With water, and electricity being the most vital ‘ingredients’ in ones life, waste still stands out as a killer source.

Johannesburg landfills are filling up rapidly

The City of Joburg (CoJ) has implemented [...]]]> Posted by: Saving Water SA (Cape Town, South Africa) – partnered with Water Rhapsody conservation systems – 20 Aug 2011

With water, and electricity being the most vital ‘ingredients’ in ones life, waste still stands out as a killer source.

Johannesburg landfills are filling up rapidly

The City of Joburg (CoJ) has implemented the 2040 Growth and Development Strategy outreach programme which is taking place this week. Water, waste and electricity are the key topics expected to dominate the conversations during the programme.

Conversations around these will be held through seminars and round table discussions involving everyone from residents and businesses to the government, civil society organisations, labour and academics.

“Formal and informal debates will take place with the aim of finding solutions to safeguard our precious resources for future generations,” said Gugu Mathibela of the City of Johannesburg.

An abundance of coal has kept electricity prices very low and has attracted a number of energy intensive industries. City Power and Eskom recently experienced protests related to power cuts, prepaid meters and the increase in electricity prices. These incidents give electricity first preference at the discussions.

Johannesburg’s resource intensity is also defined by the volume of waste it generates. The city is gradually running out of landfill space. Waste dumping in communities has become a serious health concern.

Mathibela said: “With regard to waste management, the City has introduced a refuse recycling project in north-western Johannesburg with the aim of reducing the volume of waste going to land fill sites. These landfills are filling up rapidly, meaning that new landfills need to be found.”

Another critical issue to be addressed is water, Mathibela said. How Johannesburg manages its water supply is of crucial importance to South Africa because Johannesburg contributes over a third of the country’s gross domestic product. She adds that, the CoJ is one of only few major cities in the world that is not located near a natural water source such as a lake, river or the sea.

Recent studies from the University of Johannesburg have proved the safety and reliability of household water. There are three strategic issues which affect water in Johannesburg; water supply, water demand and water quality. To ensure that the City conserves its water, it has implemented water demand management measures. Some of the measures to be considered for the future will be rainwater harvesting; grey water reuse and exploring alternative resources such as ground water abstraction.

“It is however important that households start using water responsibly. To enhance this message the City will commence with consumer demand management programmes which will include raising awareness around the importance of saving water,” said Mathibela.

By: Keabetsoe Matshediso
Source: IOL

Government plans to spend over R14.2 billion over the next three years vamping up dams and water distributions systems to ensure the country maintains a sustainable water-supply, the Minister of Water and Environmental Affairs [...]]]> Posted by: Saving Water SA (Cape Town, South Africa) – partnered with Water Rhapsody conservation systems – 20 May 2011

Government plans to spend over R14.2 billion over the next three years vamping up dams and water distributions systems to ensure the country maintains a sustainable water-supply, the Minister of Water and Environmental Affairs Edna Molewa said.

Clanwilliam Dam will receive a R2.2 billion upgrade

Molewa singled out several mega infrastructure projects, in reply to a parliamentary question raised in the National Assembly on whether the department had identified any urgent projects as part of the government’s R846bn infrastructure upgrade plan over the next three years.

So far the department has spent R5.9bn of the R29.2bn budgeted for several projects, ranging from water services projects to mega infrastructure projects, she said.

The projected expenditure on water and waste water infrastructure projects is expected to rise from R2.7bn in 2010/11 to R13.6bn in 2013/14.

“The spending focus over the medium term (MTEF 2011/12 to 2013/14) will be on bulk raw water resource infrastructure to meet sustainable demand for South Africa,” said Molewa, pointing out that the details are outlined in Vote 38 in the National Treasury’s Estimates of National Expenditure for 2011.

The mega infrastructure projects include R16bn for the Olifants River Water Resource Development Project in Limpopo – which includes over R3bn to be spent on the De Hoop Dam and a further R13.1bn on distribution systems.

