Media Release for SIWI World Water Week (28 Aug – 2 Sep)

What’s the weather doing? It’s a question that obsesses many but for many Ethiopians it is question that makes the difference between plenty and destitution.  Ethiopia is a rich and diverse country that is home to around 100 million people, 88 different languages and imbued with long, diverse history. Its highlands are seasonally wet and fertile and its lowland deserts are among the most parched places on Earth.

Dangila woreda, or district, is a hilly area in the north west of the country with a population of around 160,000 people spread across an area of about 900 km². Although the area receives rainfall at around 1,600mm a year, over 90% of this falls between May and October.  For farmers, who depend on livestock and rainfed crops, understanding and predicting these rains is crucial to their livelihoods. Traditional strategies, which have served for millennia, are coming under threat from new pressures of shifting climate patterns, land degradation and population growth.

Exactly what is happening now and what is likely to happen in the future is uncertain due to the lack of rainfall, river flow and groundwater level data.  Throughout much of Sub-Saharan Africa, under-investment by governments has led to a widespread decline in environmental monitoring, and this in turn makes water resources management harder and harder.

But what if those who stood to gain most from better understanding and management of water resources were those leading the data collection? Can communities reliably collect accurate weather, river and groundwater data? This is the question that is being investigated by researchers, led by Newcastle University in the UK through an UPGro-supported[1] project called AMGRAF[2]).

In a new paper in the Journal of Hydrology[3], David Walker and his colleagues explain why they think citizen science has a future in rural Ethiopia and beyond:

“The benefits of community involvement in science are being slowly recognised across many fields, in large part because it helps build public understanding of science, ownership and pride in the results, and this can benefit both individuals and local planning processes,” said Walker.  “Because there are so few formal monitoring stations and such large areas that need to be understood and managed, we need to think differently about how data collection can be done.”

The community-based monitoring programme was started in February 2014 and residents of an area called Dangesheta were involved in the siting new rain and river gauges, and identifying wells that were suitable to be monitored.  Five wells are manually dipped every two days, with a deep meter to measure the depth from the ground surface and the water level in the well; a rain gauge was installed in the smallholding of a resident who then took measurements every day at 9am; two river gauge boards were installed in the Kilti and Brante rivers and were monitored daily at 6am and 6pm. Every month, the volunteers would then give their hard copy records to the Dangila woreda government office, who then typed them into an Excel spreadsheet and emailed to the research team.

But is this data any good? For David and his colleagues, this was a critical question that could make or break the whole approach.  The challenges of data validation are substantial, and there are generally two types of error:

Sampling errors come from the variability of rainfall, river flow and groundwater level over time and over area. The sampling error increases with rainfall and decreases with increased gauge density. A challenge in tropical areas, such as Ethiopia, is much of the rain is high-intensity thunderstorms, which can be quite short in duration and small in size, and therefore easy to miss, or only partially record, if the density of monitoring stations is low.

Observational errors are the second type, and can come from a number of things:  wind turbulence, splashing around the gauge, evaporation can affect how much is in the rain gauge, and then the observer might not read the gauge accurately or make a mistake or unclear notation, when writing the measurement down.

“Tracking down errors is tricky, but it can be done, mainly through statistical comparison with established monitoring stations and with each other,” said Walker. “What we found was that the community collected data is more reliable than that gathered through remote sensing instruments from satellites.”

It is hoped that this promising approach can attract further support and be used more widely, but what are the secrets, and challenges, to making community monitoring work?

“People are at the heart of this process and selection of volunteers is crucial to avoid problems with data falsification or vandalism,” concluded Walker.  “Feedback is absolutely vital and through workshops and meetings the data can be presented and analysed with the community so that they can make decisions on how best use the available rainfall, river flows, and groundwater to provide secure sources of water for their farms and their homes.”

Research continues through a research grant[1] from REACH: Improving water security for the poor, a programme led by Oxford University.

Figure 1: Community river monitoring in Dangila woreda, Ethopia (D. Walker, Newcastle University)

For more information:

NERC media office
01793 411939
07785 459139
[email protected]

More details can be found on http://upgro.org ; The Knowledge Broker for UPGro is Skat Foundation, based in St Gallen, Switzerland. Contact: Sean Furey ([email protected]) for more information.

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The Constitutional Court has thrown 53 of the 80 grounds of the case following preliminary motion raised by President Edgar Lungu’s lawyers on Wednesday, that requested that the grounds of the Petition were irregular and were outside the Jurisdiction pursuant to the provisions of Article 128 and Act no 8 of the 2016 Constitutional.

