Mon, 13 Jun 2005, 10:25 – John C. Jones TO GRANT
TO GRANT
Hello again Grant.
Thanks once more for providing us all with useful information on the subject of WATER. Now something tells me that Tanzania actually DETACHED THEMSELVES from the Nile Treaty (the U.K.’s brainchild) when they embarked upon that project in the first place. If I have enough time this week I will try to find out the details on that possibility. Once more, if you can beat me to it, please do so.
Did you hear the latest story on Sellafield? A leak managed to avoid being discovered for eight whole MONTHS! (Yes, I am not exaggerating.) It looks like we’ll soon have a nuclear-powered Irish sea in the pipeline. What next, I wonder. I sure am glad that I am immune to that sort of thing, but I do feel sorry for the rest of you.
I found some interesting general news on the following website not so long ago.
There was also plenty worth reading about at the “AFRICA BUSINESS DAILY” website.
http://www.africabusinessdaily.com/
What about the privatisation of the PEANUT industry in Senegal and the BANKING industry in Zambia?
I always look forward to your informative and often amusing messages. It is nice to know that intelligent life does actually exist on this planet, other than inside my skin.
Best Wishes.
J.
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Tue, 7 Jun 2005, 23:22 – Grant of the HoBB
REPLY to the one and only John C. Jones re: message of Sat, 4 Jun 2005, 11:55 –
Yes John. The following words on the subject are from Anita Roddick – fine words (on her own Blog Site) …
There was a piece in the Observer last Sunday that relates.
“Yet again, the WDM (World Development Movement) has proven to be effective campaigners in condemning the support by the UK Government and The World Bank for water privatisation in Africa. This week, the Tanzanian Government has had enough, learnt it’s lesson and kicked out Biwater, the UK water company, for doing sweet nothing for the last two years of its 10 year contract. Some things make me really sick and it’s the bit in this release that tells us all that £273,000 from our Aid budget was taken out to produce public relations materials, including a pop video to persuade a sceptical Tanzanian public of the merits of privatisation. And this, from our very own Make-Poverty-History Department of International Development. Hang your head in shame, Hilary Benn MP.
UK water company kicked out of controversial African water privatisation contract
UK water company Biwater has been kicked out of a controversial water privatisation by the Government of Tanzania just two years into a ten year contract after making less than half the required investment and failing to improve services in the commercial capital Dar es Salaam.
Development campaigners the World Development Movement (WDM) have condemned support by the UK Government and the World Bank for the privatisation. The UK Department for International Development (DFID) spent £273,000 from the UK aid budget to pay British consultancy Adam Smith International to produce public relations materials including a pro-privatisation pop video and song to persuade a sceptical Tanzanian public of the merits of the privatisation.
Initially part of an International Monetary Fund (IMF) Structural Adjustment Programme, the privatisation was made a condition of Tanzania receiving debt relief by the World Bank.
WDM welcomed the decision by the Government of Tanzania to revoke the contract and called on the UK Government to stop supporting water privatisation in developing countries. Head of Policy, Peter Hardstaff said: “This is yet another example of water privatisation failing to deliver clean water to poor communities. Rich country governments and the IMF and World Bank must abandon their support for this disastrous policy. It is a scandal that the UK aid budget, money that should go to reduce poverty, was used to push water privatisation in Tanzania.”
WDM warned Biwater not to attempt to pursue the Government of Tanzania through international courts: “The people of Tanzania must not be punished for being the victims of a failed policy which they did not ask for in the first place. We will oppose any attempt by Biwater to sue the Tanzanian Government,” said Hardstaff.
Announcing the decision to cancel the contract on Friday 13 May, Water Minister Edward Lowassa said: “The water supply services in Dar es Salaam and in the neighbouring places have deteriorated rather than improving since this firm took over some two years ago.”
“The revocation was made following persistent complaints by city residents over incompetence of the firm.”
According to the Government of Tanzania, City Water (the joint venture company involving Biwater) should have invested $8.5 million during the first two years, but so far only $4.1 million had been invested.
Peter Hardstaff said: “This case provides yet another example that the central claim made by supporters of water privatisation, that it is the only way to get the necessary investment, is a myth.”
Biwater’s involvement in the Dar es Salaam contract is covered by the UK Export Credit Guarantee Department so the UK taxpayer could end up footing the bill for the UK’s disastrous policy of promoting water privatisation in developing countries.”
(These words above shine ever brightly on this World of Water site in memory of the Late Anita Roddick)
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Sat, 4 Jun 2005, 11:55 – John C. Jones TO GRANT AND CO.
TO GRANT AND CO.
Hello again Grant.
It is very encouraging to know that you are still around and doing the usual thing. Your words are always very much appreciated.
I heard a brief mention recently of the fact that Tanzania has just cancelled plans for a huge water-supply project. Was this for political reasons, do you know? Do you have any “inside” information on this one?
Keep doing it.
J.
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Wed, 1 Jun 2005, 23:31 – Grant of the HoBB Gardens and Project House
REPLY TO JOHN
I’m glad you posted that onto this forum thread as it underlines the real reason for being concerned about WATER : everything revolves around the life forms that WATER supports be they in Nigeria or Liverpool and be they fish, plant, bird or human.
