Groundwater in peril

COLOMBO, SRI LANKA – Mismanagement of groundwater threatens our drinking water, food production, and climate change adaptation prospects, warns a statement endorsed by the International Water Management Institute’s (IWMI) and signed by 700+ global experts.

The call to action highlighted in Nature this week cites recent scientific breakthroughs on groundwater’s vital role in supporting rivers globally. It supplies more than 40 percent of the water used for the world’s agricultural irrigation, drinking water to two billion people, and helps regions cope with worsening droughts. Millions of low income smallholder farmers, in particular, rely on groundwater in arid and semi-arid areas and during times of drought, making it one of nature’s best solutions to beat climate variability.

Groundwater makes up 99 percent of the Earth’s liquid freshwater. But in many places, warn the experts, groundwater is under threat from overexploitation and contamination, mostly due to poor understanding, land use planning, and management.

IWMI Director General Claudia Sadoff and groundwater lead researcher Karen Villholth, who coordinates GRIPP – the Groundwater Solutions Initiative for Policy and Practice – joined the 700+ signatories along with many individual experts and practitioners from IWMI’s partners. GRIPP is a key global partnership on groundwater science and policy, bringing together nearly 30 international institutes to strengthen groundwater initiatives and solutions.

“Groundwater is often out of sight, so we take it for granted, or misuse it in ways that impact the most vulnerable people and ecosystems.” says Sadoff. “IWMI is joining global experts, because if we allow groundwater to be further degraded or depleted, it threatens our ability to respond to increasing droughts and floods. And we’re closing in on real dangers to food and drinking water due to over-exploitation and mismanagement. The impacts could be global.”

The call to action comes as the world eyes the United Nations (UN) Climate Change Conference in Madrid (COP 25) and begins the Decade of Action on the UN Agenda 2030. Recent evidence points to the potential for groundwater as a major solution for helping the world – especially the Global South – adapt to droughts and climate extremes.

Over 700 scientists, practitioners and experts from over 75 countries around the world have now signed the call. The statement highlights the risks for 1.7 billion people who live above groundwater reserves that are stressed by overuse.

The statement calls for three actions:

1)      Put the spotlight on global groundwater sustainability through a UN World Water Development Report and a Global Groundwater Summit in 2022, the year when groundwater will be the UN World Water Day’s key focus.

2)      Commit to managing and governing groundwater sustainably from local to global scales by applying sustainability guiding principles locally, regionally and globally by 2030.

3)      Invest in groundwater governance and management by implementing groundwater sustainability plans for stressed aquifers by 2030. This means investing in nature-based solutions supporting groundwater, capacity building, awareness raising and developing better monitoring, reporting and management systems.

“Groundwater is so fundamental to our food and our drinking water, and critical to our ecosystems, but it’s still overlooked and mismanaged,” says Villholth, whose work is supported by the CGIAR Research Program on Water, Land and Ecosystems (WLE). “Our call to action will ensure groundwater stays on the radar following this week’s COP25 climate meetings. We’re stressing the critical importance of managing water properly for climate resilience, and under that the key role of groundwater. We are pushing hard now to get it on the global agenda to sustain these benefits and avoid widespread crises – in keeping with the Sustainable Development Goals horizon of 2030.”

“Publish or perish” detrimental to early career scientists

Ochieng’ Ogodo

Journalist - Kenya

[HEIDELBERG, GERMANY]  The demand for frequent publishing in peer-reviewed journals is putting enormous pressure on early career researchers trying to make breakthroughs, academicians say.

Julie Williamson, a lecturer in Human Computer Interaction at the UK’s Glasgow University, told the 7th Heidelberg Laureate Forum (23-27 September) in Heidelberg, Germany, that young scientists need to publish less to produce high quality papers.

The forum is an annual weeklong networking conference for selected young researchers in mathematics and computer to spend time with award winning laureates.

 “Certainly, the quantities of publications keep growing and often we publish for reasons that has nothing to do with scientific contributions,” she states.