So far over R2.5bn has been spent on the project – the bulk (over R2.1bn) on revamping the De Hoop Dam. A further R2.8bn will be spent on the project over the next three years.

The other mega-infrastructure projects the department is rolling out include:
* A R2.2bn upgrade of Clan William Dam (with R380 million to be spent over the next three years),
* The R2bn Greater Letaba River Project which includes the Tzaneen and Nwamitwa dams (R386m)
* Phase one of the Mokolo and Crocodile River Augmentation Project (R603m),
The R1.7bn Nandoni Water Treatment Works and Distribution project (R753m) and R720m Nandoni Pipeline project.

Included in the R14.2bn, the department would also spend R1.4bn on small infrastructure projects, over R6.4bn on regional bulk infrastructure and R730m on water services projects.

In answer to a second parliamentary question on whether the department had implemented any specific graduate development programmes over the past five years to help boost technical expertise, Molewa said her department had provided financial support, in the form of bursaries, to students studying for environmental science related qualifications.

These include qualifications in environmental management, oceanography, chemical engineering and chemistry.

Between 2006 and April 2010 the department had sponsored 133 students with bursaries, placing on average a third or more of all students across the last five years.

“After completion, sponsored students were absorbed by the department as bursars and some of them are currently employed as permanent officials,” she said.

The department also recruits learners for its environmental education learnership, who are then later placed at various municipalities across the country.

Between 2006 and 2010, 640 learners have completed learnerships.

Molewa also detailed bursaries given out by three of its agencies:

* Between 2006 and 2010, the SA Weather Services sponsored 149 students with, and had placed about two thirds of all students. Molewa said those students that had not been recruited by the weather service were continuing with their studies
* The South African National Biodiversity Institute gave out 38 bursaries between 2006 and 2010, to masters and doctorate students, to help foster climate change specialists – placing 28% of the bursars.
* The South African National Parks (SanParks) gave out 22 bursaries between 2006 and 2010, but has only placed one bursary student.

The department has implemented specific graduate development programmes for water care and waters and sanitation disciplines, the engineering field

At the moment the department has 19 graduate trainees within the water care, 22 within the engineering field (civil, mechanical and electrical engineers and 71 graduate technician trainees.

Molewa said the department had granted 350 bursaries in all, to students since 2007 and that 211 of these students had joined the department’s learning academy, which was set up in 2007 as a response to the specific skills shortage challenge.

“It represents an investment in sustaining quality in Department of Water Affairs’ human resources, thereby ensuring that in the long term, the department will remain competitive and be able to deliver on its mandate,” she said.

Molewa pointed out that by December last year 103 learner interns had completed their experiential training with the learning academy.

“A new group of 36 engineering learner interns joined the Learning Academy in January and is presently busy with their specific structured training programmes,” she said.

In all 241 graduate trainees had joined the programme by February this year and that all the past graduates had been placed with a mentor in the department’s various directorates and regional offices.

Source: BuaNews

Cape Town is located in a water scarce region with a high demand and usage during the summer months.

It is not legal to send rainwater via a gully to sewer

“The City’s [...]]]> Posted by: Saving Water SA (Cape Town, South Africa) – partnered with Water Rhapsody conservation systems – 13 April 2011

Cape Town is located in a water scarce region with a high demand and usage during the summer months.

It is not legal to send rainwater via a gully to sewer

“The City’s amended Water By-Law, promulgated on 18 February 2011, provides an opportunity for the City to be pro-active and introduce water conservation and demand management measures to ensure sustainability of the water supply to its consumers,” says the City’s Director for Water and Sanitation, Philemon Mashoko.

All requirements of the Water By-law must be complied with as from the promulgation date.

One of the most important changes to the by-law is that a Certificate of Compliance of water installations must be obtained and submitted to the City upon the transfer of any property to a new owner. This applies to domestic, commercial and industrial properties and includes sectional title units.

