– Asian Development Bank President Haruhiko Kuroda explains that Asia and the Pacific, home to three-fifths of humanity and two-thirds of the world’s poor, represents the world’s best hope for achieving the United Nations Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

– As leaders gathered at the United Nations this week, world leaders had to admit that their progress in achieving the Millennium Development Goals “falls far short of what is needed” to meet those targets by the deadline.

Mr. Arjun Thapan, Special Senior Advisor to the Asian Development Bank (ADB) President for Infrastructure and Water

Introduction

Mr. Arjun Thapan was appointed Special Senior Advisor for Infrastructure and Water to Asian Development Bank (ADB) President Haruhiko Kuroda in January 2010 with the task of strengthening the communities of practice in Water, Energy, Transport, and Urban Development, and ensuring that ADB develops effective partnerships and knowledge platforms to deliver high quality policy and technical advice to its clients. He also guides the design and development of the ASEAN Infrastructure Fund. Mr. Thapan was previously the Director General of ADB’s Southeast Asia Department since 15 December 2006 after having been the department’s Deputy Director General from December 2004. He guided and oversaw ADB’s strategic agenda and development programs in Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Philippines, Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Malaysia, Myanmar, Thailand, Viet Nam, as well as the Greater Mekong Sub-region. A new relationship with Brunei Darussalam was forged during his tenure, and an important re-engagement with Malaysia developed. He was also responsible for the execution of the BIMP-EAGA and IMT-GT sub-regional initiatives of the department; both saw substantive growth in the range and scale of activities, including the first ever development of sub-regional projects. Mr. Thapan is a leading thinker on Water issues in Asia and a strong advocate of ADB’s water agenda. He served as Chair of ADB’s Water Committee until August 2008, and continues to guide the larger water community of practice at ADB. Mr. Thapan has led the initiative to double ADB’s investments in water and sanitation to over $2 billion annually. He is co-chair of the World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Council on Water Security. His work on water policy issues, especially on “Water for ALL” for Asia’s developing countries, has been universally recognized; he is currently guiding the design of a water resources operational framework to sit within a Green Growth paradigm in ADB. Mr. Thapan is an Indian national with 34 years of professional experience. He joined ADB in 1991 as a Financial Analyst in the Infrastructure Department.

Mr. Arjun Thapan
Special Senior Advisor to the ADB President for Infrastructure and Water

Among Asia’s better-known records during the decade to 2010 is the dramatic reduction in poverty across the region. Regional income per capita has roughly doubled in the last 10 years. But despite these gains, security in food, water, health care, and livelihoods continues to plague many hundreds of millions within the Asia and Pacific region. While this is a daunting challenge in itself, it is compounded by the fact that Asia’s growth has come, in some significant part, at the expense of the physical environment – deforestation, land degradation, and the pollution of our water and air resources.

But this is not all. Climate change is our newest challenge. Asia is already experiencing the impact of climate variability, and its countries are now at risk through a combination of geography, patterns of settlement, and resource endowments. As all of us know, climate change is about water – Asia’s inhabitants will experience alterations in the hydrologic cycle, most likely including an increasing frequency and intensity of floods and droughts. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has identified water, along with agriculture, as the sector “most sensitive to climate change-induced impacts in Asia.” Climate-related risks will exacerbate existing water stresses on the continent, which have resulted from rapid economic development, demographic changes and associated increases in water demand.

Many large Asian river basins are particularly vulnerable to regional warming, since Himalayan glaciers and snowfields serve as the region’s “water towers” supporting dry season and drought-year flows upon which roughly a billion Asians depend. And, in low-elevation coastal zones where many of Asia’s largest cities are located, sea level rise will further degrade coastal aquifers through saline intrusion, and threaten urban water supplies. This is already happening, for instance, in the Mekong delta where saline intrusion has progressed 80 kilometers inland and impacted on agricultural productivity and livelihoods. In a sense, the future is already with us. Overall, we believe that up to 1 billion Asians are potentially vulnerable to increased water stress by 2050 as a result of climate change.

From a recently published study on the world’s water resources in 2030 for 154 basins around the world, water requirements in 2030 will grow from 4,500 billion cubic meters (bcm) to 6,900 bcm, an increase of 40 percent. About a third of the world’s population, concentrated mainly in the developing world, will live in basins where the deficit will exceed 50 percent. In India and China, for instance, the aggregate gap is estimated to be 50 and 25 percent respectively. With economic growth and social equity so crucially dependent upon water, policy makers in Asia have some quick decisions to take if the crisis is not to overwhelm us.

It is uncertainty – rather than change – that currently represents the greatest challenge to decision makers in adapting to climate change in the water sector — do we act now on the basis of what we presently believe will occur, and risk the misallocation of scarce resources, or do we wait until the quality of our projections improves, and risk having waited too long?

Clients of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) consistently request improved mid-to-long term climate and water resources projections, methods and tools for climate change impact and vulnerability assessment, and resources for adaptation planning. This is sought in the context of water resources and disaster management. But while ADB is well positioned to facilitate the delivery of such tools and services, the development of scientific products, including the synthesis and interpretation of Earth observations, will come from partnerships such as an alignment of GEOSS and ADB around common objectives. These objectives include an improvement in the physical and social well-being of the region’s inhabitants, a reduction in the risks posed by climate variability and change, and protection of the region’s ecological health and biodiversity in the face of development pressures. A good example is the Integrated Citarum Water Resources Management Investment Program – a 15-year, $3.5 billion program in a strategically important basin in West Java, Indonesia. Climate-related risks include an increased flood hazard in the upper catchments, loss of hydropower capacity, reductions in water deliveries for irrigated agriculture and urban water supply (Jakarta), and threats to coastal aquifers from sea level rise. The GEOSS Asian Water Cycle Initiative (AWCI) is designed to address these challenges, through the sharing of “timely, quality, long-term information on water quantity and quality and their variation as a basis for sound decision-making of national water policies and management strategies.” In addition, both ADB and GEOSS/AWCI recognize the effectiveness of the Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) approach to basin water resources management, and are supporting its implementation throughout the Asia-Pacific region.

Let me emphasize that water, along with agriculture, has been identified as the sectors most sensitive to climate change-induced impacts in Asia. We must establish a sustainable pattern of development. Our experience and evidence show that a sustainable pattern of development needs to be disaster and climate resilient. Support for climate change adaptation can be supported through country-led developments in partnership with international organizations such as ADB and GEOSS to step up policy research, increase our knowledge, and build greater capacity. This collaboration will help us all become better prepared to understand and deal with climate change as it unfolds unpredictably in multiple ways.

