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Am Dienstag kommt es im Rosenbergtunnel-Süd auf der A1 zu einem spektakulären Unfall. Der für den Unfall verantwortliche Lieferwagenfahrer hatte keinen Führerausweis.

Die britische Schauspielerin Daisy Ridley merkte nach Dreharbeiten, dass mit ihrer Gesundheit etwas nicht stimmte. Ein Endokrinologie diagnostizierte schliesslich Morbus Basedow.

A kubai Mijaín López Núñez kedden (8. 6.) megnyerte a kötöttfogású birkózók 130 kilogrammos súlycsoportjának döntőjét a párizsi olimpián, ezzel az első sportoló lett, aki ugyanabban a versenyszámban öt nyári játékokon aranyérmet tudott szerezni.

Die globale Erwärmung nimmt stetig zu, die Situation verschärft sich schnell. Klimawissenschaftlerin Sonia I. Seneviratne erklärt, was mit Kipppunkten des Klimas gemeint ist. Das Erreichen dieser kritischen Schwelle würde viel Unsicherheit mit sich bringen.

Die globale Erwärmung nimmt stetig zu, die Situation verschärft sich schnell. Klimawissenschaftlerin Sonia I. Seneviratne erklärt, was mit Kipppunkten des Klimas gemeint ist. Das Erreichen dieser kritischen Schwelle würde viel Unsicherheit mit sich bringen.

Laut KOF-Umfrage hat sich die Geschäftslage für Schweizer Firmen leicht verbessert, vor allem dank dem Verarbeitenden Gewerbe. Allerdings belastet das schlechte Wetter viele Branchen.

Laut KOF-Umfrage hat sich die Geschäftslage für Schweizer Firmen leicht verbessert, vor allem dank dem Verarbeitenden Gewerbe. Allerdings belastet das schlechte Wetter viele Branchen.

Im Juli 2022 hat ein Schweizer einen anderen Mann mit einem Messer angegriffen und diesen schwer verletzt. Die Staatsanwaltschaft erhebt nun Anklage wegen versuchten Mordes.

Im Juli 2022 hat ein Schweizer einen anderen Mann mit einem Messer angegriffen und diesen schwer verletzt. Die Staatsanwaltschaft erhebt nun Anklage wegen versuchten Mordes.

Malgré la pression environnementale, le géant zougois indique lundi vouloir maintenir ses activités hautement émettrices en gaz à effet de serre.

A baby hangs on a scale during a community health check-up and vaccination in Akosombo in the Eastern Region, Ghana, on April 28, 2022. Credit: Gavi/2022/Nipah Dennis

By Afshan Khan and Sania Nishtar
GENEVA, Aug 7 2024 (IPS)

From 11-year-old Chinese skateboarder Zheng Haohao to 16-year-old American gymnast Hezly Rivera, several children have reached the pinnacle of world sport at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.

Yet at the same time, millions of other children worldwide are denied the chance to unlock their full potential simply because of a lack of access to basic nutritious diets and vaccines that prevent disease.

As young athletes impress and inspire global audiences, the Games are the perfect moment to reflect on how to level the playing field for all children. Integrating nutrition and immunisation as the cornerstones of healthy development can be a game-changer, ensuring every child is able to reach their full potential in whatever field they choose.

The conditions for healthy development include both the absence of disease and presence of adequate nutrition, creating a virtuous cycle that allows children to thrive. Vaccines trigger the strongest immunity in children who have healthy diets, while those who are malnourished are more susceptible to infectious diseases.

Unconscionably, in this day and age, both malnutrition and preventable infectious disease claim the lives of millions of children every year.

Globally, more than 14 million children are un- or under-vaccinated – an increase of 2.7 million compared with pre-pandemic levels – while almost a quarter of children under five were stunted in 2022 as a result of inadequate diets.

Yet, immunisation and nutrition interventions are proven to be amongst the most cost-effective approaches to help children survive and thrive. One dollar invested in nutrition gives a rate of return of US$16, rising to US$35 for exclusive breastfeeding, while the return on investment of immunisation in Gavi-supported countries is estimated at between US$21 and US$54 per US$1 spent.

This is especially important for low- and middle-income countries where immunisation rates are lowest, malnutrition is prevalent and resources are stretched thin. The latest UN figures show more than half of unvaccinated children live in 31 countries exposed to conflict and other vulnerabilities, disrupting access to nutrition and health services.

The same children often miss out on both nutritional supplements and essential vaccines, meaning that integrated health services would solve two problems at once.