A suitably qualified and accredited plumber in terms of the South African Qualifications Authority, must certify that:

• the hot water cylinder complies with SANS 10252 and 10254
• the water meter registers
• there are no water leaks on the property
• water pipes and terminal fittings are correctly fixed in position
• no stormwater is discharged into the sewerage system
• there is no cross connection between the potable supply and any grey water or groundwater system which may be installed

The conveyancer, on behalf of the seller/owner, needs to submit the completed and signed form via e-mail to CertificateOfCompliance@capetown.gov.za. The system will not delay the issuing of rates and taxes clearances by the municipality.

For more information call Danie Klopper on 021 590 1488 or click here and look under the ‘policies, laws and by-laws’ tab to view the amended Water By-laws and Certificate of Compliance document.

Source: City of Cape Town

More than one third of 231 ­local municipalities do not have the capacity to perform their ­sanitation functions, a new study by the Council for ­Scientific and Industrial ­Research (CSIR) has found.

Overflows [...]]]> Posted by: Saving Water SA (Cape Town, South Africa) – partnered with Water Rhapsody conservation systems – 28 March 2011

More than one third of 231 ­local municipalities do not have the capacity to perform their ­sanitation functions, a new study by the Council for ­Scientific and Industrial ­Research (CSIR) has found.

Overflows of raw sewage are severely detrimental to the environment.

The report, discussed at a United Nations water ­conference in Cape Town, includes a comprehensive survey of South Africa’s levels of water pollution.

It also tracks access to clean, safe water and sanitation. And it warns that South Africa is heading for ­disaster unless it tackles the problem of water pollution, ­including its failing sewage treatment ­systems.

It found that the situation was so bad, it called for waste-water facilities that did not comply with their licences to be prosecuted.

Water quality, the report ­stated, was excellent in metropolitan areas, but in many rural areas and towns, drinking water quality and waste-water effluent quality were frequently below the standards set.

Short-sighted planning

In some areas, short-sighted planning resulted in bucket eradication schemes causing deterioration instead of ­improvement in the provision of sanitation.

In some Free State settlements the replacement of buckets with waterborne systems left residents with no sanitation at all. The water supply was insufficient to flush toilets.

In other places, large ­increases in sewage inflow ­volume led to overloading of waste-water treatment works and pollution of downstream river systems.

The estimated current ­replacement cost of municipal water services stock, according to the report, is R169bn (R103bn for water and R66bn for sanitation).

Much of this infrastructure “is not in a fit state to continue delivering high-quality and ­reliable water services”.

The widely held belief in South Africa was that water service “backlogs” concerned those who did not have access to services in the past.

Yet other needs “far surpass” these, the report said. This ­included the rehabilitation, ­replacement or provision of ­neglected sanitation infrastructure.

Poor leadership

The capital required to ­address infrastructure backlogs made up 17% of total infrastructure requirements, the ­report stated. By comparison, the rehabilitation or replacement of neglected infrastructure ran to “a staggering 49%”.

The failure of many ­municipalities to deliver reliable sanitation services was mainly due to poor leadership and ­inadequate budgets, skills and experience.

Many health problems were the direct result of the collapse of existing sanitation systems. Untreated, polluted drinking water was a major contributor to diarrhoea-related deaths and diseases, the report said.

Johan Erasmus, operational manager of Mahlatsi Enterprises, a firm contracted by the ­department of water affairs to monitor water purification plants in Mpumalanga, warned that many of them were in a ­“disastrous” state.

These municipalities, he said, never took seriously their duty to deliver clean water and proper ­sanitation to people.

“They never budgeted money for this; not for maintenance and also not for new plants. In many cases we discovered that the town manager had not even purchased the chemicals ­needed for their water ­purification plants.”

Irrigation

He added that very few of the water and/or water purification plant officials he had to deal with had the qualifications or the experience to do their jobs properly.

“None of the water ­purification plants was up to standard because the personnel were not up to standard.”

The result, he said, was ­“horrifying” – raw sewage ­running down the streets of small towns like Evander.