Tomorrow’s Asia will be very different from the continent as we currently know it. Science and technology will help in identifying the factors most likely to impact sustainable development. Innovation will help in designing the solutions. GEOSS is very much a part of that effort and we commend the process of strengthening the Earth observation network.

Completed straw bale house.

“I recognized straw bale as something that could create super-efficient housing by closing the loop of a resource that was being largely wasted,” Bartels explains.

Straw, not to be confused with hay, is the stalk that remains after cereal grains such as wheat, rice, barley or oats have been harvested. It is largely seen as a waste product in the United States with around 200 million tons disposed of each year. According to Greenweaver Inc. there is enough straw available each year in the United States to build at least 10 million 2,000 square foot homes.

Straw bales are the basic building blocks of a wall system that, once plastered, provides excellent insulation. The result is a building that is warm in the winter and cool in the summer, allowing for reduced utility costs and CO2 emissions of up to 75% when compared to conventional construction.

“The embodied energy and operating energy of buildings are a huge leverage point for reduction of CO2 emissions. Straw bale offers reduction in both,” Bartels explains. “There is a direct connection with climate change.”

“I think people are really recognizing that we need to be aware of resource efficiency,” Bartels says.

As the worldwide dependence on limited resources such as coal and oil continues to contribute to climate change and stretch our wallets, more and more people are looking for sustainable alternatives. And while small changes do make a difference, it will take more than switching to Energy Star light bulbs to transform an infrastructure built around the idea of cheap fuel for cost efficiency. Achieving environmental sustainability, one of the United Nation’s eight Millennium Development Goals, adopted in 2000, requires the cooperation of the entire world – a seemingly daunting task. However, the consequences for not taking action may soon be impossible to ignore.

The United Nation’s main target for achieving environmental sustainability calls for countries to integrate principles for sustainable development into their policies and programs that reverse the loss of resources. Though the United Nation’s deadline for achieving this is 2015, implementing ways to lower our impact before the damage becomes irreversible may have a much closer deadline.

One area that is experiencing growth with a potentially significant impact is ‘green’ construction, which in the United States is exemplified by LEED—(Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design), an internationally recognized certification system developed by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC). To be LEED-certified, a building or community must be designed and built using strategies that improve performance in areas the USGBC has ranked as most important: energy savings, water efficiency, CO2 emissions reduction, improved indoor environmental quality, and stewardship of resources and sensitivity to their impacts.

According to the USGBC’s recently released McKinsey report, investment in energy efficient building and other non-transportation sectors can reap $130 billion in annual savings ($1.2 trillion total), 1.1 gigatons in annual greenhouse gas reductions, and the creation of as many as 900,000 new on-going jobs.

Indeed, the significant environmental and monetary gains that can result from adhering to these standards makes LEED-certified construction or “green construction” economically viable in a way that is hard to ignore: The USGBC confirmed that numbers of both LEED-registered and LEED-certified projects doubled in 2008, while square footage of LEED-certified construction rose 92%.

But despite its recent popularity, green construction is nothing new. In the case of straw bale, it is a return to a natural building material that was overtaken by more modern building practices.

In addition to being an annually renewable resource, straw bale also has a very low embodied energy, meaning the amount of energy used to manufacture, and transport, a given product or material, is low–especially when compared to man-made materials such as fiberglass or foam insulation.

Leonard (Lenny) Lone Hill is shown carving a notch for a post with a chainsaw. He is a building trades instructor at Oglala Lakota College at the Pine Ridge Reservation and is one of the participants completing the 12 credit certificate in straw bale building taught by Laura Bartels.

As David Eisenberg, Executive Director of the Development Center for Appropriate Technology (DCAT) explains: “The overall carbon impact of the whole wall system is small relative to most conventional wall systems.”

“Generally, the straw is quite local or regional, and it is an annually renewable byproduct of growing cereal grains, meaning that the overall carbon performance is much better than most industrial materials. The potential to sequester carbon, combined with the small carbon footprint and enhanced energy performance means that in some instances it could be carbon-neutral or possibly even better.”

The USGBC also asserts that green construction results in job creation, an idea that has been embraced by Native American tribes in the Northern Great Plains and led by the Intertribal Council On Utility Policy (COUP).

The Intertribal COUP is made up of representatives from fifteen tribes from South Dakota, North Dakota, Wyoming, Nebraska and Iowa. COUP was formed in 1994 to provide a tribal forum for utility issues such as telecommunications, renewable energy and energy efficient housing, from regulatory and economic perspectives with an initial focus on developing the vast wind power potential of the Great Plains. It was seen as a way of optimizing the tribal benefits of federal hydropower allocations, creating jobs and building tribal capacity for more sustainable and resilient communities, while reducing dependency on non-sustainable resources, like coal.

Robert Gough, secretary of the Intertribal COUP, says: “In many respects, the conditions on American Indian reservations mirror those of the majority of the so-called “Third World” in terms of population profiles, underdevelopment and unemployment, with the potential to leap frog most of the centralized industrial development model of the 20th century.”

Now the Intertribal COUP has teamed with Greenweaver, Inc, DCAT, and One World Design to create the Sustainable Affordable and Efficient (SAFE) Homes Train-the-Trainers program. This program has brought expert advisors on straw bale construction and other sustainable technologies together to develop and deliver a new curriculum for tribal college vocational technology programs for building trade faculty and students. It is meant to serve as the basis for broader community planning involving sustainability and regeneration.

This program also helps to address two crucial issues these tribes have been dealing with: rising energy costs and a lack of employment opportunities. According to the Intertribal COUP, new homes being built on reservations are “ill suited to the 150 degree annual temperature swings of the Northern Great Plains”, while current unemployment rates run between 60% and 80%. Bartels explains: “Straw bale was a previously unused resource. This allows the tribes to use their own local resources and also create jobs within the community.”

However, these issues are not confined to reservation life, especially since the economic downturn: “These are the same issues that are happening all over the U.S., but it’s just much more extreme on the reservations,” says Bartels.

Eisenberg points to the real economic gains that environmental sustainability can provide: “Research by the U.S. Department of Energy reveals that in most communities, much more than half, and in many cases nearly all, of the money spent on energy immediately leaves the local economy.”

“Communities may finally begin to recognize how much local wealth is being transferred away with the purchase of energy and other goods and services from elsewhere.”

The Intertribal COUP is remarkably forward-thinking in its embrace of sustainability, and provides a good blueprint for the large-scale actions that could be taken by our society at large, if environmental sustainability is to become a real priority.

Straw bale house under construction.

As Gough notes: “Today, with the Intertribal COUP project up on the Sinte Gleska University campus through a training the trainers grant from the Department of the Interior’s Office of Indian Energy and Economic Development, the South Dakota Community Foundation and other funding sources, both the oldest and newest straw bale buildings in South Dakota are on the Rosebud Sioux Indian Reservation.”