The lawyers also demanded that the Petition be dismissed as it was filed under wrong articles of the Constitution.

The ConCourt struck out from the record 53 portions of the Petition for want of jurisdiction and for being irregular.

Earlier,President Lungu requested the Constitutional Court to dismiss Hakainde Hichilema’s electoral petition for lack of evidence and merit.

In papers filed by his lawyers as preliminary issues, President Lungu had requested that the Petition be dismissed for relying on wrong articles of the Constitution and for lacking merit.

The lawyers have also requested the Court to remove from the records various portions from the UPND petition which they contend were wrongly and irregularly included in the Petition.

These irregularities range from matters filed, but are deemed to be above or are outside the jurisdiction of the Concourt, to petitioning under a wrong article 103 instead of 101.

Hakainde Hichilema and his running mate, Geoffrey Bwalya Mwamba of the United Party for National Development (UPND) have petitioned the re-election of President Edgar Chagwa Lungu and his running mate, Vice-President, Mrs.Inonge Mutukwa Wina.

Following the successful holding of the 2016 General Election, the Electoral Commission of Zambia(ECZ) declared President Edgar Lungu as winner of the Poll obtaining 50.35% (1,860,877) with Hichilema obtaining 47% 1,760,347.

President Edgar Lungu’s Patriotic Front (PF) obtained 85 seats while the UPND obtained 55 seats.

President Lungu also won 7 Provinces (Copperbelt, Lusaka, Luapula, Northern, Muchinga, Eastern and Central Province) while Hichilema won 3 provinces (Southern, Western and North-Western).

The matter has been adjourned to Friday 26th August 2016 at 11hrs.

Macky 2 released the trailer for his upcoming video “Thinking of You” .

The video ,which will be out soon, was directed by Gaudens Zulu.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iY_RQlHuXog

BY KAPA187

3 Kabwe Police camps have been ear-marked for Water prepaid meter installation

• Lukanga Water and Sewerage Company (LgWSC) reinforces the move by National Water and Sanitation Council (NWASCO), to address the changing landscape in the water supply sector through the provision of water pre-paid meters to its customers.
• The company has embarked on an exercise to install over 1500 pre-paid meters procured at the cost of K3.6 million.
• Chowa, Miliki Tembo and Kasanda are three police camps that have been ear-marked as part of this exercise following consultations with the Zambia Police management. The installation is scheduled to commence by this August 2016.

As the world evolves technologically, many utility companies in the energy telecommunications and water sector are shifting from post-paid to pre-paid billing system. With the ever-growing demand for water as the most sought after commodity, LgWSC has joined the rest of water utility companies in trying to reinforce its Regulator’s vision to have all water utility companies attain a 100% metering ratio on both its commercial and domestic customers.

Speaking in Kabwe, LgWSC Managing Director, Mushany Ngafise said that the installation of pre-paid meters will make it easy for the company to manage water supply hours, adding that this will make it easy for the company to document consumption trends and patterns for planning purposes.

Mr. Ngafise mentioned that prepaid meters are aimed at giving customers control over bills in that they will only be charged for the water they have consumed, and that this will positively affect the company’s service delivery.

He revealed that 3 Police Camps within Kabwe are among the recipients of the procured pre-paid meters.

“Chowa, Miliki Tembo and Kasanda are three police camps that have been ear-marked for the pilot project following wide consultations with the Zambia Police management, and that the installation is scheduled to be completed by October 2016” the Managing Director explained.

Meanwhile sensitisation programs aimed at preparing and sensitising the said communities for the shift to pre-paid billing system have already been launched.

Speaking in Kabwe, LgWSC Public Relations Manager Siwa Mwene explained that the water meters were coming at a great cost and that there was urgent need to sensitize the beneficiaries not only about the benefits but also how to take care of pre-paid meters.

She added that through sensitisation, the company is responding swiftly to address various misconceptions on pre-paid meters, adding that the company is handing a big win to its customers on this project.

“The company is handing a big win to the customers in that with pre-paid meters, no customer will experience disconnections, there will be no disputes over bills and customers will be able to budget efficiently” Ms. Mwene said.

Ms. Mwene also said that the introduction of pre-paid meters will help the company and its customers cut-down on the loss of Non-Revenue Water, adding that this will consequently increase supply in low pressure areas.