For instance, she explains, a computer scientist may publish frequently to attend conferences, or because of expectations to do so much work every year.

“That is not the same thing as publishing because I have made an important discovery that I want to disseminate. It is important to attend conferences to build your networks and get fresh ideas. But I want us to separate that from publications and publishing.”

According to Williamson to “publish or perish” is a horrible stress on early researchers and makes them go for less risky research that they know will definitely be published.

“They will not be exploring the more creative, unusual ideas and things that you want to show can work. Those in their early career will have to play it safe. They cannot take risks for interesting breakthroughs because they need to have something that they can publish and not likely of negative results that are not publishable,” she says.

Delegates debating the future of scientific publishing at the Heidelberg Laureate Forum
© Heidelberg Laureate Forum Foundation 

Scientific publishing, especially for the developing world early researchers, will make the results of their works publicly accessible, says Efim Isaakovich Zelmanov, a mathematician from the University of Californian in San Diego.

Zelmanov says that the structural order in academic institutions is such that to go higher and also to be promoted you have to publish.

However, he says that the controversy around “publish or perish culture” in order to get hired or promoted is intensifying with some claiming it is putting unnecessary pressure on researchers, especially early career scientists.

There is also the concern that authors write papers, editors send them to referees to work them and owners of publishing houses get income yet they contribute almost nothing to the research done.

“The system is unfair as it is, has been rotten for some time, money goes to the libraries and many feel that if the research is funded by public foundation, it has to be accessible to anybody,” says Zelmanov.

“These are serious and legitimate concerns. But the [alternative] system being proposed that authors pay for papers to be published but are made freely accessible to all is worse,” he says.

“This,” he adds, “is equivalent to stating that we do not need to adopt papers from poorer countries as many authors can’t afford the cost, which is grossly unfair.”

Zelmanov explains that there are little submissions from Africa because of the lack of good education. “In most African countries there is not good enough education that can support researchers and publishing. As the profiles of scientific institutions remain low, they will not be favoured by editors.

Peer review is also done mostly in the west and refereeing from the developing countries is lower than the share of papers produced. “For instance, when an editor gets a paper from a country not known for high level of mathematical research, he can be biased against it,” he says. 

Japan to help double Africa’s rice production by 2030

“We must end hunger in Africa. Yes, we must! Hunger diminishes our humanity” - Adesina urges

YOKOHAMA, Japan, August 28, 2019/ -- The Sasakawa Association will work with the Japan International Corporation Agency (JICA), to help double rice production to 50 million tonnes by 2030.  Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe made the announcement at the Sasakawa Africa Association (SAA) symposium held on Wednesday during TICAD7. “Japanese technology can play a key role in innovation which is key to agriculture,” Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told delegates. Discussions at the Symposium focused on Africa’s youth bulge, unemployment rates, agricultural innovations and technologies, solutions and job creation opportunities in the agricultural sector. “We’ve always believed in the agriculture potential of Africa,” said Yohei Sasakawa, Chairman of the Nippon foundation. “We are paying more attention to income-generating activities. We want to help shift the mindset of small-holder farmers from producing-to-eat to producing-to-sell. We are hopeful that Africa’s youth can take agriculture to a new era, and that they can see a career path in agriculture,” he added. In a keynote address, African Development Bank Group President, Akinwumi Adesina, called for urgent and concerted efforts to “end hunger”. “In spite of all the gains made in agriculture. We are not winning the global war against hunger. We must all arise collectively and end global hunger. To do that, we must end hunger in Africa. Hunger diminishes our humanity,” Adesina urged. According to the FAO's 2019 State of Food and Security, the number of hungry people globally stands at a disconcerting 821 million. Africa alone accounts for 31% of the global number of hungry people – 251 million people. Commending the Sasakawa Association’s late founder, Ryochi Sasakawa, for his tireless efforts in tackling hunger, Adesina said: “Passion, dedication and commitment to the development of agriculture and the pursuit of food security in our world has been the hallmark of your work.” Between 1986 and 2003, Sasakawa Association in Africa, operated in a total of 15 countries including - Ghana, Sudan, Nigeria, Burkina Faso, Benin, Togo, Mali, Guinea, Zambia, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Tanzania, Uganda, Malawi and Mozambique. Harnessing the potential of new technologies Adesina expressed confidence in the ability of technology to deliver substantial benefits in agriculture. To accelerate Africa’s agricultural growth, the African Development Bank has launched the Technologies for African Agricultural Transformation (TAAT) to deliver new technologies to millions of farmers. ‘TAAT has become a game changer, and is already delivering impressive results, Adesina said. Working with 30 private seed companies, the TAAT maize compact produced over 27,000 tons of seeds of water efficient maize that was planted by 1.6 million farmers. Tackling climate change: a top priority Hiroyuki Takahashi, founder of Pocket Marche, a platform that connects Japanese farmers and producers with consumers, shared insights and lessons learnt from Japan’s experiences, historic cycles of climate disasters and the country’s rebound. “The power to choose what we eat is the power to stop the climate crisis and bring sustainable happiness to a world with limited resources,” Takahashi said. It is estimated that Africa will heat up 1.5 times faster than the global average and require $7-15 billion a year for adaptation alone. Limiting the impacts of climate change is expected to become a top priority for Africa. “Africa has been short changed by climate change. But, it should not be short changed by climate finance,” Adesina said in his concluding remarks. “Let’s be better asset managers for nature. For while we must eat today, so must future generations coming after us. It is our collective responsibility to ensure that we do not leave empty plates on the table for generations to come,” Adesina concluded.