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Wed, 11 May 2005, 12:01 – John C. Jones GENERAL INFORMATION
GENERAL INFORMATION
The following extracts from a UNESCO report (by Eunice A. C. Okeke) were included in my reply to a query regarding Coastal Fishing in Nigeria :
SUSTAINABLE COASTAL DEVELOPMENT therefore refers to the development of our coasts in a pattern which encourages the maintenance of the ecology of the coasts while utilizing and benefiting from their vast resources.
Nigeria’s coastal region, especially around the estuaries of the Niger and Benue rivers and the Atlantic coastline, is known to be experiencing SERIOUS DEVELOPMENT PROBLEMS that threaten the sustainability of this region. The inhabitants of this coastal region make their living from fishing and farming, they sell their products to others thereby contributing to the food security and economic development of the nation. Unfortunately, developmental activities in this region, especially the oil industry and associated industrial establishments, have created ECOLOGICAL PROBLEMS of immense dimension. The ordinary citizen is able to observe several ecological changes:
a) changes in the rhythm and patterns of atmospheric/weather conditions such as rhythm of tidal waves;
b) changes in the variety and ubiquity of organisms as exemplified in the type, quality and quantity of the fish harvest;
c) reduced vitality and increased human health problems associated with pollution, e.g. of water;
d) depleting natural resources such as drying-up of oil wells and deforestation;
e) lowered soil fertility and agricultural production.
The findings of the Niger Delta Environmental Survey (NDES), which were published in 1997, identified a variety of major environmental problems, including:
1) flooding and coastal erosion;
2) sedimentation and siltation;
3) degradation and depletion of water and coastal resources;
4) land degradation;
5) air pollution;
6) biodiversity depletion;
7) health problems;
8) low agricultural production;
EDUCATION will serve to inform the public on what each phenomenon is, explain the process, show how to manage it and inculcate the right attitude to it.
DEVELOPMENT-RELATED PROBLEMS include land degradation/loss of soil fertility, decline of forest reserve, depletion of biodiversity especially fish, oil spillage and gas flaring, sewage and waste disposal into water. Given that these problems are development induced, they have been traced to IGNORANCE and ILLITERACY and sometimes to the SELFISH INTERESTS of the perpetrators. Well-packaged education programmes for youths and adults of formal and non-formal kinds will provide opportunities to learn the causes, management and prevention of these problems.
A curriculum that includes SUSTAINABLE COASTAL DEVELOPMENT is necessary to provide people with relevant knowledge, skills and attitudes towards sustained development. In this regard the Project 2000+ on Scientific and Technological Literary for All is appropriate. EDUCATION is the most important investment in people. Education to eliminate illiteracy will help the young to gain employment, to rise above poverty, to join the class that makes decisions, to reduce and/or manage conflict, to seek the enforcement or provision of laws and regulations etc.
COMMUNITY PARTNERSHIP which is vital to proper coastal development and management will be successful when the community has a critical mass of educated men and women who understand the complexities of development. Some universities and colleges in Nigeria are already offering certificate and diploma courses in environmental education/management, while some have degree programmes and postgraduate programmes that focus on the environment. It is within these programmes that emphasis on SUSTAINABLE COASTAL DEVELOPMENT will feature.
It is one thing to develop a curriculum or plan intervention programmes, and another to successfully implement them. There are often obstacles and problems.
PROBLEMS IN IMPLEMENTING ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION PROGRAMMES
Environmental education demands the use of a variety of methods which will not only provide knowledge but serve to modify learner behaviour/attitude to the environment. Methods which have been found to be suitable are practical, interactive ones such as group discussion; field trips; debates, role-plays; demonstration; projects and practical experiments such as testing water quality; pictures/sketches and audio-visual representations.
Lack of funds and support for field trips to environmentally degraded areas such as the Niger Delta zone in order to provide learners with first hand experience of environmental problems. A learner who experiences continuous gas flares, or the thick layer of oil on the surface of a river after an oil spillage or devastation of farmland arising from oil exploration, will be permanently sensitized and committed to deal with issues of sustainable development.
Near absence of culturally relevant texts on the Nigerian coastal environment at primary, secondary and non-formal educational levels.
SOLUTIONS
Firstly, we need greater co-operation between education systems in various African countries and also with appropriate international bodies. The Commission for Biology Education (CBE), an arm of the International Union for Biological Sciences (IUBS), has made efforts and continues to work on environmental education, curriculum and teaching. A well planned education programme will serve for advocacy, awareness raising, information, dissemination, capacity building, informed decision making, attitude change, problem solving towards sustainable coastal development.
Secondly, we have to develop appropriate curricula on environmental education at all levels. We must accommodate indigenous knowledge.
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Wed, 11 May 2005, 10:07 – Grant of the HoBB
Business, like Water, is all connected.
Those with an eye to business are able to see this as clear as clean water.
