Nigeria: Climate Change - Ijaw Alleges Threat to Lives

THE Ijaw Monitoring Group has said the sudden change in the weather condition across the country has led to strange diseases in the Niger Delta, causing untold hardship and claiming lives of hundreds of residents in the region


In a statement signed by Comrade Andrew Elijah, Chief of Staff to the Coordinator of IMG, the group lamented that both the Federal Government and the governors of Niger Delta were not showing serious concern about the loss of lives in various hospitals, clinics, traditional healing homes and health centres because of lack of knowledge of the strange weather condition by health workers.


The group further said: "Since the manifestation of changes in climate, the IMG has sent field workers to Bayelsa, Delta, Rivers, Edo, Cross River, Akwa Ibom and Ondo states to monitor health centres and the results received from our men on the field showed that an average of 200 persons across the region died of lungs, kidney and other related problems ," adding that doctors and health workers in the area were not experienced enough to handle emergencies of the moment.

http://www.vanguardngr.com/

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Mozambique: Drought and Floods Bring Food Shortages




Extensive flooding along the rivers of central and southern Mozambique during March, in tandem with persistent drought in other parts of the same areas, have left 465,000 people in need of food assistance, but aid agencies warn that they do not have the resources to help.


"We have a very big problem now," said Lola Castro, Country Director of the UN World Food Programme (WFP), who told IRIN that her organization could assist only around 175,000 and that by "the end of April the [WFP] pipeline will have dried up".

In contrast, the latest food security outlook for Mozambique, released by the Famine Early Warning Systems Network on 26 March, noted that "456,000 people will need food assistance from April 2010 to March 2011".


In February the Ministry of Agriculture estimated that in the centre and south of the country 605,000 hectares of planted land were lost to drought - equivalent to 30 percent of the total land planted in the affected areas - representing a national loss of 13 percent of maize and 11 percent of cereal production

IRIN

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Poor internet links mar Africa's satellite data access

A landmark decision to allow free access to key earth observation data has failed to impact Africa sufficiently because of poor internet connections, say researchers.


The US Geological Survey took the decision to allow free access to Landsat Earth observation satellite data in January 2008 – a deal that opened up nearly 40 years of images, or 'scenes'. The data can be used to monitor changes to the land, such as the effects of climate change on crops, or urbanisation.

But a review of Africa's uptake of the data, published online as a letter to Remote Sensing Letters last month (23 February), has found the lack of internet connectivity between the United States and Africa to be a "fundamental and serious" obstacle.

http://www.scidev.net/en/news/poor-internet-links-mar-africa-s-satellite-data-access.html

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