children looked forward to, but since the global financial crisis began last year, little treats and outings are an absolute No .
Salvation Army s Paul Moulds: Young people are back into very difficult circumstances. Credit: Paul Moulds
Lunch order for our four kids aged 14, 13, 9 and 8 costs 50 [Australian] dollar…
Eli Clifton and Matthew Berger
WASHINGTON, Jan 14 2010 (IPS) – As U.S. and international relief efforts chugged toward Haiti Thursday, U.S. President Barack Obama announced an immediate investment of 100 million dollars in the relief efforts underway following Tuesday s devastating earthquake.
Haitians wash in a public fountain af…