Bethal’s water, he said, was so bad that farmers could not use it for irrigation.

- City Press

South Africans were given early warning of the coming Water Week with a river clean-up in the Free State led by Deputy Water and Environmental Affairs Minister Rejoice Mabudafhasi.

The "adopt-a-river" initiative aims [...]]]> Posted by: Saving Water SA (Cape Town, South Africa) – partnered with Water Rhapsody conservation systems – 15 March 2011

South Africans were given early warning of the coming Water Week with a river clean-up in the Free State led by Deputy Water and Environmental Affairs Minister Rejoice Mabudafhasi.

The "adopt-a-river" initiative aims to ensure that the Wilge River is cleared of dead tree debris.

She was joined on Friday by volunteers from Mafube municipality and SA Breweries in a clean-up along a stretch of the Wilge River at Frankfort as a precursor to Water Week, marked from March 21 to 27.

The Wilge clean-up is set to become part of the local municipality’s environmental contribution and will provide work for 22 people.

Cape Town will host Water Week starting on Monday with the theme: Water is life, working together we can save more water.

Minister Edna Molewa said although the event was happening at a time when much of the country was still dealing with contrasting effects of droughts in parts and the aftermath of the floods that swept through eight provinces in January, the national water sector had to face up to a myriad of challenges.

“These include pollution of water courses, provision of basic water supply to communities and ensuring security of supply into the future,” she said.

This year’s Water Week coincides with South Africa hosting World Water Day on March 22. The African Minister’s Council on Water, UN Habitat and UN Water will all be in South Africa for the first time along with international, regional and local water experts to deliberate on an absolute essential for continued human survival.

The World Water Day conference at the Cape Town International Conference Centre will focus on the impact of rapid urban population growth, industrialisation and uncertainties caused by climate change, conflicts and natural disasters on urban water systems.

By: Kim Helfrich
Source: The New Age

Postwar Angola is keen to expand irrigation for much-needed development, Namibia is prioritising clean drinking water and sanitation, while Botswana wants to preserve the integrity of the world-renowned Okavango Delta for tourism.

The [...]]]> Posted by: Saving Water SA (Cape Town, South Africa) – partnered with Water Rhapsody conservation systems – 12 March 2011

Postwar Angola is keen to expand irrigation for much-needed development, Namibia is prioritising clean drinking water and sanitation, while Botswana wants to preserve the integrity of the world-renowned Okavango Delta for tourism.

The Okavango Delta is the world’s largest inland delta

All three depend on an equitable share of quality water from the Okavango River, the fourth largest in Africa, running 1,600 kilometres from Angola to its inland delta in Botswana.

In other parts of the world, conflicting interests like these, against a backdrop of uncertainty due to climate change, have led several observers to predict water wars might lead to water wars. But the three countries are putting in place a cross-border plan to manage the river.

A trans-boundary diagnostic analysis of the basin led to a strategic action plan which encompasses national priorities. To this end National Action Plans (NAPs) are currently being formulated in the three countries.

“The realisation has dawned that issues in the basin are much larger than just the river that runs through it,” says Steve Johnson head of the USAID funded Southern African Regional Program (SAREP) that facilitates the NAPs.

“The topics range from trans-boundary management to biodiversity aspects, to water supply and sanitation, livelihoods, flood preparedness and HIV/AIDS,” he said.

“Livelihood strategies are critical and we have to look at diversifying economic opportunities, such as promoting tourism where realistic. It’s a challenging process, a balancing act to find equilibrium between the different needs of the three countries,” says Ebenizãrio Chonguiça, executive secretary the Permanent Okavango River Basin Water Commission (OKACOM) that coordinates the trans-boundary river management.

“Angola is pursuing a much needed development agenda after the war, where other countries are perhaps looking at building on the existing benefits” says USAID regional environmental program manager Steve Horn. “The challenge is to establish a constructive dialogue within a science-based decision framework.”