UpliftinDownshiftinBetterbeingGoodmovin Progress
Have a word with those at the Centre for Alternative Technology in Wales or read through sites like the one run by Carolyn & David at www.acountrylife.com
Visit the various changes being explored by many to ensure we all reach our tomorrows in a better state of ‘being’ for self and planet.
I view down shifting as up lifting and there is no choice in the matter, for we all need to lift up our socks and do a better job in navigating our way to our future. There are too many examples of Stress showing in people and in the Global situation at large.
People need to chart less stressful paths forward whilst still progressing. People need to realise that exploitation backfires, maybe centuries ahead in some cases but nevertheless, our children will be out there getting the rough ride we design if we go forward without care.
The buck has to stop somewhere with some generation so let’s make it NOW and us.
If the launch into downshifting seems full of pigs, compost and solar panels to you then you are missing the point. Down shifting and Upshifting work together to create a balanced path for global developments.
Taking a wide perspective, the ‘shifts’ , down and up, taking place daily across the globe may be working away, with or without us. There might be a natural energy transition that ensures that the survival of the fittest happens when the fittest realise they need to support the structure that holds them in their fit state – even the fragile facets that appear to be of no relevance.
The Western World needs its East, North and South. The skill is to keep it all together and moving on.
For the generation that STOPS and thinks, it can be difficult. People are taught to exploit situations for personal or group gains – to leap ahead of their neighbours. Once we network and create ‘family’ of our neighbours, we share roof, food, joy and progress. Which generation in your family is going to take up the cudgels and shift in the direction that counts for the most.
There’s a livewire situation on this third rock from the sun at the moment. If we can connect up this wire to all here, we can generate some very exciting new energies.
So have you been to the Centre for Alternative Technology in Wales yet? A seed sown in Wales to spread WorldWide.
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Grant of the HoBB.
Tue, 10 May 2005, 17:07 – Grant of the HoBB
An Arms or Water Question John?
Arms to under-developed countries creates wealth.
Space exploration pushes technology which facilitates the growth in mobile phone use thus wealth.
The key to maintaining water in its ‘clean state’ for all life, is to find the profit centre and present the need to support environmental care to the accountants.
This work is being done. Calculations are being carried out that determine what the ‘cost’ would be to mankind if we had to pay for the services provided by “Mother Nature”. The value of “Nature” is high. If we had to pay for distributing rainfall, filtering water through plants and rocks etc. we could not find enough annual funds to cover the World bill.
It will be an interesting 21st Century. The clues to progress are all around us. Sometimes we need to play the ‘way of the world’ game in order to win the war against uncaring. We always need to win for the good of all for there is no other conclusion possible.
Ever the best Waves
Grant of the HoBB
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Sat, 23 Apr 2005, 11:51 – John C. Jones
TO GRANT, JAN AND FRIENDS
How can we dissuade the powerful western nations from supplying arms to underdeveloped countries so that they might be able to work on supplies of clean water instead?
J.
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Tue, 19 Apr 2005, 12:21 – John C. Jones TO GRANT
TO GRANT
Hello again Grant.
Space-exploration will be effortless when the water problem has been solved.
We will easily get there on water-power and other natural supplies of energy.
Keep up the good work.
J.
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Mon, 18 Apr 2005, 13:05 – John C. Jones TO GRANT
TO GRANT
Hello again Grant.
Have you considered contacting United Utilities?
They seem to be quite environmentally aware.
J.
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Sat, 16 Apr 2005, 11:58 – J
Hello Grant.
Well done.
J.
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Sat, 16 Apr 2005, 09:31 – Grant of the HoBB
The Water Issue v. the Growth of Business
The Reg. UK Charity, ‘World of Water’ works to promote all to realise that this Blue Planet needs to be kept in a clean, balanced and ‘fit’ state for its entire biomass – yes, all of it!
For our Human Race to build up its fitness to survive, it will need to adopt ever better ways to progress without polluting the only home environment it has.
The vital role of the Internet:
Groups on the internet can network the far corners of the Earth and spread the message. This is vital work so please help, for it will be only through joint understanding and sharing of common aims that we will survive.
Clean Water and Air are vital. Every mother and father have worked hard towards the survival of our species but they cannot afford to sub-contract the future fitness of this Planet to their offspring. One generation has to say “The buck stops here”!
I believe our present generation needs to put in motion the Global Movement to ensure Planet Earth remains ‘home sweet home’ for its biomass. We have the figures and we know what we do to rock the boat so let’s wise up and plan ‘future’ as if life was eternal.
One day this home planet dies. By this time we need to find a new one to do the business of life upon.
Today, everyday, we need to support Space Exploration and the balanced growth of ourselves within a clean ecosystem. As we all live downstream of each other, it is vital that the World join forces over shared needs and that no single country, organisation or group is ever allowed to think short-term to the detriment of the ‘whole’.
‘Business’ is but one facet of the ‘whole’. For the diamond to shine, each facet needs polishing.
This fit Planet needs fit people to manage it fittingly.
Keep personally fit out there and contribute to your neighbours’ fitness – for we are all in the same boat on the same water.
Grant of the HoBB