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Today (17 July) marks new British Prime Minister Keir Starmer's debut on the international political scene as he hosts the European Political Community (EPC) Summit, where 50 leaders from all over the world will discuss a hot list of topics, including rebuilding closer ties between the UK and the EU, four years after Brexit.

As some 50 European leaders gather in the UK on Thursday (18 July) under the helm of the European Political Community, it is increasingly clear that the format is struggling to justify its existence.

German industry umbrella association BDI expects only “marginal” growth effects from a package adopted by the German government on Wednesday (17 July), which includes tax for foreign workers, bureaucracy reduction, and initiatives at EU level.

Thirty-eight sub-Saharan African migrants were arrested in Tunisia on Wednesday (17 July) after clashes with coastguards who intercepted their boat during an attempt to migrate to Europe, Tunisian media reported.

New British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Irish counterpart Simon Harris sought to usher in improved relations with pints of Guinness on Wednesday (17 July), promising to work together closely on Northern Ireland and on healing Brexit wounds.

Oncle AGBAYA

On vous l'avait bien dit, mon Neveu Patou dirige un pays de pagailleurs avec des pagailleurs partout ! Sinon que vraiment Patou lui-même avec son gouvernement ne manquent jamais d'idée pour empêcher les gestionnaires des programmes sociaux, de se laper un peu les doigts. Il est vrai que le social d'avant acclamé dont nous faisons péniblement le deuil depuis plus de 8 ans, permettait plutôt aux pauvres de laper les doigts des gestionnaires qui avalaient les gros morceaux de viande dans la sauce des pauvres …
Cette affaire de fourniture de cartes Sim spéciales aux bénéficiaires du programme "Gbessoke » (Elèves-moi en yoruba), qui a pour ambition de distribuer plus de 98 milliards de francs CFA directement aux Béninois jugés extrêmes pauvres sur quatre ans, dont dix mille tous les mois pour manger ;en est une illustration. Après les micro-crédits que les bénéficiaires reçoivent aussi directement, désormais, par mobile money, sans intermédiaire. Rappelons quand-même qu'avant 2016, il se dit que sur une tranche de 45 milliards décaissés pour microcrédit, il n'y a eu QUE 20 milliards de détournés par les cadres et autres responsables gestionnaires…
Mais vous mes Neveux et Nièces qui ricanez que Patou doit bientôt penser confectionner une mesure sociale spéciale pour les anciens cadres voleurs aussi, vous êtes tous des pagailleurs !

VOTRE ONCLE AGBAYA

Entre Youcef Belaïli et le Mouloudia d’Alger, c’est le clap de fin ! Le joueur va quitter le club pour revenir à l’ES Tunis. Le […]

L’article Belaïli quitte le Mouloudia pour revenir à l’ES Tunis est apparu en premier sur .

Impeached judge John Hlophe is set to lead opposition to President Ramaphosa's coalition government.

Impeached judge John Hlophe is set to lead opposition to President Ramaphosa's coalition government.

Impeached judge John Hlophe is set to lead opposition to President Ramaphosa's coalition government.

Le week-end frappe déjà à nos portes ! Comme chaque jeudi, nos yeux se tournent vers le ciel pour découvrir les caprices que nous réserve […]

L’article Bulletin Météo Algérie du jeudi 18 juillet : fin de semaine caniculaire en perspective ! est apparu en premier sur .

Ressentir une grosseur ou une boule sous l’aisselle est un symptôme que presque tout le monde rencontre à un moment ou à un autre de […]

L’article Toute boule sous l’aisselle est-elle un cancer : quand faut-il s’inquiéter ? est apparu en premier sur .

Marixela Ramos and Fausto Gámez in the village of El Rodeo, northern El Salvador, where a solar-powered drinking water system has been in operation since 2018. Credit: Edgardo Ayala / IPS

By Edgardo Ayala
VICTORIA, El Salvador, Jul 17 2024 (IPS)

Setting up a community water project with a solar-powered pumping system was an unlikely idea for the peasant families of a Salvadoran village who, despite their doubts, turned it into reality and now have drinking water in their homes.

In El Rodeo, a hamlet in the municipality of Victoria, in the department of Cabañas, drinking water was an urgent need, as the government does not provide it to peasant villages like this one, in northern El Salvador. According to official figures, 34% of the rural population lacks piped water in their homes.

So the community had to organise itself to provide water from local springs. But when the board of directors of El Rodeo, in charge of the project, informed that the pumping system would be solar powered in order to reduce costs, there was some collective disappointment.

“When solar energy was mentioned, the people’s big dream of water… went up in smoke, they didn’t believe,” Marixela Ramos, an inhabitant of El Rodeo, who saw the project come to life when it was conceived as a “dream” between 2005 and 2008, told IPS."Before, we had to go to the wells and rivers to fetch water. Now it is easier, we get the water at once in the house": Ana Silvia Alemán.