First costs for straw bale construction are often similar to conventional modern construction but have great opportunities in reduction. In one USDA funded program for farm worker housing, sweat equity of future occupants not only reduced construction costs but also taught valuable job skills while reducing operating costs for the life of the homes. In comparing costs for straw bale homes to conventional modern housing in the northern plains or in any area, one has to take into consideration the full costs not just of construction, but also of long term energy, health, and ecological costs as well as costs to the local economy. Straw bale is superior in all of these areas. Such considerations have guided the thinking and planning of the Intertribal Council On Utility Policy in searching for a strategy for the development of sustainable, affordable and energy efficient reservation housing.

Straw bale housing has been funded through tribal housing authorities and supported through federal housing programs such as HUD and USDA.  Bob Gough states that,  ”The question of subsidies of tribal housing is best addressed with regard to the official tribal housing programs through which “grants” or “loans” are directly made by the federal government for the benefit of the tribes through HUD.  Most tribal members may not even be eligible for such federal/tribal programs.  On some reservations in the Great Plains, up to 80% of the people who might need homes are not eligible for such housing programs under the existing guidelines.”

The growing popularity of straw bale construction seems indicative that a sea change may be on the horizon. Says Bartels: “It’s not just a fringe thing anymore. It’s really come a long way.”

Eisenberg is cautiously optimistic regarding a future in which our lifestyles are built around environmental sustainability: “We are still a long way away from that goal. But an awakening to these larger issues is taking place as a result of growing awareness of the emerging crises and increasing attention to green building and sustainable goals.”

The Millennium Development Goals themselves were designed to draw awareness to these and other pressing issues—but, more importantly, they were designed to get measurable results. As Gough puts it: “To paraphrase Sitting Bull, rather than leave our children with the problems we have created, let’s but put our minds, hearts and hands together and help them build a better, more sustainable future. What happens in Indian Country could be a model for most of the rest of the world.”

Though green construction is not a cure-all for our environmental woes, it is significant because rather than some lofty, pie-in-the-sky solution, it embodies tangible, achievable change across a broad scale. Eisenberg concurs: “One way of viewing this is that from a risk standpoint, and from a careful analysis of where we are, it’s clear that the most dangerous thing we can do is to continue to do what we’ve been doing.”

Emily Sullivan is a freelance writer, pursuing a master’s degree in English at the University of Massachusetts Boston.

Toucan

Achieving environmental sustainability, one of the United Nation’s eight Millennium Development Goals, adopted in 2000, requires the cooperation of the entire world – a seemingly daunting task. However, this $27 billion lawsuit could have priceless implications on the future of the Oriente.

Commonly known as the “Lungs of the World”, the Amazon rainforest is home to 20% of the Earth’s animal and plant species. The Amazon stores 70 billion tons of carbon in its biomass, which helps combat global warming. However, deforestation and biodiversity loss as a result of logging, mining, and oil extraction puts further stress on an already overburdened climate. According to the Woods Hole Research Center: “Carbon stocks equivalent to more than a decade of global fossil fuel emissions are stored in the wood of its trees. Even slight climate-induced changes in the forest’s metabolism could undo the modest gains of the Kyoto Protocol in slowing global warming.” With scientists claiming that we are approaching the tipping point on climate change, any step backward could be disastrous.

The United Nation’s main target for achieving environmental sustainability calls for countries–their governments, citizens, NGOs, and private business sector– to integrate principles for sustainable development into their policies and programs that reverse the loss of resources. In the case of the Oriente, it is unlikely that a total reversal of damage is even possible: “No amount of money can restore the area to the pristine rainforest it once was,” explains Daniel Herriges, a program assistant at Amazon Watch, a non-profit organization that works to protect the rainforest and the rights of indigenous peoples in the Amazon Basin.

Herriges graduated from Stanford University with a B.A. in human biology, and a focus in conservation and sustainable development. While in college he conducted research on ecotourism in an indigenous community in the Peruvian Amazon.

The Oriente is home to eight different indigenous tribes and contains one of the most diverse collections of plant and animal life in the world, including over 2,700 species of wildlife, of which around 10% are considered threatened. But, in addition to 32 million acres of tropical rainforest, the Oriente also has oil—4.6 billion barrels of proven reserve. Around 2 billion barrels of oil have been extracted so far, while billions more of untreated waste, gas, and crude oil have been dumped into the environment by oil companies. In Amazonian rainforests like the Oriente, this kind of damage can have dramatic implications for climate change. The plaintiffs’ witnesses said it is already having a significant impact on the lives of the people who live there.

Oil production flares in the Ecuadorian Amazon near Lago Agrio. Credit: Amazon Watch

In the 1960s U.S. oil giant Texaco began working with state oil company Petroecuador, when Ecuador was still under military rule. The partnership soured, however, and Texaco left the operation to Petroecuador in the 1990s. But before leaving, Texaco submitted to a $40 million agreement with Ecuador to clean up a portion of the 300 well sites and 1,000 waste pits scattered across the Oriente.

The villagers claim that the clean up was a sham and blamed Texaco for illnesses they believe are caused from the practice of depositing untreated wastes into open pits, which then contaminate water sources used for drinking, bathing, and fishing. The extent of the damage is so pervasive that a 1994 study of the region conducted by the Center for Economic and Social Rights (CESR) stated: “Crude oil may enter the human body through three primary routes: skin absorption, ingestion of food and drink and inhalation of oil on dust or soot particles. Residents of the Oriente face potential exposure from all three routes.” The effects of such exposure can range from a runny nose and teary eyes to esophageal cancer. A 2004 article published in the peer-reviewed Pan-American Journal of Public Health cites various studies conducted since 1993 on the health of communities living in the Oriente where oil exploration had taken place. Each found that residents suffered from a higher than average rate of various skin diseases, birth defects, and spontaneous abortions as well as “a significantly higher overall incidence of cancer in both men and women.”

A class action lawsuit, Aguinda v. Chevron, was filed in 1993 and since then, the case has traveled from New York to Lago Agrio, Ecuador, where a decision has yet to be announced. In the meantime, Chevron, which bought Texaco in 2001, has inherited the lawsuit and heavily disputes the charges, as evidenced on its website linked above. Among the evidence they dispute, a report by court-appointed expert and geologist Richard Cabrera that estimates the cost of the damage at $27 billion, with $2.9 billion assigned just for excess cancer deaths. Cabrera claims that over 1,400 people have died from cancer caused by the oil contamination. The plaintiffs also charge that Chevron should be held responsible for all of the damage done by Texaco up until the present, because the systems they put in place allowed Petroecuador to keep polluting for years.

