The Media Line - 0 views
-
Gazans are spending as much as one-third of their household income on drinking water, and are facing growing health risks
-
Monther Shublaq, the director of Gaza’s Coastal Municipal Water Utilities (CMWU) told The Media Line that Israel has recently raised prices for the water it provides from 75 cents per cubic meter to $1.00 per cubic meter. And while Israel has offered more water, he says, it will not say when it will provide it. “I don’t want it in the winter when I don’t really need it,” Shublaq said. “I want it all year.”
-
Israeli government spokesman Mark Regev says Israel is doing everything possible to help Gazans drink clean water. “Israel has been helping to improve the water infrastructure in Gaza and Israel was willing to double or even triple the amount of water going into Gaza,” Regev told The Media Line. “It is the same water that you and I drink, and the Gazans would pay less than what we pay but they weren’t willing to accept that solution.”
- ...3 more annotations...
The Uncounted - The New York Times - 0 views
-
An alarm blares occasional high-temperature alerts, but the buildings themselves are kept so frigid that aviators sometimes wear extra socks as mittens
-
Most of the civilian deaths acknowledged by the coalition emerge from this internal reporting process. Often, though, watchdogs or journalists bring allegations to the coalition, or officials learn about potential civilian deaths through social media. The coalition ultimately rejects a vast majority of such external reports. It will try to match the incident to a strike in its logs to determine whether it was indeed its aircraft that struck the location in question (the Iraqi Air Force also carries out strikes). If so, it then scours its drone footage, pilot videos, internal records and, when they believe it is warranted, social media and other open-source information for corroborating evidence. Each month, the coalition releases a report listing those allegations deemed credible, dismissing most of them on the grounds that coalition aircraft did not strike in the vicinity or that the reporter failed to provide sufficiently precise information about the time and place of the episode.
-
They speak of every one of the acknowledged deaths as tragic but utterly unavoidable. “We’re not happy with it, and we’re never going to be happy with it,” said Thomas, the Central Command spokesman. “But we’re pretty confident we do the best we can to try to limit these things.”
- ...12 more annotations...
Narrow Media Coverage of Study linking Climate Change to Syria Conflict Misses Fractiou... - 0 views
On Blaming Climate Change for the Syrian Civil War - MERIP - 0 views
-
the Syria climate conflict narrative is deeply problematic.[2] Not only is the evidence behind this narrative weak. In addition, it masks what was really occurring in rural Syria (and in the country’s northeast region in particular) prior to 2011, which was the unfolding of a long-term economic, environmental and political crisis. And crucially, the narrative largely originated from Syrian regime interests in deflecting responsibility for a crisis of its own making. Syria is less an exemplar of what awaits us as the planet warms than of the complex and uncomfortable politics of blaming climate change.
-
much of Syria and the eastern Mediterranean region experienced an exceptionally severe drought in the years before the onset of Syria’s civil war: the single year 2007–2008 was northeastern Syria’s driest on record, as was the three-year period 2006–2009
-
Environmentally, the model relied above all on the super-exploitation of water resources, especially groundwater—a problem which by the early 2000s had become critical. And economically, Syrian agriculture had become highly input dependent, reliant on continuing fuel subsidies in particular.
- ...23 more annotations...