But that was the most viable option at the time in the village dedicated to subsistence farming.

“Since there are only a few families, it would not be financially sustainable if we connected it to the national power grid,” added Ramos, 39, who is the secretary general of the El Rodeo board of directors.

Ramos is also involved in other community spaces, mostly linked to the promotion of women’s rights, as well as shows on Radio Victoria, a station that for decades has given voice to the demands of communities in the area.

Despite the disbelief of many villagers, work began in 2017 and the village’s water system was inaugurated in 2018, benefiting around 80 families, including those living in La Marañonera, another nearby town.

The El Rodeo project is the most innovative, having solar energy, but other villages in this area of the department of Cabañas are supplied with water from their own community initiatives, through the so-called Juntas de Agua, or Water Boards. The largest of these is Santa Marta, where some 800 families live.

Other rural communities do the same throughout the country, given the government’s inefficiency in providing the service to the country’s population of 6.7 million inhabitants.

There are an estimated 2,500 such Water Boards in El Salvador, providing service to 25% of the population, or 1.6 million people.

Ana Silvia Alemán, 45, washes a pitcher in El Rodeo, a subsistence farming village in northern El Salvador. Credit: Edgardo Ayala / IPS

Water for all

The system in El Rodeo is supplied by a nearby spring known as Agua Caliente. Since it was located on private land, the water had to be purchased from the owner for US$5,000, with funds from international organisations.

From there the water is redirected to a catchment tank, with a capacity of 28 cubic metres. A five-horsepower pump then sends it to a distribution tank, located on top of a hill, from where it is gravity-fed through pipes to the users.

Families are entitled to about 10 cubic metres per month, equivalent to 10,000 litres, for which they pay five dollars.

As a roof, at a height of about five metres, 32 solar panels were mounted to provide the energy that drives the pumping system.

“Before, we had to go to the wells and rivers to fetch water. Now it is easier, we get the water at once in the house,” Ana Silvia Alemán, 45, told IPS as she washed some containers with the water from the tap at her home.

José Amílcar Hernández, 26, is in charge of the technical operation of the water system installed in his community, El Rodeo, in northern El Salvador. Credit: Edgardo Ayala / IPS

The water service is available two days a week from 9:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m., weather permitting. A distribution tank with more capacity than the current 54 cubic metres would be needed to extend those hours, Amílcar Hernández, who is responsible for the technical operation of the system, told IPS.

“That is one of the improvements pending. We estimate a tank of about 125 cubic metres is needed,” said Hernández, 26, who also works as a maize farmer, performs in a small community theatre group, and produces shows for Radio Victoria.

Several Salvadoran and international organisations participated in the construction of the water system in El Rodeo, including the Washington Ethical Society, the Spanish City Council of Bilbao, Ingeniería sin Fronteras and the Rotary Club.

The villagers contributed many hours of work in return.

Apart from water supply, the project included other related aspects, such as the construction of composting latrines, so as not to pollute the aquifers, as they produce organic fertiliser from the decomposition of excrement.

In each house, a mechanism was also designed to filter grey water by redirecting it to a small underground chamber with several layers of sand. The filtered water is used to irrigate small vegetable gardens or “bio-gardens”.

One of the tanks from which drinking water is distributed to families in Santa Marta, the largest village in the municipality of Victoria, department of Cabañas, in northern El Salvador. Credit: Edgardo Ayala / IPS

A place of struggle and hope

The history of El Rodeo is linked to the Salvadoran civil war, between 1980 and 1992. Clean drinking water was the main goal that families set for themselves when they returned from exile after that conflict.

El Rodeo is one of several villages in Cabañas and other Salvadoran departments whose families had to flee in the 1980s because of the war, and the place was the target of constant army attacks. Several massacres against civilians took place in this locality.

They fled mainly to Mesa Grande, a camp of more than 11,000 Salvadoran refugees established by the United Nations in San Marcos Ocotepeque, Honduras.

The civil war left an estimated 70,000 people dead and more than 8,000 missing. The conflict ended in February 1992, when a peace agreement was signed.

However, before the war ended, and amidst the bullets and bombings, groups of families began to return to their place of origin, and thus El Refugio began to repopulate, in four waves: in 1987, 1988, 1999, and the last one in March 1992.

“I was born here, in El Rodeo, but we had to move to Mesa Grande, like everyone else. We came back 32 years ago, to try to live in peace in our hamlet,” said Alemán, filling the pitchers she had just finished washing.

A characteristic of villages like El Rodeo is their high level of organisation, perhaps learned during the war years. Many peasants were part of the guerrillas, who had a strict way of organising themselves to carry out common tasks.

The environmental struggle against the mining industry installed in the country in the first decade of the 2000s emerged on the lands of the municipality of Victoria. Thanks to this pressure, El Salvador was the first country in the world to pass a law banning metal mining, in March 2017.