In May 2009, the New York Times reported that “Nearly every other detail in the case is disputed […] save one: Chevron and the plaintiffs agree that the expansion of oil exploration in northeastern Ecuador spoiled what had once been a pristine jungle.”

But while Chevron doesn’t dispute the fact that oil exploration into the region caused irreparable harm, it maintains it cannot be held accountable for the damage caused by Petroecuador after Texaco left.

On September 23, Chevron Corp. filed an international arbitration claim against the government of Ecuador citing violations of the country’s obligations under the United States-Ecuador Bilateral Investment Treaty, investment agreements, and international law.  According to Chevron’s press release, “The complaint stems from the government of Ecuador’s exploitation of the ongoing lawsuit against Chevron in Ecuador, as well as the government’s failure to uphold its duties under decade-old contracts. The arbitration proceeding has been commenced before the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague under the Rules of the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law.

“As has been widely recognized, the government of Ecuador has seriously diminished the independence and integrity of its own judiciary. The government is using the legal process in Lago Agrio to avoid the environmental obligations of its state-owned oil company,” said Hewitt Pate, Chevron’s vice president and general counsel in the press release. “Because Ecuador’s judicial system is incapable of functioning independently of political influence, Chevron has no choice but to seek relief under the treaty between the United States and Ecuador.”

The Amazon Basin stretches across the heart of South America. Much of the area is covered by rainforests. Layer upon layer of amazingly diverse plants and trees reaches from the forest floor to the tree tops. With all this lush plant life, it can be hard to believe that parts of the Amazon go months each year with little or no rain. Even more surprising is the fact that the dry season may actually be the “good season” for tree and plant growth. Credit: NASA Earth Observatory

Beyond the litigious details, this case can set a precedent for the importance of environmental preservation – whatever the outcome may be. Herriges states: “Even if Chevron wins the case, the fact that it’s gotten this far is already historically unprecedented.”

Here in the U.S., laws are in place to prevent the dumping of produced water and oil wastes. But in Ecuador, the lack of infrastructure allowed companies like Texaco to pollute unchecked for decades without any consequences – until now. “Just the realization that multinationals can be brought to trial for behavior that, while abhorrent, was more or less “business as usual” for decades, is already making a powerful impression on industry leaders.”

Indeed, Chevron has received a good deal of media criticism as the case drags on. A 60 Minutes piece in May 2009 and “CRUDE” a feature-length film released in theaters September 25 continue to keep this case in the public eye.

Unfortunately, plaintiff’s advocates like Amazon Watch argue that the $27 billion will be necessary for the area to move forward – a sum that still hangs in the balance as complications continue to arise. Recently, Juan Nunez, the judge assigned to hear the case in Ecuador faced bribery allegations made by Chevron. The involvement of Ecuador’s government in the case has also been called into question. Leftist President Rafael Correa has made no secret of his feelings toward Chevron, calling the company’s behavior in Ecuador “a crime against humanity.” Lost in political lobbying and corporate bottom lines are the victims, who still await a verdict. The plaintiffs have released an amicus brief asking that the delaying tactics be stopped.

As the CESR stated: “A small segment of the population has disproportionately enjoyed the benefits of oil development; few of the profits have been reinvested in the Oriente.”

A ruling in the case is expected to be made in 2010, five years from the MDGs 2015 deadline. Even with a favorable ruling, Herriges said, there would still be a long way to go toward achieving environmental sustainability: “No amount of money can restore the area to the pristine rainforest it once was, but with a genuine environmental clean-up, and funding for health and potable water services, the residents of the area will at least be able to pursue sustainable development. Put another way, cleaning up the oil mess probably isn’t sufficient in itself to achieve the MDGs for this region, but it’s definitely necessary if there’s going to be any hope of getting there.”

Emily Sullivan is a freelance writer, pursuing a master’s degree in English at the University of Massachusetts Boston.

When we gaze at the beautiful blue-green orb we call home from outer-space, what we mostly see is water. Approximately 71% of the earth’s surface is covered with water, but only 3% of it is fresh water – of that precious 3%, 2% is frozen in polar ice caps, leaving just 1% to satisfy all the needs of 6 billion people around the globe.² Sadly, we have not yet assured that everyone has their most basic needs met. Currently, nearly 1 billion people do not have access to clean drinking water, and more than 2 billion lack adequate sanitation – which causes the unnecessary deaths of more than 4,000 people every day, mostly children under the age of five.³

Access to clean water is desirable for obvious reasons – improved health, decreased disease, and it tastes better than swamp water – but there are a multitude of other reasons why access to clean water, and basic sanitation, is critical for a healthy global society.

Taking Action

While it is easy for us to step out of our hot showers and think nothing about the global water crisis, countless individuals and organizations around the globe are dedicated to providing water to the poorest people of the world. Like many non-profit water organizations, Freshwater Project Malawi was founded by one courageous person who was determined to make a difference. In this case, the driving force was a humble fireman turned waterman by the name of Charles Banda, a local Malawian who grew up without water anywhere near his home. He founded Freshwater Project in 1995 and has dedicated his life to providing water to the people of his country through community involvement and empowerment.

In the mid-90s Banda preached in the villages on Sundays, but when he had to cancel several services because of horrific outbreaks of cholera, he knew that he had to take action. More than 800 wells and 5,000 pit latrines later, he is considered a local hero in the Blantyre rural region of Malawi. If it were up to Banda to set the global agenda, water would be a top priority when addressing all of the issues in the MDGs.

The MDGs

In the United Nations Millennium Declaration of 2000, the UN established a set of goals called the Millennium Development Goals, or MDGs.⁴ The MDGs are a set of 8 goals aimed at reducing poverty and the suffering it causes in poor, developing nations by the year 2015. While most Americans are relatively unfamiliar with the acronym because it is rarely covered in our news outlets, the MDGs make the headlines on a daily basis in Africa and Asia where there is a dire need to improve basic living conditions for the billion plus people living on less than a U.S. dollar a day (the global definition of poverty) – and in many cases, on no income at all.

Water and The MDGs

Water plays an integral part in all of the eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) highlighted below:

1. Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger
World hunger is projected to reach an historic high in 2009 with more than 1 billion people going hungry every day, according to a recent report from the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).⁵

Without water there are no crops. To alleviate hunger, people must first have access to ample supplies of water in order to grow crops year round for food security. Additionally, diarrheal diseases, common in people who are forced to drink contaminated water, diminish the nutritional benefits of the food they actually eat. According to UNICEF, malnourishment affects a child’s ability to learn and actively participate in school. Food deprivation provides a daily stress on children and stunts both their emotional and physical development.⁶

“When people have access to an abundant source of water, at least they can grow crops,” says Freshwater Project Director, Charles Banda. In regions like southeastern Africa where there actually is ground water available but access to it is limited because of poverty, water projects have a multiple effect by not only providing clean water, but reducing hunger and poverty, Banda explains.