WHO revises recommendations on hormonal contraceptive use for women at high HIV risk

[GENEVA, 29 August 2019] The World Health Organization (WHO) has revised its guidance on contraceptive use to reflect new evidence that women at high risk of HIV can use any form of reversible contraception, including progestogen-only injectables, implants and intrauterine devices (IUDs), without an increased risk of HIV infection.

However, as these contraceptive methods do not protect against HIV and other sexually transmitted infections (STIs), the guideline emphasizes that correct and consistent use of condoms should be used where there is a risk of STIs, including HIV. WHO also recommends considering offering pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) in settings where the incidence of HIV is above 3%, as appropriate.

The updated WHO guideline follows a thorough review of the latest scientific evidence. 

It emphasizes that women should have access to the full range of modern contraceptive methods so they can make informed choices around contraceptive choice and their sexual health.

“Evidence shows that a woman’s risk of HIV should not restrict her contraceptive choice,” said Dr Peter Salama, Executive Director, Universal Health Coverage/Life Course at WHO. “All women should have access to a wide range of options for contraception as well as to HIV prevention and to treatment if needed.”

The updated recommendations to the WHO guideline, Medical eligibility criteria for contraceptive use, stem from a review of the latest evidence conducted by the independent Guideline Development Group convened to inform WHO. This Group assessed all of the evidence on hormonal contraception and risk of HIV acquisition published since the previous review published in 2016, along with a systematic review of all published evidence on copper-bearing IUDs and HIV risk.

The global recommendations have particular bearing for sub-Saharan Africa, which has the highest rates of HIV transmission but also some of the biggest challenges in ensuring women have access to a full range of contraceptive options. Currently a quarter of women aged 15–49 in Africa (24%), who want to delay or prevent having children, have limited access to modern contraception. This is the highest unmet need across all WHO regions.

About the evidence.

The new evidence is largely based on the results of the Evidence for Contraceptive Options and HIV Outcomes (or ECHO trial) - a randomized clinical trial that showed no statistically significant differences in HIV acquisition among women using intramuscular depot medroxyprogesterone acetate (DMPA-IM), copper IUDs, or levonorgestrel (LNG) implants. 

This new high-quality evidence supersedes the low to low-moderate quality evidence from observational studies that had been previously available to inform WHO’s guidance.