Of the 15 river basins in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) OKACOM is a pioneer in establishing a common understanding on sharing benefits. Rather than being a top-down institution, it evolved from informal cooperation between the countries into a commission with more authority.

“What use of the river constitutes the best return on investment?” asks Chonguiça. “Is it agriculture? Is it tourism? How do we convert the river’s capital into improving living conditions for the people?

“Feasibility studies based on the best available technology have to answer these questions. Whatever the national needs are, water supply and sanitation and ecosystem integrity have to be leading in this quest.”

There will be trade-offs in this process, says Johnson. “If a country wants to start projects that might negatively impact downstream there should be some kind of compensating mechanism.”

A unique process of community consultation underlies planning. Consultants went into villages and asked the people to tell them what the river meant for their daily lives. “It became clear that water supply and sanitation and early warning systems for floods were the most important issues for communities. Especially with the flood-prone character of the basin,” says Johnson.

The people living along the banks of the Okavango River in Angola, Namibia and Botswana are among the poorest in all three countries.

“People have been living in the river basins for millennia. But as areas become more populated the opportunity for them and their livestock to move to higher ground is limited. This leads to conflicts between humans, between livestock and humans and between livestock and the abundant wildlife in the area.”

Part of the trans-boundary decision-making process will be a dynamic decision support system that accurately supplies data on conditions of the basin at any given point in the season.

Johnson: “Good data needs to be available to correctly evaluate the resource that the river offers. This system, consisting of a number of databases, would recommend a course of action to SADC on projects that countries want to start. This of course, without duplicating efforts that are already in place.”

As an example he points to Namibian hydrologists that have secured access to NASA satellite images which they use to warn the region about impending floods.

Towards the end of March, according to Laura Namene of the Namibian Department of Water Affairs, the three countries will meet in Maun, Botswana, to harmonise the national priorities in an overall strategic plan for the basin.

“The point is to develop a common understanding of the conditions in the basin as a whole,” says Chonguiça.

By: Servaas van den Bosch
Source: IPS

The Western Cape’s current surface water supplies could run out by 2016, but plans for alternative sources should by then already be at an advanced stage, City of Cape Town utility services executive director [...]]]> Posted by: Saving Water SA (Cape Town, South Africa) – partnered with Water Rhapsody conservation systems – 08 March 2011

The Western Cape’s current surface water supplies could run out by 2016, but plans for alternative sources should by then already be at an advanced stage, City of Cape Town utility services executive director Lungile Dhlamini said at the weekend.

World Water Day "water and urbanisation" will run at the Cape Town Convention Centre from March 20-22

Mr Dhlamini was speaking at a briefing where the city, in partnership with the United Nations (UN) and the African Ministers’ Council on Water, the UN secretary-general’s Advisory Board on Water and Sanitation and the Western Cape provincial government, unveiled their plans as hosts of the UN World Water Day 2011.

His comments came as the country’s water resources come under increasing pressure.

According to Mr Dhlamini, the city is exploring the possibility of a borehole in the aquifer on Table Mountain and a desalination plant in Silwerstroom, which is outside Cape Town. He said these were all long- term plans.

The city is already re-using about 20% out of every 500ml of effluent water per day as a substitute for potable water and for irrigation purposes, said Mr Dhlamini. Inadequate maintenance of infrastructure is also threatening water supply. Mr Dhlamini said Cape Town’s water and sanitation department only receive 1,7%, instead of the required 7%, of the operating budget for this purpose.

Other factors threatening the city’s water supply include irrigation and dumping in catchment areas, rapid urbanisation and the costs of legal compliance.

World Water Day will run at the Cape Town Convention Centre from March 20-22 and the theme this year is “water and urbanisation”.

Piers Cross of U N Habitat said this year’s event will focus on helping people to better understand water.

The themes that will be touched on include urban escalation; how to best serve Africa’s limited water; waste and pollution of cities; the treatment of acid mine water; climate change; governance; and how to increase the investment required for infrastructure.

