Month: January 2017

From CNN

Nour, a housewife in Damascus, says the latest joke in the Syrian capital is also a prayer of sorts: “May the gold you hold become water.”

It is a half-hearted attempt to make light of a water crisis that is impacting millions in Damascus, a city that has been relatively sheltered from the violence raging elsewhere in the country.

Nour said that her family just got water on Tuesday morning, after four days without access. Her family quickly lined up to use the shower and she switched on the washing machine. Now, when she hears the sound of the water motor running, she says it is “like a wedding.”

“When the water comes, it’s the same joy as a mom having a boy after 10 daughters,” Nour said. She did not feel comfortable sharing her last name with CNN.

Some four million people in Damascus have suffered from acute water shortages for more than a week after springs outside the Syrian capital were targeted, the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said in a statement on December 29.

Water from the Wadi Barada and Ain al-Fija springs, which serve 70 percent of the population in and around Damascus, was cut after infrastructure was damaged in fierce clashes. OCHA described the damages as “deliberate,” without saying who was responsible.

The Syrian government and rebel forces are trading blame for the water shortages.

Rebels claim the government destroyed the water pumping station in the Wadi Barada valley, one of the last remaining rebel-held pockets of Damascus.

Read the full story at CNN

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The Syrian army and its allies are pushing to recapture Wadi Barada in spite of a nationwide ceasefire. The regime claims it is going after rebel groups who were excluded from the truce, like former al Qaeda affiliate Fateh al-Sham, which it says is operating in the area (although local groups deny this).

 

The Syrian regime has accused rebels of contaminating the springs with diesel, forcing the Damascus water authority to cut the supplies. CNN could not independently verify these claims.

 

A group of pro-opposition groups and civil society organizations in Wadi Barada, including the Local Council and the Syrian Civil Defense, released a statement on Monday calling for the International Committee of the Red Cross and the United Nations to assess damages at the Ain al-Fija spring, situated northwest of the capital in a mountainous area near the border with Lebanon.

 

“(We express) our willingness and readiness to accompany and assist teams heading to al-Fija spring to accelerate resupplying fresh water to our people in Damascus city,” the statement read. “This facilitation needs to be accompanied with activating the ceasefire in Wadi Barada region and halting the aggression conducted by the Syrian government forces backed by Hezbollah militias.”

 

The Syrian government denies any involvement in the destruction of the springs. State-run Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) reported on December 27 that the springs in Wadi Barada “came out of service as a result of terrorist acts.”

From CNN

Deforestation and climate change have triggered a housing crisis in West Africa

Millions of households in the Sahel region of West Africa live under a growing threat. Deforestation and climate change have decimated the available supply of wood that is used for traditional roof construction, forcing many to use imported sheet metal. This is both prohibitively expensive and unsuited to the climate, entrenching poverty and making homes that boil in summer and freeze in winter.

One creative enterprise is reaching back over 3,000 years for a solution, borrowing an architectural technique from the ancient Nubian civilization of latter-day Sudan to offer superior homes at minimal cost. The NGO La Voute Nubienne (Nubian Vault) is training an army of masons to build homes from the earth, and the ancient innovation is having a profound impact.

The Nubian technique uses bricks and mortar produced from local earth, laid over a foundation of rocks. A home can be produced in 15 days, and the method is versatile enough to produce a range of buildings from mosques to farmhouses.

La Voute Nubienne is working in five West African countries; Burkina Faso, Mali, Senegal, Benin and Ghana, where around 20,000 people now live in the Nubian homes.

“We have proved our concept is viable and works for the population,” says Thomas Granier, a French builder who co-founded the NGO with Burkinabe partner Séri Youlou. “There are half a billion Africans living under corrugated iron roofing and our target is to provide a strong alternative.”

The earth homes offer more than expediency, as they are well adapted to the local climate. “Nubian Vault buildings provide excellent thermal insulation, making the buildings cool during the day and warm during the night,” says Nick Nuttall, spokesperson for the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

La Voute Nubienne believe that long term success depends on building a sustainable market, as expressed in their motto: “A roof, a skill, a market.” The NGO has trained over 500 masons, according to Granier. This new workforce can respond to increasing demand, as well as training a new generation to sustain the practice.

One-third of the new construction market is now fully autonomous, and the proportion is rising.

“When we have deployed enough capacity this won’t belong to us, it will belong to the community,” says Granier. “The target is push this alternative until we don’t have to and it pushes itself.”

The market model does not make the homes unaffordable. Granier estimates the cost of a basic building at $150, although in many cases the owner will supply some of their own labor, or barter goods for part of the mason’s fee.

But despite the informal nature of the industry it is making significant contributions to the local economies, valued at over $2 million by the NGO, and this figure is set to rise.