The Daily IIJ

Every morning at sunrise, Sutas Kom Sri casts his net into the river out of faith. As the fog unveils the horizon, the Mekong River looms before him, luring him into the richness of its waters. But like other fishermen in this part of the Mekong in northeast Thailand, his daily catch has been steadily [...]

[Read more →]

By NEWTON SIBANDA MINERALS in the ground represent potential wealth. And luckily, Africa is blessed with all kinds of ores, gems and fuels locked away, waiting to be liberated. The continental mass is a treasury of bauxite, uranium, gold, platinum, cobalt, diamonds, chromium, manganese, coal, and phosphates, to name but a few. So it is [...]

[Read more →]

December 14, 2011 FROM Newton Sibanda in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia A major report on all aspects of mining in Africa will be launched on the sidelines of the on going Conference of Ministers Responsible for Mineral Resources Development in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa tomorrow. Titled ‘Minerals and Africa’s Development, the report was compiled by [...]

[Read more →]

FROM Newton Sibanda in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia CITIZENS for a Better Environment (CBE) executive director Peter Sinkamba says African governments need to protect communities who resort to litigation against mining firms by making it mandatory for governmentts to indemnify them against costs if they lost their cases in court. “We also need to develop quantum [...]

[Read more →]

FROM Newton Sibanda in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia THE second African Union Conference of ministers Responsible for minerals development opened yesterday with a clarion call for the continent to ensure that it achieves economic development from its mineral wealth. African Union Commission (AUC) Director for Trade and Industry Jean Noel Francois was the first to give [...]

[Read more →]

November 19, 2011 By NEWTON SIBANDA LUSAKA, Zambia-IN a landmark judgment, the Lusaka High Court has ordered Konkola Copper Mines (KCM) to pay K10billion (US$2million) to 2000 Chingola residents on Zambia’s Copperbelt for polluting the Mushishima river. The Mushishima is a tributary of the Kafue River, which accounts for about 40 percent of Zambia’s domestic [...]

[Read more →]

December 3, 2011 By NEWTON SIBANDA LUSAKA, Zambia- GERMANY has given Zambia K592 billion (Euro 87.1 million) as continued financial support to programmes aimed at improving water supply and sanitation, poverty reduction and decentralization of the local government system. Out of the total amount, K219.6 billion will go towards improving water supply and sanitation while [...]

[Read more →]

Discussions around the severity of the October 2011 flooding in slum urban communities in Accra, particularly around the area called Sodom and Gomorrah, are controversial. Majority of the media coverage blamed poor drainage and solid waste management systems in the capital as the culprit, while others linked the intensity of the rains to climate change. [...]

[Read more →]

The United Nations has launched a new campaign to engage people around the world in a global conversation on the kind of communities they would like to live in twenty years from now.  The campaign will also promote its major conference on sustainable development (Rio+20) to be held in June next year. Continue reading http://www.globalnewsreel.com/2011/11/un-forecasts-better-communities-in.html

[Read more →]

The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and China’s academy of sciences has launched a joint programme designed to promote proper management of ecosystems in developing countries, with a special focus on Africa. The International Ecosystem Management Partnership (IEMP), an initiative of the UNEP and the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), will have the core mandate [...]

[Read more →]