According to reports by Freshwater Project, in the villages where they are able to build solar or wind-powered water tanks that store enough water to grow three crops of corn and other vegetables each year, hunger and famine become virtually non-existent. The surplus crops can be sold at local markets thus decreasing poverty in the community as well.

2. Achieve universal primary education
Women and young girls generally bear the responsibility of hauling water from distant wells and streams. When girls are forced to spend several hours each day hauling water, they don’t have time to attend school or do their homework. In addition, if there are no latrines to give them privacy, when girls reach puberty they will often stay home from school when they menstruate, or drop out all together. Dropping out of school not only decreases their chances of getting a decent paying job, but it often contributes to an increase in the number of children they have. According to the UN World Fertility Report, adolescent birthrates in sub-Saharan Africa are more than 100 births annually per 1000 young women ages 15-19. In the US the average rate is closer to 35 per 1000.⁷

Freshwater Project reported that school drop out rates of adolescent girls living in the Chileka region of Malawi dropped from 40% to 2% after the organization’s first decade of providing water and sanitation interventions.

3. Promote gender equality and empower women
In many cultures, water is a woman’s responsibility. If women have to spend the bulk of their time and energy hauling water they have little time for anything else such as furthering their education or getting training for a better job. Having a well nearby has an additional benefit to women. Throughout poor nations, incidences of rape are often highest late at night or early in the morning as women make their way to a distant source of water. As they walk home in the dark with 40 pounds of water on their heads they are particularly vulnerable.

Banda values effective policies that protect the rights of women. However, he sees access to water close to the home as a more powerful and immediate preventive measure against rape and sexual harassment of women.

4. Reduce child mortality
More children die from diarrhea caused by drinking filthy, contaminated water than any other causes of death – including HIV/AIDS and the violence of war. According to UNICEF, about 4 billion cases of diarrhea per year cause 1.8 million deaths, over 90% of them, or 1.6 million, among children under the age of five.⁸

After Freshwater Project installed hundreds of wells and thousands of latrines and the majority of people in the region had access to clean water and sanitation the rate of waterborne diseases decreased. The percentage of patients who entered the Chileka Health Center with waterborne diseases dropped from 70% to 6%.⁹

5. Improve maternal health
Mothers who drink contaminated water are frequently malnourished and weak due to diarrhea and parasitic diseases; women who have easy access to clean water are healthier, and are able to use improved hygiene methods that reduce the chances of post-natal infections. According to a report by the World Health Organization, clean water and other environmental factors are of great importance to the health of pregnant mothers and their newborn children.¹⁰

When determining the location of a borehole well, Freshwater Project Malawi carefully considers the proximity to the home of the village mid-wife or Traditional Birth Attendant (TBA), so that the TBA has easy access to clean water when helping a woman deliver a baby and recover from giving birth.

6. Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases
While anti-retroviral drugs are useful in keeping HIV-positive patients alive, no amount of medication will help an AIDS patient if they wash down their pills with filthy, contaminated water. They will die of diarrhea even with the best medication. Biological contaminants increase diarrhea and diminish absorption of both the medication and the nutrients in the food they eat.

Access to clean water is also critical to preventing schistosomiasis, a chronic and debilitating waterborne disease common in Africa. A report published in the Lancet by Jürg Utzinger Ph.D., et al, on control of the disease lists provision of clean water and sanitation “as the fundamental basis for schistosomiasis control.”¹¹

The risk of exposure to malaria-carrying mosquitoes is also increased when women and children have to get water from muddy, low-lying swamps. Banda notes that exposure to malaria is decreased when women have access to a borehole pump near their home.

7. Ensure environmental sustainability
Trees and forests are integral to the sustainability of the environment and the regeneration of aquifers. However, the FAO reported in the 2005 Global Forest Resource Assessment that, “Deforestation…is continuing at an alarmingly high rate.”¹² Each year approximately 13 million hectares of the world’s forests are lost due to deforestation, according to the report.

If people are forced to boil water to make it drinkable, they often have no choice but to cut down trees so that they can build a fire. As millions of trees get cut down every year to boil water the result is deforestation of the poorest regions of the world. Storm run-off from barren, deforested land is laden with bio-waste that ends up in the surface water in ponds and streams where people draw their water if they don’t have a well. This increases the spread of waterborne diseases. If people had access to safe water, they wouldn’t be forced to burn as many trees.

Freshwater Project encourages the communities they serve to plant trees around the wells and prevent people from cutting them down so that the groundwater will be replenished.

8. Develop a global partnership for development
For millions of years humans have settled near sources of fresh water – rivers, lakes, streams, or near plentiful aquifers – without fresh water, the human race cannot exist. Pollution of freshwater resources is a problem not just in poor nations, but in all areas of the world. It seems dubious to claim that there is ‘development’ if the result of building a factory or cultivating commercial agriculture is contamination of the waterways.

In sub-Saharan Africa, the UNEP Global Environment Outlook states that rapid population growth, urbanization, industrialization, and the drive for food security are putting pressures on water resources, both in terms of quantity and quality. Domestic wastewater, industrial effluents, and agrochemicals are polluting both freshwater and coastal resources, causing health hazards, eutrophication, and stress on aquatic and marine ecosystems.

“How can there be ‘development’ if people don’t have clean water?” Banda adds.

Water First

Achieving the Millennium Development Goals will not only save lives, but will serve to improve the lifestyle of millions of people by making them healthier, better educated, more empowered and more prosperous. One way we can keep the momentum going on the MDGs is to make access to clean water and improved sanitation a top priority for all people. According to Water Advocates, if everyone had access to clean water and sanitation, we would automatically progress by at least 30% on all of the MDGs.

“Water is life,” says Freshwater Project founder, Charles Banda, “I would do anything to give my people clean water.”

- Written by Amy Hart, Filmmaker, “Water First: Reaching the MDGs” (WaterFirstFilm.org)

Actions you can Take:

1. Sponsor a well:
There are hundreds of wonderful organizations that provide wells in developing nations – please support one or more of them. If you would like to donate to Freshwater Project Malawi please see the website of their US partner, www.PureWaterFortheWorld.org

2. Encourage your elected officials to support international water projects:
In the US see the www.OneCampaign.org for information on policies to support clean water for all. Hats off to Matt Damon for leading the way on the One Campaign on global water issues. For more info on water policies and regular updates on a plethora of water issues please sign up for the mailing list at www.WaterAdvocates.org

3. Host a Screening of the award-winning film, WATER FIRST:
Water First: Reaching the Millennium Development Goals is a documentary film directed by Amy Hart that clearly conveys the need for clean water and sanitation in achieving all of the MDGs. Beautifully shot in the sub-Saharan country of Malawi, in southeastern Africa, the film features a genuine hero named Charles Banda who has devoted his life to providing clean water to the people of his country. The DVD includes a 28-minute and a 45-minute version – both serve to educate the audience about the critical importance of clean water in achieving all of the MDGs. Please see www.WaterFirstFilm.org or go directly to http://www.bullfrogfilms.com/catalog/wfirst.html or call Bullfrog Films at 800-543-3764 to place an order for your academic institution, library or organization.