Promoting STI prevention within contraceptive services

The ECHO study – which was conducted across communities expected to have high levels of HIV prevalence in Eswatini, Kenya, South Africa and Zambia - also revealed concerningly high levels of HIV acquisition and other sexually transmitted infections (STIs) among women seeking contraceptive services, particularly younger women, irrespective of which of the three contraceptive methods they used.

“There is a clear need to ensure women in Africa have access to high quality HIV and STI prevention and testing services, along with a wide range of contraceptive options to suit their values, preferences, views and concerns,” said Dr Felicitas Zawaira, Director of Family and Reproductive Health in WHO’s African region.  “In high HIV prevalence settings, these may include condom promotion, pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), as well as linkages to antiretroviral therapy for those testing HIV-positive, and partner testing.”

WHO will work with Ministries of Health, other organizations providing contraception and STI/HIV services and civil society, including youth organizations, to support implementation of these updated recommendations. WHO has established an advisory group of women living with HIV to ensure their perspectives are heard and considered across WHO in relation to HIV and sexual and reproductive health and rights.

Kenya’s new wildlife conservation campaign

 By Ochieng’ Ogodo

Journalist - Kenya

[Nairobi] Kenya on 1 August launched a new wildlife conservation campaign dubbed “Ivory Trade is a Rip Off”,  a fresh effort aimed at raising awareness and curb the illegal trade in ivory.

The campaign — supported by 31 other African states under the African Elephant Coalition — calls for the listing of the African Elephant in Appendix I of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) – which includes species threatened with extinction – at the Convention’s upcoming 18th Conference of the Parties (CoP18) following the dwindling numbers of elephants as a result of poaching.

The launch that took place at Nairobi’s Jomo Kenyatta International Airport was attended by the Director of UN Environment’s Regional Office for Africa, Juliette Biao, the country’s Cabinet Secretary for Tourism and Wildlife, Najib Balala, and representatives from Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS), Kenya Airports Authority (KAA) and Kenya Airways.

“We are worried – with the lobbying that is going on and opening the ivory trade – that poaching could be revived, because there will be a demand and supply,” said Cabinet Secretary Najib Balala. “And that is why we are here today, to bring this awareness.”

CITES introduced the ban on international trade in ivory in 1989 following years of unprecedented poaching; up to 80 per cent of herds are estimated to have been lost in some regions.

“The Kenya Airport Authority was the first in Africa to sign the United Buckingham Palace Declaration, an international initiative that commits players in the international transport supply chain to collaborate in the fight against the wildlife trafficking,” KAA’s Isaac Awuondo said at the launch. “We moved quickly to join in the fight against illegal wildlife trafficking out of the realization that a complex transnational supply chain was enabling this vice and it needed to be disrupted, if not eliminated.”

“Illegal Trade in Wildlife harms sustainable development in Africa. Together we can reverse the trend and protect our wildlife. I urge all stakeholders to join this campaign to eliminate this scourge,” Director of UN Environment’s Regional Office for Africa, Juliette Biao.

Through a partnership between KWS and KAA, Jomo Kenyatta International Airport is equipped with canine units trained to detect wildlife products in passenger baggage and cargo. KAA has been at the forefront in its commitment to the fight against Illegal wildlife trafficking by enacting laws, developing policies and procedures and training personnel to ensure that illegal wildlife products do not pass through airports.

As part of the campaign, 400,000 limited-edition boarding passes have been produced with the message: “Trade of ivory is ripping Kenya apart”.

Kenya Airways and UN Environment have jointly been raising awareness on the need for better and sustainable wildlife conservation by distributing a special children’s education pack to passengers. The pack contains a tote bag, a comic book, postcards, stickers and temporary tattoos relating to wildlife conservation and the illegal wildlife trade. 

UN Environment supports African countries in their fight against illegal trade in wildlife through awareness raising, policies as well as capacity building and support to local communities.

Two Ghanaian journalists arrested and interrogated, one allegedly tortured, says CPJ

[New York] Ghana's Commission for Human Rights and Administrative Justice should immediately launch an independent investigation into the arrests of Modern Ghana editor Emmanuel Ajarfor Abugri and reporter Emmanuel Yeboah Britwum by security forces.