The Politics of Image: The Bedouins of South Sinai - 0 views
-
For a foreign power to successfully occupy, control and integrate the Bedouins into the new state-system entailed the disruption all of the above; from the nomadic lifestyle and lack of social stratification, to ourfi laws, loyalty to the tribe, and the notion of collective identity
-
turning Egypt into a modern nation-state. To that end, he had to first re-organize Egyptian society, streamline the economy, train a bureaucracy to effectively run a centralized government, and build a modern military. “His first task was to secure a revenue stream for Egypt. To accomplish this, (he) ‘nationalized’ all the Egyptian soil, thereby officially owning all the production of the land.”13 As a result, all tribal or communal rights to landownership were not legally recognized. With the disenfranchisement of land came the disenfranchisement of image. In order to exert control over Sinai, the government restricted movement, imposed taxes and demanded payment for camping and grazing. It also started to co-opt certain individuals from various tribes, and favor some tribes over others, which in turn disrupted the Bedouin hierarchy based on sex, age and seniority.14
-
Sykes-Picot agreement in 1916. The agreement divided the Arab provinces of the Ottoman Empire outside the Arabian Peninsula into areas of British and French control or influence. As a roaming people whose livelihood depended on seasonal movement from one pasture to another, cementing the border left them with no choice but to become sedentary. This severance from “fundamental elements in their economic, commercial and social universe,”15 exposed the Bedouin to a whole new level of poverty
- ...11 more annotations...
Report: "Palestinian Village Condemned To Live In Darkness" - International Middle East... - 0 views
-
The Solar Panels also enabled the residents to run a water-pump to provide the village with water supplies, especially since it does not have running water.
-
Several Israeli NGO’s, and the United Nations, are trying to convince the army to void its decision that came without prior notice. The Spanish government is also using diplomatic channels in an attempt to prevent the army from removing the Solar Panels. The project was implemented with a total cost of nearly 365.000 Euros, largely funded by Seeba. Head of the village council, Ali Hreizat, told France Press that “these Solar Panels were they ray of hope to the residents”, and added, “We have been living here since 1948, and have nowhere else to go”. Hreizat added that the village was never recognized by Israel, and all of its constructions were built without construction permits, therefore, asking Israel to permit the installment of the Solar Panels would be in vain.
-
an application was actually filed to Israel before the project started, but the military division, in charge of construction permits, never responded.
- ...1 more annotation...
New Ethiopian dam flares tensions over water access | Mada Masr - 0 views
-
Ethiopian media said that the country's government finished plans to establish a second main dam on the Nile, irrespective of the rising tensions with Egyptian authorities. “Members of the left-wing of Ethiopia's ruling party are accusing the US of disturbing the balance in the region by supplying Egypt with F16 jets, as well as millions of dollars in military aid, which gave Egypt the courage to pressure the rest of the Nile Basin countries,” the Somalian Sun reported according to Al-Masry Al-Youm. “There’s no need to acquire Egypt’s approval for establishing any dams in Ethiopia since Egypt previously established the High Dam without Ethiopia’s approval,” the newspaper added.
-
The 6,000-megawatt Renaissance Dam, which heads a 63-billion cubic meter reservoir, is expected to generate three times the electricity generated by the Aswan High Dam and hold twice the amount of water held in Lake Tana, Ethiopia’s largest lake.
Global Voices Online » Iran: Environmentalists Campaign to Save Isfahan - 0 views
-
Iranian environmentalists are using online media tools to save different cultural monuments such as The Si-o-se Pol or “33 Pol” (bridge of 33 arches) an architectural masterpiece in the heart of the Iranian historic city of Isfahan (Esfahan). A battle is ongoing between authorities that want to develop a new metro project and concerned citizens from across Iran who fear the damage it might cause.
Egyptian Chronicles: Another round of talks about GERD reaches to nothing !! Be worried... - 0 views
Egyptian NGOs complain of being shut out of Cop27 climate summit | Cop27 | The Guardian - 0 views
-
A group of Egyptian civil society organisations have been prevented from attending the Cop27 climate summit by a covert registration process that filtered out groups critical of the Egyptian government.
-
“You don’t let a government tell the UN who is and who isn’t an NGO, certainly not the Egyptian government,” said Ahmad Abdallah, of the Egyptian Commission for Rights and Freedoms (ECRF), one of five leading organisations unable to register to attend the conference due to the screening.
-
“the UN is colluding with the Egyptian government to whitewash this regime”
- ...8 more annotations...
1 - 14 of 14
Showing 20▼ items per page