Biography:

New York based filmmaker/photographer, Amy Hart is the producer/director of WATER FIRST: Reaching the Millennium Development Goals distributed by Bullfrog Films. (www.WaterFirstFilm.org) The final version of the film premiered at the Environmental Film Festival in DC and has been shown at international festivals and conferences including UNEP/UNESCO Conference-Music for a Green Planet in Geneva, The World’s Fair in Spain, Global Peace Film Fest, UN Environmental Programme Award Film Fest in Istanbul, Voices From the Water Film Fest, and has won a number of awards including a jury award at the World Water Forum in Mexico City and a Fulbright Fellowship Award to take the film to Greece for the EcoFilm Fest. Hart has won an Emmy nomination, 5 Telly Awards and a Gold Award from the USDLA. Hart has directed more than 100 broadcast hours on public health issues and is the founding director of Public Health Productions at The New York Academy of Medicine (www.nyam.org/services/php). Hart is also a professor at New York University where she teaches Public Health Through Film and Fiction.

Email: info@Waterfirstfilm.org

All photos included in this article were taken in Malawi by Amy Hart ©Hart Productions 2006. All rights reserved.

Sources:

1. Samuel Taylor Coleridge, “The Story of the Ancient Mariner” published in 1798

2. US Geologic Survey – http://ga.water.usgs.gov

3. UNICEF.org – http://www.unicef.org/wash/index.html

4. UN – http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals

5. FAO UN: “1.02 Billion people hungry” June 19, 2009. http://www.fao.org/news/story/en/item/20568/icode/

6. UNICEF: http://www.unicef.org/Are_Poverty_Reduction_Strategy_Papers_Impacting_Child_Poverty.pdf

7. Source: UN World Fertility Patterns 2007

8. UNICEF WASH (Water Sanitation Hygiene) report: http://www.unicef.org/wash/index_wes_related.html

9. Chileka Health Center report of waterborne illnesses 2006, Chileka, Malawi.

10. A. Pruss-Ustun and C. Corvalan, WHO Report “Preventing Disease through Healthy Environments” 2006 ISBN 92 4 159382 2

11. Jürg Utzinger PhD, et al, “Sustainable schistosomiasis control—the way forward” The Lancet, Vol 362, Issue 9399, 12/6/03

12. UNFAO 2005 Global Forest Resource Assessment. Summary findings at http://www.greenfacts.org/en/forests/

Bal Ram Singh, Ph.D.

Bal Ram Singh, Ph.D., 51, once a child of the village and now a successful biophysical chemist at a U.S. university (University of Massachusetts Dartmouth) and director of its Center for Indic Studies, built the school himself without government assistance. Deeply engaged as a Hindu, a family man, a professor, research scientist, and a U.S. citizen, he is also determined to prove that “one little man” can change the status-quo in India for the better.

India’s population, which is over 1 billion, is second only to China, which it is predicted to pass by 2030. India has 2.4% of the world’s land area, and 15% of the world’s population. Eight percent (8%) of the world’s poor live in the state of Uttar Pradesh (UP) alone. UP has a population of 170 million – larger than most countries – and 60 million are poor, according to a 2002 World Bank report. Malnutrition, maternal and child mortality, and disease levels are higher in UP than in other states, while immunization and literacy rates are lower.

“According to the 2001 Population Census, literacy increased from 42% in 1991 to 57% as of February 2001, substantial progress but still well below the all-India average of 65%. Female literacy in particular, at 43%, is also below the all-India average of 54%… Uttar Pradesh spends little on elementary education: spending rose from only “1.7% of GSDP in the early 1990s to 1.8% by the end of the decade,” according to The World Bank.

Korown, Singh estimates, has a literacy rate of 30-40%, slightly higher for men than women; and most residents only go through middle school. His late father was educated and a land-owning farmer, but most residents are laborers with yearly incomes of about 2000-3000 rupees or $200-$300 USD.

Painting of the goddess Saraswati

Singh‘s own education came about unexpectedly. His family did not encourage his schooling past middle school because they were farmers, and expected he would join the family business. But he enjoyed school, did well, and was encouraged by his teachers to go on to the next level. He did so “almost by rote,” he recalled, eventually earning his doctorate in the U.S. and becoming an academic research scientist with a specialty in the botulinum neurotoxin. Yet there were no educational options past middle school for his younger sister, and the inequity of her prospects first inspired his resolve to build a school.

Singh, who was interviewed in Massachusetts, chose to build this school originally just for girls out of this personal conviction as well as demographic reality. Education confers respect and respectability, he believes, and when only the men in a family are educated, “the respectability of a family goes down.” He also believes women have to receive education in order to become leaders in their families, their communities and in the broader world of work, politics and the world’s myriad problems. “It’s not enough to educate them; we have to educate them well, so they become leaders.”

So, he built this school in northwestern India on his family’s land, which lies near the small city of Sultanpur. He initially planned to help an education group to set up the school, but they wanted to bring in advisors from the city. As he wanted local control they parted ways and he built the whole school himself. His extended 30-member family also helped and still helps, but they don’t interfere; he has stipulated that no member of his family can be paid for service to the school. Singh decries a pattern of nepotism he has observed in other schools in India.

Ultimately, he set up a non-profit 80G corporation, administered by treasurer Prem Prakash Singh (no relation), who also runs BB Tech, the ayurvedic factory he previously set up to employ people in the village. Bal Ram Singh himself earns no income from the school or from Harbal Products, the ayurvedic business.

Prem Prakash Singh was also raised in rural India and holds a Masters in Information Technology (MIT) degree from Aligarh Muslim University. He writes in an email, “Kuruom Jankalyan Sansthan (the school’s official name) is supported through the North South Foundation in collaboration with Dr. Singh, but we expect to become self sufficient within a year using student fees and other donations locally. Kuruom is a place to learn about real life through ‘punchmukhi siksha‘ [Five-fold Educational Programme]. These days very few persons care about poverty / rural education. Dr.Singh is one who has devoted his time as well as his real worth for all these types of works.”