Integrated nutrition and immunisation can be achieved either in the same clinic or community health facility, or through the same health worker.

Uganda is one country that has taken proactive action towards integration, and plans to shift to integrated provision of nutritional supplements and vaccines based on learnings from several pilot programmes.

Meanwhile, Action Against Hunger and partners in Somalia mounted an integrated campaign to address rising levels of malnutrition and disease during the prolonged drought in 2022, which affected 7.8 million people.

The campaign reached more than 200,000 children with measles vaccines, deworming treatments and vitamin A supplementation, and screened more than 185,000 children under five for wasting. Among the referral sites for severe acute malnutrition, the average cure rate was 83 per cent and malnutrition decreased significantly over the period of the campaign.

If more governments were able to adopt and scale such levels of integrated service delivery as part of primary health care, more countries could achieve Universal Health Coverage to reduce preventable deaths, ill-health and malnutrition in children.

As the world celebrates the remarkable achievements of young Olympians, the international community also has a window to transform the future of millions of children worldwide.

From the 2024 Games to Gavi’s replenishment and the , which has followed the Olympics since 2012, world leaders have the chance to invest in research and partnerships to integrate nutrition and immunisation as the fundamental components of healthy development. This is the winning formula for more children to succeed – on the track, field and pitch, and in life.

Afshan Khan, UN Assistant Secretary General and Coordinator of the Scaling up Nutrition (SUN) Movement

Sania Nishtar, CEO of GAVI, the Vaccine Alliance

IPS UN Bureau

 

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Avec son patrimoine industriel en déshérence, le grand port du nord de l'Adriatique a tout d'une belle endormie. Le collectif Urbani separe multiplie les actions pour pousser au renouveau urbain et faire découvrir les trésors cachés de Rijeka, comme la rivière qui a donné son nom à la ville...

- Articles / Croatie, Courrier des Balkans, Environnement, Environnement dans les Balkans, Société, Une - Diaporama

Avec son patrimoine industriel en déshérence, le grand port du nord de l'Adriatique a tout d'une belle endormie. Le collectif Urbani separe multiplie les actions pour pousser au renouveau urbain et faire découvrir les trésors cachés de Rijeka, comme la rivière qui a donné son nom à la ville...

- Articles / Croatie, Courrier des Balkans, Environnement, Environnement dans les Balkans, Société, Une - Diaporama

Après six bureaux de banque fin mai, les autorités de Pristina ont fait fermer le 5 août neuf bureaux de poste serbes dans les quatre villes du Nord du Kosovo à majorité serbe. Les Occidentaux s'indignent, Belgrade en profite encore pour diaboliser Albin Kurti.

- Le fil de l'Info / Une - Diaporama - En premier, Une - Diaporama, dialogue Kosovo Serbie, Tensions Nord Kosovo, Courrier des Balkans, Kosovo, Relations régionales

Après six bureaux de banque fin mai, les autorités de Pristina ont fait fermer le 5 août neuf bureaux de poste serbes dans les quatre villes du Nord du Kosovo à majorité serbe. Les Occidentaux s'indignent, Belgrade en profite encore pour diaboliser Albin Kurti.

- Le fil de l'Info / Une - Diaporama - En premier, Une - Diaporama, dialogue Kosovo Serbie, Tensions Nord Kosovo, Courrier des Balkans, Kosovo, Relations régionales

TASR: A külügyminisztérium határozottan azt tanácsolja a szlovák állampolgároknak, hogy ne utazzanak Libanonba. A bizonytalan biztonsági helyzet és a feszültség eszkalálódásának veszélye miatt minden szlovák állampolgárnak azt tanácsolja a tárca, hogy mielőbb hagyja el az országot – áll a minisztérium honlapján közzétett felhívásban.

Women in Khardariya village in Dang fetching water from a community well. Credit: Tanka Dhakal/IPS

By Tanka Dhakal
KATHMANDU, Aug 7 2024 (IPS)

In the rural village of Khardariya in the Dang district of Nepal, access to clean water is a major issue. Villagers depend on one poorly managed well for drinking water, cleaning, and feeding livestock.

Anjana Yadav stood near the well while a neighbor walked toward it to fetch a bucket of water.

“At least seven families and over 400 buffaloes rely on this well; this is the water that sustains the buffaloes, and we drink it too,” she said. “In summer, the water level goes down, and we suffer more,” Anjana told IPS.

According to government data, only 27 percent of the country’s population has access to pure drinking water. However, the government’s aim is to increase the number of people using safe drinking water to at least 90 percent by 2030, in line with Sustainable Development Goals. But villages like Khardariya are still struggling to access enough water, let alone pure water.