On June 27, in Accra, the capital, Ministry of National Security officers arrested Abugri and Britwum at the offices of their employer, the privately owned news website Modern Ghana, interrogated them at Ministry of National Security offices, and confiscated their laptops and phones, according to Britwum, who spoke to CPJ over the phone, and local news reports.

 The officers questioned the journalists about Modern Ghana's recent reporting on National Security Minister Albert Kan Dapaah and accused them of obtaining information about Kan Dapaah by hacking an email account, Britwum said. Britwum told CPJ that the officers did not present a warrant at the time of their arrest.

Abugri told Ghanaian broadcaster Joy News and local news website Citi Newsroom that officers tied his hands, slapped him, and shocked him with a taser during his interrogation. The officers also made the journalists log in to their phones and computers and reviewed their files, Britwum told CPJ.

Britwum was released on June 28 and Abugri was released on June 29, Britwum said. He told CPJ that officers returned their phones but that their laptops remain in custody.

"The arrests of Emmanuel Abugri and Emmanuel Britwum, and Abugri's alleged torture at the hands of Ministry of National Security officers, is only the latest security service attack on journalists in Ghana," said Angela Quintal, CPJ's Africa program coordinator. "This dangerous pattern is made worse by the repeated failure to hold those responsible for attacks against the press to account. The Ghanaian Commission for Human Rights and Administrative Justice should take this case seriously and pursue justice for Britwum and Abugri."

Ghana's Commission for Human Rights and Administrative Justice is a presidentially appointed body tasked with investigating human rights violations and abuses of power, according to its founding charter.

The journalists' arrest came one day after Modern Ghana complied with a June 26 request from the Ministry of National Security to take down an article critical of Kan Dapaah published on the website on June 25, Britwum told CPJ.

On July 1, Ghanaian police summoned Abugri and Britwum to a local police station to give statements about the events surrounding their arrests, and the journalists were summoned again on July 2 and 3 for further questioning at the Police Criminal Investigations Department headquarters, according to Samson Lardi Anyenini, Ajafor's lawyer, who spoke to CPJ via messaging app.

Also on July 1, Ghana's National Security Council Secretariat released a statement, which CPJ reviewed, stating that Abugri's allegations of torture were "false," that he was "never manhandled" during the interrogation, and saying that the journalists had been arrested for "engaging in cyber-crimes."

During his interrogation, Britwum told officers that he obtained information about Kan Dapaah from documents sent to an email address registered to local private radio broadcaster Peace FM, to which he had been granted access, Britwum told CPJ. Officers accused him of hacking the account, Britwum said.

On July 5, state prosecutors filed cybercrime charges against Britwum, Abugri, and Peace FM editor Yaw Obeng Manu for the alleged unlawful access of an email account, according to Anyenini.

Later that day, however, Senior State Attorney Stella Ohene Appiah and Accra High Court Justice Afia Asare Botwe dropped the charges against the journalists, according to Anyenini and a reportby Joy News.

According to reports by local news website Ghana Web, the Ghana Journalists Association, an independent professional association, and the OneGhana Movement, a local civil society group focused on promoting official accountability, have both called for an independent investigation into Abugri's alleged torture.

On July 8, Ghana police spokesperson David Eklu told CPJ over the phone that he was not aware of the specific details concerning Britwum and Abugri's arrests and questioning by Ministry of National Security officers, and said that the cybercrime investigation was transferred to the country's police.

CPJ's repeated calls to Kan Dapaah went unanswered. Eklu told CPJ that he was aware of the calls for an independent inquiry into the allegations of abuse by Ministry of National Security officers, but said he did not have any information on such an inquiry's likelihood.

Kan Dapaah was named as the head of Ghana's newly created National Security Ministry by President Nana Akufo-Addo in early 2017 with a mandate to increase security services' public accountability, according to media reports from the time. Nevertheless, investigations into attacks against journalists have lagged in recent years, according to CPJ research.