The board of directors staffed the school with fully-qualified teachers and a principal, and welcomed the students who applied for admission and pay a fee to attend the private school. “There are other rural schools that have been built in the last 5 years, but they are very crowded, and not really up to the mark,” Bal Ram Singh said. “There was a lot of excitement and parents waited until the school opened in July rather than send their children elsewhere.” The school year usually begins in May.

Image of the Kuruom Campus

“Currently the school has both boys and girls, and we plan to have boys and girls until 8^th grade at which point high school classes will be only for girls. This is done to get the school going (with enough beginning students) and due to the pressure from parents, particularly those who had boys and girls both in the family. The school was initially planned as a high school but we added K-8 so that students are trained in our way of education from the beginning,” Bal Ram Singh said.

Construction is not yet complete, but one of two planned wings is open, learning is going on, and the Educomp Solutions Limited.com Smart Class rooms are bringing the newest technology via broadband Internet access to children, many of whom have never used a computer before. Singh’s mission and that of the school is to teach leadership as well as a full curriculum with co-curricular traditional and modern Indian arts, sports, music and dance. It has a holistic pedagogy, much like Saraswati’s, “whose four hands represent four aspects of human personality in learning: mind, intellect, alertness and ego.” He says the curriculum is integrated so that subjects are not taught in isolation—computer instruction incorporates math.

Kuroum vidyalaya is not a religious school per se; although the majority of Indians are Hindu, it welcomes students and hires staff that are Muslim and other faiths. It does, however, follow the Hindu practice of dharma, “a righteous way of being.” Singh said, “In India, we worship all living things… and we don’t expect to receive anything in return but respect… I want students to learn about sustainability, to learn to protect the environment. This is dharma. So, in this respect, the school is religious.”

Singh’s vision for Kuruom vidyalaya is congruent with the UN Millennium Development Goals of 2000 in which world leaders came together and pledged to halve the number of people living in extreme poverty, as well as reach seven other goals set by the United Nations. The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are designed to relieve the world’s most pressing problems by 2015, and include halting the spread of HIV/AIDS, providing universal primary education, promoting gender equality and empowering women; and ensuring environmental sustainability. These eight goals represent an unprecedented global partnership, both in size and scope, and have come to symbolize a new age of humanitarianism.

Why Girls’ Education in a Society Thousands of Years Old is Vital

In India the educational status- quo for girls is poor. Singh says the barriers to girls’ education are social and political, not cultural. Women in India have always been worshipped through powerful deities, even if mortal women were socially subservient to men. Modern women are able to hold positions of power if they have wealthy families who support them with education and influence (e.g. PM Indira Gandhi), or if they are able to independently obtain education, which is more available in the cities. Socially, however, most rural Indian parents are conservative: they want to marry their daughters, not send them away to cities for educations in facilities not equipped for their safety or even with girls’ toilets. This is a kind of de-facto discrimination that the Indian government says it is striving to correct.

Map of Uttar Pradesh

“Growth in access to schooling has been matched by a steady increase in enrolment with the most dramatic upswing since 1990s in girls’ participation levels. From 13.8 million boys and 5.4 million girls enrolled at the primary level in 1950-51, the number rose to 69.7 million boys and 61.1 million girls in 2004-05. At the upper primary level, the enrolment increased from 2.6 million boys and 0.5 million girls to 28.5 million boys and 22.7 million girls,” according to the Ministry of Human Resources Development Department of Education & Literacy (2008).

But Singh sees a more troubling dichotomy. “I think it is a mistake to focus on girls versus boys. It is more important to distinguish between those who are well-to-do and those who are not.”

Rural Reality v. Big City Allure in One of the World’s Fastest Growing Economies

The vast majority of India’s one billion population lives in its 550,000 villages and outlying rural areas, not in its 200 cities, which are densely populated, nonetheless. Agriculture is the basis of the rural economy in Uttar Pradesh, but most employment is in low-wage, intermittent labor for men and boys. That fragile economic safety net doesn’t exist at all for women and girls without male breadwinners, as well as for the ill and disabled, and those perceived to have low social or caste identity, according to The World Bank.

Many move to the city: “Urban poverty has a distinctly different face than rural poverty. Many of the urban poor included in the consultations were first generation migrants, and the majority felt that migration had improved their economic position. In urban areas, unlike rural villages, employment opportunities – if only scavenging, petty hawking, and begging – are available year round, typically at higher wages than paid in rural areas…,” The World Bank reports.

Yet India, despite a worldwide recession, has the second fastest growing economy in the world today and an educated middle class increasing its prosperity. A March 2009 editorial in India’s Economic Times titled “Focus on the Rural Economic Base” argues that India has to expand its economic support to its rural population:

“Unlike China, where exports and manufacturing sector have been the main engines of economic growth, India’s growth has been stimulated by the emergence and rise of an educated middle class who have prospered in the services sector. The share of the services sector in GDP has increased to 58% and it is often said that the performance of this sector has become independent of the performance of other sectors of the economy. This argument will be put to the test during the current slowdown…

“Even in the last quarter of 2008, consumer spending and retail sales in China and India did not witness a significant decline. Much of the prosperity in India has been starkly visible in the top 20 cities of India. A look at the earnings structure across India’s top 20 cities reveals that the average graduate earns Rs 1.8 lakh per year compared to just Rs 91,000 in rural areas…”

However, The Wall Street Journal’s India Edition reports, “India started from a lower economic base but has made greater gains: Its urban-rural income gap has slowly but steadily declined since the early 1990s. Over the past decade, economic growth in rural India has outpaced growth in urban areas by almost 40%. Rural India now accounts for half of the country’s GDP, up from 46% in 1993. Unlike the Chinese, rural Indians do not have to migrate to already crowded urban areas to earn a better living.”

India is complex and many layered.

Bal Ram Singh’s View of India Post Independence from Great Britain on August 15, 1947

“I think India is doing very well in some sense, and very badly in others. In 60 years they have proven that they can live democratically at the local level and certainly at the national level. It is a multicultural society. The people are Muslim, Christian, Hindu and other groups and they all live together. This has been very successful. Economically, India has capitalized on technology: computer technology, nuclear technology, with satellites and so on. Socially, it has not done so well. They have not been able to use India’s experience over a long period of time to develop the rural areas where they could have significant impact on people’s lives through education, through economic development. All this has not happened. There has been a dichotomy between the cities and the rural areas in India. And people have adopted a way of living that is mostly westernized, which is not possible in my opinion…India has  not done very well integrating our culture with the modern way of life where they allow people to be educated, to be creative, to be innovative, but to not move to the cities. The movie Slumdog Millionaire shows what can happen when people move from rural areas to the cities without education or the capacity for modern life—they create slums. Those of us who have moved to the West can look back with some objectivity. That is some of my motivation.”