The project is expected to be rolled out through the entire Province in the near future after the success of pilot project. Meters have since been tested and they are ready for installation.

According to the National Water Sanitation Council (NWASCO) both commercial and non-commercial consumers are supposed to be metered so that they pay for the actual consumption and not flat tariffs which may be pegged on an estimated consumption.

LgWSC is a water utility company owned by all local councils in Central province and it is mandated by the Water Act to supply water to urban and peri-urban areas in Central Province.

DSTv’s Zambezi Magic is calling on couples getting married in October and November 2016 to share their perfect wedding in a new television reality show on Zambezi Magic, Channel 160 by submitting their applications before the closing date set for 27th August,2016.

The Zambian version of South Africa’s hit bridal reality show, ‘Our Perfect Wedding Zambia’ is set to give audiences a front row seat to behind the scenes, as the cameras follow different couples in Zambia plan their ‘perfect wedding’.

‘Our aim as a channel is to showcase the best of local content. My Perfect Wedding is already a well-known and established format that Zambians like, so it’s great that we can bring it to Zambia. Zambezi Magic is confident that our audience will love the show as we showcase the best of Zambian weddings and culture’ said Addiel Dzinoreva, Head of Zambezi Magic. “We have commissioned a local content company, Media 365 to help bring these stories to life’.

‘Casting for the series is happening now, so if you’re getting married in October or November 2016 and want to be on the show, apply today, by visiting www.opwzambia.com or calling 0964 545 544 for a paper application. Closing date for applications is this Saturday, 27th August, 2016’.Our production team wishes to extend an invitation to interested couples to apply now,’ said Catherine N. Phiri, Media 365 Director.

Zambezi Magic Head of Channel, Addiel Dzinoreva said he was looking forward to amazing stories on Our Perfect Wedding Zambia whose premiere date will be advised in October 2016.

More information on Our Perfect Wedding Zambia is available on www.opwzambia.com,www.zambezimagic.tv and https://www.facebook.com/zambezimagictv/

Media 365 is an award winning media power house renowned for Africa Magic Viewer’s Choice awards wining production Love Games.
Zambezi Magic is available on Compact, Compact plus and Premium bouquets to subscribers in 6 Southern African countries on DStv channel 160.

MMD President Dr Nevers Mumba has accused the Patriotic Front (PF) of Burning markets and that the Namwala story is a fabrication

In a speech delivered yesterday at a news conference, Dr Mumba said that information has already been received that PF plan to burn more markets around the country and blame UPND.

” With a stifled and silenced private media, there is now propaganda that it is the opposition and Hakainde Hichilema in particular, who is pushing for violence,” he said.

“The truth is that the PF have adopted the most diabolical strategy of burning markets themselves and then blame the UPND and thereafter send their “savior” Mr. Lungu to appear to ‘comfort’ the affected. They are using the Rwanda script to the letter, ” Dr Mumba said

Dr Mumba said that the Namwala story is the same kind of fabrication and asked why President Lungu never went to Namwala to see for himself what is happening there.

“The Namwala story is one classic story. They got a picture from a South African publication taken during the period of xenophobic attacks on foreigners and called it Namwala.

“We have studied the pictures in the newspaper they used and the police in those pictures are wearing South African uniforms, Namwala police station is not that developed and there are no such electricity pylons over Namwala police station, ” Dr Mumba said

Below is the full speech

PF PANIC IS DANGEROUS

(Speech delivered by MMD President Nevers Sekwila Mumba at the UPND Press Briefing – 24th August, 2016)

As a nation, we have reached a critical crossroads in the governance of our great country after the the just ended 2016 General Election.

PANIC

The PF and Mr. Lungu are in great panic and their desperate activities are causing unnecessary agitation in the nation leading Zambia on a dangerous path because if they really believed that they won this election, they should be the most relaxed party in the nation and not have cadres and army personnel on the streets. We call on them to remove the cadres from the streets. We also call on them to free private media houses; the Post Newspaper, Muvi TV, Komboni and Itezhi-tezhi radio stations to operate freely without interference. We also call upon them to allow the tax-payer funded ZNBC to report freely and cover every Zambian’s view instead of just being a mouth-piece for Mr. Edgar Lungu, Mrs. Esther Lungu and PF propaganda.

Their arbitrary behavior to close these media houses confirm that they have acknowledged what they did wrong in the last election. The guilty are afraid.

