Environment and Sustainable Development - United Nations ...

ACARE will focus on:
• Regional-scale training, dissemination, outreach and
cooperative education,
• State-of-the-lake-ecosystem monitoring and reporting,
• Ecosystem decision-support modelling and forecasting,
• Interactions of people, land and aquatic ecosystems, and
resultant impacts,
• Impacts of climate variability on Lake Malawi and its
basin, and
• Aquatic biodiversity and ecosystem function in Lake
Malawi.
Nitrate Pollution in Syria
In 2002, UNU/INWEH completed a pilot project in Syria
to evaluate the human health impacts of nitrate pollution in
subsurface drinking water. Most small villages in the
Middle East lack adequate wastewater disposal systems;
reliance on individual household cesspits contributes to
contamination of groundwater, which is often used,
untreated, for drinking. Extensive use of manure as
fertilizer aggravates the problem as runoff seeps into
aquifers. A major contaminant in such situations is nitrate,
which poses health risks, particularly for infants, by
leading to a diminished capacity of the blood to transport
and transfer oxygen.
The UNU/INWEH study, supported by the Arab Gulf
Fund for UN Development (AGFUND), examined
groundwater pollution from cesspits, the impact of
fertilization techniques, and the relationship between
nitrate concentration and the proximity of drinking water
wells to pollution sources. Guidelines were prepared for
efficient and economical cesspit design, for fertilization
practices, and for buffer zones around wells to minimize
nitrate pollution. The initiative also promoted the planting
around cesspits of special crops capable of reducing nitrate
from seeping wastewater, and trained local staff to
implement the guidelines. Based on the success of the
project, UNU/INWEH and environment officials from
Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine and Syria are preparing a
proposal to the EU for a much larger regional groundwater
remediation project.
Marine Pollution in the Gaza Strip
facilities. This unsafe situation is further complicated by a
lack of appropriate industrial zoning, proliferation of
unregulated stone quarries, and urban planning that does
not take environmental quality issues into account.
UNU/INWEH, in cooperation with the Islamic University
of Gaza and the Palestinian Ministry of Environment,
undertook a baseline survey of near-shore and beach water
quality in the Gaza Strip to determine the extent and health
implications of marine pollution.
The study found widespread illness among users of
popular coastal recreation areas along the Gaza Strip due to
contamination of seawater by sewage outflows. In some
locations, fecal coliform and fecal streptococci levels are
well in excess of US EPA standards. The worst seawater
pollution was found in the central part of the Gaza Strip,
where effluent from Gaza City is discharged. People in
their teens and early 20s were the largest users, and almost
all who swam reported problems ranging from skin
irritation and headaches to respiratory and intestinal
illness. The study recommends a permanent monitoring
programme, upgraded wastewater treatment plants, a
public awareness programme including development of
guidelines for bathing water and beach quality, and strict
controls on fishing. Further study of the health impacts,
especially among children, of contaminated beach sands is
also advised.
Research on Fragile Wetland Ecosystems
The UNU Pantanal Regional Environmental Programme
(UNU/PREP) was primarily implemented in December
2001. The vision of UNU/PREP is to create a high-level
research and training programme as well as a forum to
exchange knowledge and experiences and build capacity
for environmental protection, preservation and
management of water resources and interactions between
the floodplain and surrounding highlands.
Efforts in 2002 focused on bringing the programme
from conceptual formation to reality. This included
meetings on creating the necessary operating conditions
and the presentation of projects aimed at developing a
research framework within the Panatal, the world's largest
wetland, in Brazil and diffusion of the programme concept
to Argentina, Bolivia, Columbia and Paraguay. Projects
were approved in 2002 on “Identification of South
American Partners of the PREP,” “Long-term Ecological
Research in the Northern Panatal” and “Establishing an
Advance Base for Research and Training on Fragile
Wetland Ecosystems.”
Only about a third of the more than 1 million people living
in the Gaza Strip are serviced by wastewater treatment
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