This line graph, based on Kenyan rainfall levels during March, April, May, and June since 1900, shows the initial indication that a climate change trend might be starting to emerge, though additional years of data are needed to establish this as a trend.

In September 2000 world leaders came together and pledged to halve the number of people living in extreme poverty, as well as reach seven other goals set by the United Nations. Known as the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), they are designed to relieve the world’s most pressing problems by 2015, and include halting the spread of HIV/AIDS, providing universal primary education, and ensuring environmental sustainability. These eight goals represent an unprecedented global partnership, both in size and scope, and have come to symbolize a new age of humanitarianism.

Since 2000, many gains have been made: the number of people living in extreme poverty in the developing world has shrunk from half of the population to a quarter; Enrollment in primary education has increased to 88%, with the largest gains being made in Sub-Saharan Africa and Southern Asia; And the deaths of children under five worldwide has continued to decline.

But, as we pass the halfway point toward reaching the deadline for the MDGs, new obstacles continue to appear and serve as a telling reminder of just how hard success can be, even with the support of the entire world.

In the battle against hunger, unanticipated problems continue to arise, such as the worldwide financial crisis of the past year and the ever-changing climate situation, which has thrust relatively stable countries like Kenya into economic and political peril.

The June SST image, obtained from the NOAA Climate Diagnostics Center, illustrates the sea surface temperature warming in the Indian Ocean that Dr. Funk discusses.

Drought has seized the area on and off since 2004 and according to the humanitarian aid agency Oxfam it could take as much as fifteen years for Eastern Kenya to recover from the devastating effects without international aid. As Marcus Prior, spokesman for the United Nations World Food Programme’s (WFP) in Kenya, attests:  “What we are seeing in Northern Kenya, and in other parts of the Horn of Africa, is that drought years are coming more and more frequently, often successively, making life increasingly difficult in a region where there is little development.”

The Kenya Red Cross has labeled a staggering 10 million people as food insecure, due in large part to a failed crop season that has pushed food and fuel prices toward record highs. Complicating such matters are continued ramifications from the post-election violence of 2008. As a result, more and more people are in need of famine relief and thus already thin resources are being stretched even further as aid agencies such as the World Food Programme try to keep up with the ever-growing need.

Climate change has been another factor complicating the situation in Kenya and researchers from a variety of different institutions are coming together to understand the reasons behind such changes, and what, if anything, can be done.

According to an upcoming study conducted by Dr. Chris Funk, a United States Geological Survey research geographer at the University of Santa Barbara’s Climate Hazards Group, and Molly Brown, a research scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, the drought conditions in Kenya are likely to continue. A line graph using data from Kenya’s March, April, and May rainfall since 1900 indicates that this decline may continue, though Funk cautions that, “Just one season is not enough to identify the impacts of climate change.” However, he maintains that the evidence in Kenya “quite strongly supports the assertion that anthropogenic warming in the central Indian Ocean is drawing moisture away from Kenya and bringing dry air down across Central and Eastern Kenya.” A recent image from June 2009, obtained from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Climate Diagnostics Center, illustrates these warm sea surface temperatures. Another image from the NOAA’s climate prediction center shows the extreme drought conditions in Kenya using precipitation data. Brown concurs: “We think that the rainfall is likely to continue to decline in the coastal areas of Kenya due to their interaction with increasing temperatures over the Indian Ocean.”

The March-April-May Standardized Precipitation Index (MAM SPI) image, based on precipitation data obtained from NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center, shows the extreme drought conditions in Kenya with an area of SPI values in the -2 to -3 range in the southern part of the country.

Worldwide, Oxfam estimates that the number of people affected by climatic crises will rise by 54% over the next six years, with devastating consequences for the humanitarian aid system. But, in parts of Kenya huge changes are already taking place, as Marcus Prior’s first-hand experience in the area has shown him: “Evidence from the communities is largely anecdotal, but everywhere you go, people tell you that things are not how they used to be. In many cases, people told me that this was the worst drought they had experienced.”

To help Kenyans deal with the changing landscape, the World Food Programme has been instructing communities in water-harvesting projects and encouraging a change to drought-resistant crops with promising results: “Some communities have, impromptu, copied WFP projects unassisted because they have seen the benefits to neighboring communities. Understandably, encouraging a change to drought-resistant crops is more of a challenge, as it also means a change of diet, but progress is being made,” notes Prior.

But, it is not just humanitarian agencies like the World Food Programme that are providing assistance to this impoverished nation. Advances in remote sensing systems, which image the Earth’s land surface, have helped pave the way for the creation of the Famine Early Warning System Network (FEWS NET), which built upon an earlier warning system for famine developed by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) in 1985. FEWS NET monitors food security in 20 African countries, Guatemala, Haiti and Afghanistan by using NASA data on long-term changes in rainfall, vegetation, reservoir height and other climate factors to classify food insecurity levels and alert authorities to predicted crises.

However, there is only so much that can be done with this information. The Kenyan drought, though quite problematic on its own, is also exposing many, much deeper problems. The devastating effects of the drought have been further complicated by the area’s pre-existing economic limitations. As Brown explains: “Climate change is challenging the system and exposing its underlying weaknesses from Kenya having not invested in agricultural development.”

The roofs of Kibera in Nairobi, Kenya. (JR – Kenya aerial photography. 2009 Recommended Reading, Inc. User-generated content is licensed under a Creative Commons Public Domain license.)

“Kenya is currently in their dry season, of course, and had quite a poor growing season last year. They also have significantly above normal food prices right now.” These developments have helped create a heightened sense of emergency in Eastern Kenya, with the Integrated Regional Information Networks (IRIN) calling it a “malnutrition crisis.” And while aid relief is certainly necessary for the area, more needs to be done with an eye toward the long run for the situation to actually improve.

“What is important for food security in the next few years and decades is to boost per capita crop production, local incomes, and improve transportation so that the export regions can supply the deficit regions with affordable food,” says Brown. A task that is easier said than done. Prior echoes this sentiment: “The region needs development on all levels. WFP can only do so much–both our mandate and our resources are limited.”

Though there may be little that can be done in the short run to radically improve the situation in Kenya, scientists like Brown are looking towards the future: “FEWS NET is still working with USAID to try to understand how to cope with trends over decades in their efforts to sustain and improve food security.”

Improvement over decades may prove to be a more realistic and ultimately attainable target for achieving real change in this region, both on an economic and environmental scale compared to the MDG’s decidedly more ambitious deadline of 2015. But, even if the target goals aren’t exactly met, the UN has certainly succeeded in many ways. The world has been shocked into action, and awareness of these issues is higher than ever, while the lack of significant progress has, perhaps inadvertently, shown just how extensive these problems truly are. They will most likely take more than a generation to solve.