The opposition is the side behaving as government. Instead of perpetrating violence they have gone to the Courts of Law while the PF have gone to the streets for endless solidarity marches. We call on them to suspend these pointless marches and instead show solidarity with the courts and allow them to arbitrate in a calm environment instead of constantly driving around the courts disturbing the peace and issuing threats against some of the Constitutional Court judges.

We have confidence in our judicial system and are patient enough to give them room to guide the nation through these stormy waters.

RWANDA STRATEGY

The strategy PF is using is the most dangerous and yet most effective in causing carnage in a country. It worked in Rwanda and managed to trigger the loss of more than 800,000 people.
They used a biased media undergirded by a compromised church. Today, all public media is peddling the PF propaganda and the opposition has no voice. The private media has been closed to completely black out the story of the opposition. For Example: The Chairman of Independent Broadcasting Authority (IBA) which shut down the MUVI station is the husband of the founder of ‘Christians for Lungu.’ This relationship between the so-called church and media reminds all of us of Rwanda.

A group of church leaders in Rwanda worked with the establishment to ignite the genocide. A pastor worked with the government and allowed the slaughter of over 2,000 worshipers who had sought refuge in his church and refused to help send for the police to protect them.

It must be noted that the IBA came into exisistence because the MMD Government decided to introduce a liberalized democratic dispensation when it came to power in 1991, part of which was a free press. This led to the establishment of a multiplicity of electronic and print media houses all across the country to allow Zambians to speak freely and be heard.

What recently started with the silencing of the Post newspaper is now rapidly turning out to be a systematic clamp down on all privately owned media houses leaving only ZNBC the mouth-piece for Mr. Edgar Lungu, Mrs. Lungu and the Patriotic front.

We have had 5 presidents since Zambia introduced the liberalized democratic dispensation and I am proud to say that none of these have attempted to muzzle the press the way Mr. Edgar Chagwa Lungu is doing in his short time as president. We will not allow this freedom to be tampered with on flimsy charges.

VIOLENCE REVERSED

With a stifled and silenced private media, there is now propaganda that it is the opposition and Hakainde Hichilema in particular, who is pushing for violence. The truth is that the PF have adopted the most diabolical strategy of burning markets themselves and then blame the UPND and thereafter send their “savior” Mr. Lungu to appear to ‘comfort’ the affected. They are using the Rwanda script to the letter. Information has already been received that they plan to burn more markets themselves around the country and then blame UPND.

The Namwala story is the same kind of fabrication. Why has Mr. Lungu not gone to Namwala to see for himself what is happening there?

The Namwala story is one classic story. They got a picture from a South African publication taken during the period of xenophobic attacks on foreigners and called it Namwala. We have studied the pictures in the newspaper they used and the police in those pictures are wearing South African uniforms, Namwala police station is not that developed and there are no such electricity pylons over Namwala police station. The question is; what do they want to achieve apart from starting ethnic violence? As a result of what is being reported, we have received information that the BEMBA royal establishment maybe having a meeting this Friday to decide how to defend their people who are being brutalized in Southern Province. We don’t know what this could bring. We therefore call upon all our traditional leaders not to fall into the trap of desperate politicians who have seen the sun setting on their ill-gotten power.

The PF could be trying to justify declaration of a state of emergency.

LOVE SHALL DEFEAT HATE

In Conclusion, I want to tell the story of the Berlin wall that was built between East and West Berlin at the height of the Cold War. East Berlin threw garbage onto the Western side. The West threw back food and other essential supplies.

Only love can defeat hate. We should defeat violence by offering peace.

The petition against the re-election of Edgar Lungu has again been adjourned to tomorrow 10:00 Hours after it emerged that the petitioners (the UPND) did not serve their summons to the Attorney General Likando Kalaluka who joined the matter yesterday.

Mr Kalaluka has been joined to the presidential petition in which the UPND has challenged the election of President Lungu and his running mate Inonge Wina in the Constitutional Court.

UPND President Hakainde Hichilema and his vice-president for administration Geoffrey Bwalya have petitioned the Constitutional Court claiming that Mr Lungu and Mrs Wina were allegedly not validly elected as President and Vice-President of Zambia in the August 11 general elections.

Mr Kalaluka applied to be joined to the matter because Mr Hichilema and Mr Mwamba had made allegations against the public media, the Zambia Air Force and the Zambia Police Service, which are all institutions of the State.

The matter which came up for hearing this afternoon has since been adjourned to tomorrow 10:00 Hours.

Meanwhile, PF lawyers are tomorrow expected to file an application against the UPND.