Why science journalism is societal necessity

By Ochieng’ Ogodo

 Journalist-Kenya

[NAIROBI] Many a times I have been asked about the viability of science journalism in Kenya and Africa at large from both journalists-the ones practicing it and journalists in other areas like business and politics-and folks outside the profession.

To many sceptics, science and its products like research, patents, innovations are not yet developed in Africa and could, therefore, offer very little for one to continuously put his skills and energy on as an area of coverage and also make a living out of it.

Out there, the continent could be well known for civil strife like in the Democratic Republic of Conge, Darfur in Sudan, Northern Uganda, mismanagement of public affairs at the highest levels of leadership like in Zimbabwe, corruption, the HIV/Aids scourge of which Sub-Saharan Africa is the global epicenter. Wow! The list is long-but not for scientific advancements in different spheres of life.

The sceptics are not entirely mistaken. True, Africa needs to build her own biological, physical and chemistry sciences and use that knowledge at all levels of life but that doesn’t mean there is nothing going on. Well, a lot in science and research is going on in Africa that remains very invisible. And a lot also needs to be done, still more, which is what makes science journalism even more imperative in Africa, and the rest of the developing world.

Little space for science news

But it isn’t easy to ply science journalism in this part of the world – Kenya and Africa at large. Most news channels — such as print, audio, visual and online — have very little space allocations for stories on environment and science topics. Worth noting is that most journalists in this segment are correspondences whose monthly monetary gains are pegged on the number of stories published, and very few successfully ‘compete’ for space.

This has in fact forced some to abandon science journalism and take to other areas of the profession that enjoys favours with chief gatekeepers of specific media establishments or opt for more sustaining areas outside the profession.

The research institutions and government departments makes life miserable for science journalists by the lack of well-defined infrastructure and policies that ensures fast and effective facilitation of the channeling out of information and within the shortest time possible given the high perishable nature of news. How many institutions are computerised and you could access information only at the touch of a mouse?

In the age of globalisation exacted upon us by the Information and Communication Technology wizardry, there is much new knowledge pouring from millions of research projects and studies around the world that push the boundaries of man’s knowledge to new heights, almost daily.

Making hard concepts easy

The changes are frequent and so specialised and difficult if not absolutely impossible for a lay person to understand. As long as science or scholarship remains enshrined in technical language and laden with heavy jargon it will need specially trained reporters who can communicate with scientists and help translate the new developments accurately and clearly for the less erudite readers who needs the information most to thrive-or try to-in their day-to-day lives.

For instance, reporting on a research project is quite often an assignment largely different from any other given to a journalist. He/she will face three challenges; the researcher[s], research project and the accurate and interesting interpreting of the project to the various publics. And such specialised trainings needed for a creditable job are very scarce for science journalists in Africa and most of the developing world.

The first audience of a journalist is the editor who he/she has to explain his storyline to hoping for a hearing and objective evaluation of the intended piece[s]. You will explain your lead, tie-back and additional features and details to the lead paragraph. But in most cases the editors’ themselves have scanty grasp of the various scientific issues unfolding in their societies and the world at large. They, therefore, become the bulwark against the practice of science journalism.

 “Necessary” cooperation scarcity

A problem facing most science journalist also involves the “necessary” cooperation of the scientists and some of their organisations with the media. Some are extremely sensitive to criticisms from the media; they often shun journalists and institutions decline to provide information needed for accurate and balanced reporting.

At the Land Ocean Interaction in the Coastal Zones [LOICZ] Open Science meeting in Egmond aan Zee in The Netherlands in 2005, a professor in coastal science, after listening to my presentation on The Media and Environmental Protection, declared it was not their duty to disseminate information but to do research and they have absolutely nothing to do with media. This clearly illustrates some of the dilemmas faced by science journalists all over the world.

The inability to make enough money from the practice of science journalism accounts for the dearth of what have become basic tools lack laptops among this lot of people. These are just but a few. The hurdles are many but despite these, science journalism still remains an exciting practice.

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