“This level of organisation has meant that we now have projects such as water, education, health and security programmes,” Fausto Gámez, 33, chairman of the community’s board of directors, told IPS.

In addition to his role in the water system, Gámez also does community journalism for Radio Victoria, and coordinates the sexual diversity collective in Santa Marta, the largest settlement in the area.

Radio Victoria is the community station that for decades has given voice to the struggles and demands of the communities and families of Cabañas, in northern El Salvador. Credit: Edgardo Ayala / IPS

Challenges to overcome

The water supply system of El Rodeo has room for improvement. As it is photovoltaic powered, it stops when the weather prevents sunlight from heating the panels, especially during the rainy season from May to November.

“Having a solar-powered water project has its pros, but also its cons: sometimes the weather doesn’t allow us to have water, we depend on the sun,” explained Gámez, adding that this is a recurring complaint.

Technically, the ideal system should be hybrid, meaning that it can be connected to the national power grid when needed.

But that would represent a costly investment for the community, which it cannot afford. Moreover, the families would have to absorb the cost and pay a higher monthly fee.

However, while the interruption of service due to bad weather is a nuisance, some families manage to endure these days of shortages by saving the water they have previously stored.

“We try to consume only what we need, and as there are only two of us in the family, we have enough water,” said Alemán.

Nigeria's four-time African champion Anuoluwapo Opeyori, coached by his brother, hopes to break new ground for the continent in Paris.

Marsa Maroc est désigné attributaire pour la gestion déléguée des Terminaux 1 et 5 du Port deCotonou, concédés à la société Bénin Manutentions S.A, au terme d'une procédure de sélection internationale.
Marsa Maroc, leader des opérations portuaires au Maroc, a été notifié de sa sélection en tant qu'attributaire du contrat de gestion déléguée des Terminaux 1 et 5 du Port de Cotonou, au Bénin, au terme d'une procédure de sélection internationale pilotée par la société Bénin Manutentions S.A.
Une convention de gestion déléguée sera conclue entre les deux parties dans les meilleurs délais.
Dans le cadre de ce partenariat, placé sous le signe de l'excellence opérationnelle, Bénin Manutentions S.A, sera accompagnée par Marsa Maroc pour le démarrage et la prise en charge des opérations des deux Terminaux.
Marsa Maroc s'appuiera sur son expertise et ses relations avec les principales compagnies maritimes internationales afin de positionner Bénin Manutentions S.A comme un opérateur performant qui contribue au développement des corridors logistiques dans la région.
Marsa Maroc veillera à la mise en exploitation des Terminaux dans les délais et conformément aux standards internationaux, à la mise en œuvre de plusieurs chantiers de modernisation, et ce en conformité avec la vision du Gouvernement Béninois.
Lors de ce partenariat, qui s'inscrit dans le cadre de la stratégie de coopération Sud-Sud placée sous l'impulsion des Hautes orientations Royales, Marsa Maroc et Bénin Manutentions S.A joindront leurs forces pour créer de la valeur économique pour l'ensemble de l'écosystème portuaire béninois.
En scellant ce partenariat, Marsa Maroc conforte son ambition de développer son activité à l'international, conformément à sa nouvelle stratégie « Marsa 2030 ».

À propos de Bénin Manutentions S.A

Bénin Manutentions S.A est une nouvelle société d'économie mixte créée pour la réalisation des opérations de manutention des Terminaux 1 et 5 du Port de Cotonou. Son capital est porté par l'État du Bénin représenté par la Caisse de Dépôt et des Consignations du Bénin et des investisseurs privés Béninois.
À propos de Marsa Maroc
Marsa Maroc est le leader national de la gestion de terminaux portuaires, opérant 24 terminaux dans 10 ports, pour un trafic total de 57 millions de tonnes en 2023. Marsa Maroc fait partie du Groupe Tanger Med, développeur de plateformes portuaires, logistiques et industrielles de classe mondiale.

Les Comptables gestionnaires ont été nommés dans les Circonscriptions scolaires par arrêté du Ministre des enseignements maternel et primaire en date du 16 juillet 2024.

La Société des Eaux et de l’Assainissement d’Alger (SEAAL) a annoncé aujourd’hui le lancement de la nouvelle version de sa plateforme de paiement électronique “Fatourati”. […]

L’article Paiement des factures d’eau en ligne : SEAAL met en place un nouveau processus est apparu en premier sur .

Heparin can neutralise the necrosis-causing toxins in some spitting cobras' venom, scientists discover.

The Czech government on Wednesday (17 July) picked South Korea's KHNP to build two new nuclear power units, with the possibility of more.

Les enseignants des universités du Conseil Africain et Malgache pour l'Enseignement Supérieur (CAMES) au titre de 2024. Selon les résultats des Comités Consultatifs Interafricains (CCI), 1521 candidatures ont été enregistrées. 1323 enseignants sont inscrits et 193 ajournés.

RESULTATS DES CCI/CAMES 2024