International attendees will include the World Water Council, Prince Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands, who serves on the World Water board, and delegates from Bangkok, East Asia, Europe and the US.

By: Daniel Bugan
Source: Business Day

Massive water theft by farmers from the Vaal River, and the inability of municipalities to maintain infrastructure, are two of the main causes that will push South Africa into a water crisis in less [...]]]> Posted by: Saving Water SA (Cape Town, South Africa) – partnered with Water Rhapsody conservation systems – 08 March 2011

Massive water theft by farmers from the Vaal River, and the inability of municipalities to maintain infrastructure, are two of the main causes that will push South Africa into a water crisis in less than a decade.

By 2013, water demand on the Vaal River system will outstrip the available yield

A paper by the South African Institute of Civil Engineering water division chairman, Dr Chris Herold, alleges that farmers steal about 175-million cubic metres of water from the Vaal, contributing to a significant reduction in the river’s yield.

“The water demands on the Vaal River have long exceeded the assured yield of the catchment. It has been publicly stated that by 2013, the water demand on the Vaal River system will outstrip the available yield,” Herold said.

“What is not commonly known is that this is based on achieving a 15% saving in water demand. To date no noticeable saving has been realised.”

This implies that we are already living with a 2% supply deficit in the Vaal system, and by 2013 we will face a 6% supply deficit, which would rise continually until 2019, when it would reach a staggering 11%, said the paper.

Compounding the problem is water lost through infrastructure leakage, which has reached crisis proportions as municipalities are consistently failing to meet water demand management targets.

“In addition to the lack of achievement of water demand management, and maintenance targets by local authorities, the collapse of water supply and sanitation infrastructure is well into crisis mode in many, if not most, rural areas,” the paper says.

“Undue vacillation on the part of municipal decision makers appears to have played a major role in the failure to achieve water demand management,” said the paper.

“Not only has this placed national water supply systems at risk for years, it is also extremely short-sighted given the large economic advantage to be gained from curtailing the water losses.”

The Department of Water Affairs imports water – albeit at a premium – from the Lesotho highlands to supplement water flowing into the Vaal and to dilute pollution.

But Garfield Krige, a water expert at African Environmental Development, said: “We are using tomorrow’s water today to clean up the mess by the mines.”

By: Sipho Masondo
Source: Times Live

Burundi has signed a deal on the sharing of Nile waters, paving the way for the ratification of the accord, which will strip Egypt of its veto power on rights to the river, an [...]]]> Posted by: Saving Water SA (Cape Town, South Africa) – partnered with Water Rhapsody conservation systems – 01 March 2011

Burundi has signed a deal on the sharing of Nile waters, paving the way for the ratification of the accord, which will strip Egypt of its veto power on rights to the river, an official said on Tuesday.

Egypt's 1959 deal with Sudan gave the two downstream countries more than 90 percent control of Nile waters.

“After Burundi signed (Monday), now the agreement can come into force,” Daniel Meboya, regional spokesperson at the Entebbe-based Nile Basin Initiative (NBI) that led the negotiations, told AFP in Kampala.

Meboya said that according to relevant international law, six of the negotiating parties needed to sign before the treaty could be ratified by the riparian countries’ respective parliaments. All six parliaments are expected to ratify the deal.

Last year, after a decade of talks, four Nile nations inked a deal that allowed upstream countries to implement irrigation and hydropower projects without first seeking Egypt’s approval.

For decades, Egypt held veto rights over all upstream projects, following powers granted by a 1929 colonial-era treaty with Britain.

Egypt’s subsequent 1959 deal with Sudan gave the two downstream countries more than 90 percent control of Nile waters.

Egypt and Sudan boycotted the ceremony where the new treaty was unveiled, and vowed not to recognise any deal agreed without their consent.

At the March 2010 ceremony, Uganda, Rwanda, Tanzania and Ethiopia agreed to scrap both Egypt’s veto rights and the 90% control provision.