“This water is not drinkable, but we don’t have any other option,” Niramala Yadava (Anjana’s daughter) says while showing the logged water around the well, “We know this water is not safe, but we’re forced to drink it, use it for cleaning, and even in the kitchen. We also have to manage for livestock too.”

Khardariya is one example where access to water is a major problem, and there are other areas where people are facing the same situation. The Department of Water Supply and Sewerage Management claims that 80 percent of people have access to drinking water, but it’s not safe as per standards. Most of them still depend on surface water sources like rivers, ponds, and these sources are not necessarily safe to drink. And often time this water led to health consequences to the community where clean drinking water is not available.

Everyday Struggle

According to the World Health Organization’s Global Health Estimates (WHO GHE), one of the largest declines in the number of deaths is from diarrheal diseases, with global deaths falling from 2.6 million in 2000 to 1.5 million in 2019. But in Nepal even though cases are in decreasing trend, water related diseases are still a major concern, GHE data shows from 2000 to 2019 above 140 thousands of diarrheal cases are recorded per year.

Diarrheal diseases are one of the top ten causes of death in Nepal. According to data from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME), diarrheal diseases ranked seventh in 2009 and ninth in 2019 in the list of top ten causes of death.

As Anjana Yadav in Dang, Sarita Rana Magar in Solukhumbu is struggling to get drinking water from the spring sourced tap, but it is not certain that the water is clean as per government standards. “We don’t have enough access to drinking water; even to get a couple of buckets of water is hard these days,” Magar says while waiting for her turn to fill water from the community tap in Lausasa village in the Khumbu region, where mountains stand right near her village. “It takes 25-30 minutes to fill one bucket (40-liter bucket) of water, and I need at least three buckets of water every day,” Magar said while keeping her bucket under the running tap.

Problem is Not Prioritizing

Even though the Government of Nepal claims that safe drinking water is a priority issue, the facts do not align with this assertion. In recent years, the budget for safe drinking water has been decreasing while the need is growing.

Madhu Timalsina, Senior Divisional Engineer at the Ministry of Water Supply, says that the government is not keen to expand basic drinking water safety.

“According to the data we have, 73 percent of the population lacks access to safe drinking water. The target is to reach 90 percent of the population with access to safe drinking water by 2030,” Timalsina says. “We don’t have the resources to sustain ongoing programs, and meeting the goal is far from achievable at this point. Water is not a priority for the government. We need resources.”

According to the Ministry, at a time when the demand for safe drinking water is increasing, the budget is shrinking. In the current fiscal year, the Ministry received over 28 billion Nepali rupees (about USD 208 million) as their budget, which was 42 billion (USD 313 million) in the previous fiscal year.

“It seems like in the coming year, it will decrease to 22-23 billion,” Timalsina said, “We have not been able to initiate new programs in recent years due to the lack of budget. Everything is ready, but we lack the resources.”

The Federation of Drinking Water and Sanitation Users Nepal (FDWSUN), which advocates for access to safe and contamination-free water for all, believes that the government is not taking the water issue seriously. “We have been continuously trying to create pressure, but the government is not willing to listen,” said Durga Chapagain, Senior Vice President of the FDWSUN, “The majority of users are still drinking water from open sources, and there is no budget allocated for drinking water projects.”

If the government truly intends to increase access to safe drinking water for up to 90 percent of the population by 2030, the budget should be allocated accordingly, according to Timalsina.

“To meet the target, we need to cover an additional 63 percent of the population within 6 years. The target is set, but we can’t achieve anything without the budget,” he explains. “We lack the resources to meet our needs, which is the primary limitation. Additionally, our springs are drying up, and water scarcity is becoming a major issue. Unfortunately, without resources, it’s not possible to do anything.”

IPS UN Bureau Report

 

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Das Zurich Film Festival ehrt die britische Oscarpreisträgerin Kate Winslet mit dem «Golden Icon Award» für ihre erfolgreiche Karriere und Wandelbarkeit.

Die Bronzemedaille über 100 Meter Schmetterling hat der Schweizer Schwimm-Star Noè Ponti knapp verpasst. Nun gibts plötzlich doch noch Hoffnung auf eine Bronzemedaille – dank einer Videoaufnahme.

Lange hat sie gekämpft, jetzt ist «Star Trek»- und «Beef»-Darstellerin Patti Yasutake im Alter von 70 Jahren an den Folgen einer Krebserkrankung verstorben.