The signing ceremony marked the close of negotiations, and the other affected countries, including Kenya, Burundi and the Democratic Republic of Congo were given one year to ink the deal.

Kenya signed last May and Burundi signed on Monday, the last possible day for signature.

“Now it is for the six individual legislatures to ratify the treaty,” Meboya said.

Egypt and Sudan have argued their water supply would be dangerously reduced if upstream countries are able to divert the river flow without multi-lateral consultation.

- Sapa

Increasing drought and aridity around the world, linked to climate change and land degradation, are becoming a major threat to food security and poverty reduction efforts, according to the United Nations’ anti-desertification chief.

Posted by: Saving Water SA (Cape Town, South Africa) – partnered with Water Rhapsody conservation systems – 14 February 2011

Increasing drought and aridity around the world, linked to climate change and land degradation, are becoming a major threat to food security and poverty reduction efforts, according to the United Nations’ anti-desertification chief.

Farmers in Africa’s Sahel region have planted trees on 5 million hectares of degraded land, since 1975

Stepping up investment in restoring degraded land and curbing desertification could work toward solving a wide range of the world’s most pressing problems – climate change, food security, water shortages and the threat of growing conflict and migration, said Luc Gnacadja, executive secretary of the U.N. Convention to Combat Desertification.

“No one is unaffected by desertification,” he said in an interview with AlertNet. “It is affecting our food security, entrenching people in poverty, increasing our water stress and leading us to lose biodiversity.”

The U.N. desertification convention, a lesser-known cousin of the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change, aims to curb degradation of dry land around the world and the advance of deserts, a major problem in regions including Africa’s Sahel zone and China.

Since 1950, 1.9 billion hectares (4.7 billion acres) of land around the world has become degraded, a problem that has reduced harvests, contributed to changing rainfall patterns and increased the vulnerability of millions of people, Gnacadja said. Each year, on average, another 12 million hectares (30 million acres) of land a year is lost to the problem, he added.

That is hugely worrying at a time when the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organisation predicts world food production will need to grow 70 percent by 2050 to meet rising demand, the Benin-born official said. Right now, about 44 percent of the world’s food – grain and livestock – is produced in dryland areas, he said.

Many of the world’s most vulnerable people also live in dry regions – half of the 1.2 billion people who reside there are below the poverty line – which suggests worsening climate-linked droughts and other land degradation could worsen poverty and drive growing conflict and migration, Gnacadja said.

“The drylands are the most conflict-prone zone of the world and that is not by accident,” he said. “Instability is fuelled by precisely the quest of people to have access to very scarce resources like productive land and water.”

PLANTING TREES

Migration from degraded areas is also likely to grow, he said, particularly as people living in already vulnerable areas reach the end of their ability to adapt to worsening droughts, water shortages and other problems.

Those in the richer world who see desertification and poverty as relatively remote problems should keep in mind that “building fences around our prosperity will not work”.

“It has not worked in history,” he said. “What will work is to invest to reduce the push factors that compel people to migrate because they have reached a tipping point and can’t adapt anymore.”

The good news is that a growing number of countries and regions most vulnerable to desertification pressures are now starting to address the threat.  Farmers in Niger, in Africa’s Sahel region, have replanted trees on 5 million hectares (12 million acres) of degraded land since 1975, improving the region’s water supply and reducing conflict. China and India have also switched in recent years from countries losing forest to countries gaining it through huge replanting efforts.

Among the countries that are signatories to the U.N. desertification convention, 38 percent now have some type of desertification and drought monitoring systems in place, Gnacadja said. At a convention meeting in Bonn next week, experts will launch a new desertification monitoring and assessment system that should make tracking land degradation – and progress against it – easier and more effective.

“If you can’t measure it, you can’t improve it,” Gnacadja added.

There is still plenty of work to do, however, he said. Progress has been slow on winning needed funding and technology transfer from richer nations to address desertification, he said, and both donor countries and desertification-threatened ones have done too little to revamp their policies to adequately address desertification threats.

Source: Alert Net