SOLOMON ISLANDS (April 16, 2018) – Globally, remaining tropical forests are being rapidly cleared, particularly in countries like the Solomon Islands where commercial logging accounts for about 18 percent of government revenue, and at least 60 percent of exports while providing the largest number of formal sector jobs.
A team of researchers from The University of Queensland (UQ), Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), and other groups have found that increasing land clearing for logging in Solomon Islands-even with best management strategies in place – will lead to unsustainable levels of soil erosion and significant impacts to downstream water quality.
Combined, these impacts will compromise the integrity of the land for future agricultural uses, interrupt access to clean drinking water and degrade important downstream ecosystems.
The researchers published the results of the study in the journal Environmental Research Letters.
Loss of the upland forest will compromise local access to clean water essential for drinking, bathing, and household washing," said Wenger.
Findings of this study are being used by KIBCA to communicate to island residents the potential impacts that could occur as a result of logging if the forest was not protected.
"Predicting the impact of logging activities on soil erosion and water quality in steep, forested tropical islands," appears in Environmental Research Letters.
WCS (Wildlife Conservation Society) MISSION: WCS saves wildlife and wild places worldwide through science, conservation action, education, and inspiring people to value nature.
To achieve our mission, WCS, based at the Bronx Zoo, harnesses the power of its Global Conservation Program in nearly 60 nations and in all the world’s oceans and its five wildlife parks in New York City, visited by 4 million people annually.
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About 2,086 cholera cases have so far been reported in the two districts.
The Victims According to the Kibuku District health officer, Dr Ahamed Bumba, the cholera epidemic reportedly left one person dead and a total of 15 people infected and admitted to Kadama health isolation centre under severe condition.
District health authorities say many communities in the district are being affected by the epidemic due to a number of factors, including inadequate safe water supply and lack of sufficient pit-latrine facilities.
Dr Bumba says strategies have been put up to avoid further spread of the disease.
“All the suspected cholera cases that were received are currently confined at an isolation unit at Kadama Health Centre.
Kibuku District has safe water coverage of 75 per cent but areas on River Namatala, have a lesser safe water coverage.
The most affected areas with high levels of people affected with the disease were found to be in Bunghokho-Mutoto where at least three people died, which he attributes to use of contaminated water and lack of pit-latrines.
Dr Wangisi says all the suspected cholera cases were confined in two cholera treatment centres, which were set up at Namanyonyi HC11 and Namatala HC1V, which in the Industrial Division.
The victims were confined at Busia Health Centre 1V.
Kibuku District health officer, Dr Ahamed Bumba says strategies have been put up to avoid further spread of the cholera.

"But it’s so much more personalized this year," says Margaret Hanscom, a WaterAfrica board member and Oak Creek Elementary School teacher, because each walker will wear a bib featuring a photo of a Zambian child in need of clean water.
Also new this year: Participants have the option of "going the distance" in the World Vision Global 6K for Water, which actually represents the distance an average Zambian without a clean water source must walk every day.
The money raised on Saturday will go directly to World Vision, the largest non-governmental provider of clean water in the developing world, which will use the funds to dig new water wells, build handwashing stations, improve water infrastructure and pipelines, train community members to maintain the projects and more.
Hanscom says the importance of water access is easy for young students to understand and appreciate, because it’s a resource that they use every day.
Through WaterAfrica’s interactive program, students learn about the dangers of drinking dirty water, the lengths Zambian women and girls have to walk to obtain clean water and the impact that has on life in the African nation, including a high infant mortality rate and a lack of education for girls.
So these girls are not able to go to school and get an education," Hanscom says.
Hanscom says her favorite part about being on the WaterAfrica board and working on the Walk4Water event is interacting with students.
"Growing up at the church and being a part of my family has shown me caring about the world matters to me," she says.
Being a part of a church that feels responsible for the lives of others has really motivated me."
Registration for Saturday’s events is available online at tinyurl.com/Walk4Water11.

As a dry area that receives little rainfall, there is no guarantee for families nor farmers that they can have access to safe water for domestic and livestock use.
A hand pump they previously relied on had long been broken, leaving them fully dependent on highly contaminated water sources.
To make matters worse, not only was the water unsafe, it was also hardly enough to meet their daily demand.
While animals only drunk water twice in a week, residents survived for days without water for bathing and cleaning.
For household consumption, villagers would wake up at wee hours of the night, carry their empty jerricans and walk long distances to collect water from the wells, exposing themselves to safety risks.
Despite their efforts, water scarcity caused many to wait for hours to fill their 20-liter jerrican.
To enable residents to gain easy access to clean and safe water, ACTED embarked on repairing the broken hand pump of the communal shallow well to facilitate better and efficient pumping of water, with funding from USAID-OFDA.
The community now has access to clean and safe water that they can drink, use for domestic and hygiene needs, and to water their animals.
“There is no more risk of waking up at 3am to fetch water at the contaminated wells, we can now wear clean clothes and have plenty of water to drink.” -A community member The repaired hand pump addressed one of the biggest problem the residents were facing, especially for women and girls who bear the biggest burden of collecting water for their households.
“Community members in Wamba are now enjoying safe water.” -Natena, Chairperson of Naipash Women Group

New polling numbers confirm the public’s high level of concern about drinking water quality and support for safe drinking water in California.
And 80 percent believe water agencies are responsible for ensuring safe drinking water for California communities.
But despite strong public awareness and concern we have failed to address this most tragic and unacceptable water problem: Upward of 1 million Californians do not have access to safe drinking water.
Even worse, there are nearly 300,000 Californians who have been without safe drinking water for decades.
During the depth of the recent drought, state and national media reported on several rural communities with wells that ran dry, leaving people without access to running water.
Every Californian should have access to safe, affordable drinking water and water users must be a part of the solution.
Senate Bill 623 has been introduced in the state legislature to create a safe and affordable drinking water fund that would help eliminate this problem.
The recent polling shows that 69 percent of the public supports paying an additional $1 per month to assure safe drinking water for everyone.
During the first hearing of the bill, hundreds of residents brought bottles of contaminated water up to Sacramento and asked for their elected representatives to support a safe drinking water fund or drink the water that comes out of their taps – yet, many in the water community stood in opposition, without offering any real alternative solutions.
The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Water Deeply.

The Tahoe-Truckee area’s water agencies say they oppose a budget trailer bill that is part of Gov.
The bill, according to the Association of California Water Agencies, is essentially a modified form of State Bill 623, dubbed the "Safe and Affordable Drinking Water Fee."
A Lake Tahoe regional coalition of local water agencies including Tahoe City Public Utility District, South Tahoe Public Utility District, North Tahoe Public Utility District, Truckee Donner Public Utility District, Northstar Community Services District, Squaw Valley Public Service District and Alpine Springs County Water District strongly oppose the legislative proposal, which would tax Californians’ drinking water.
"Our issue is more on the tax as a funding mechanism … that money is not going to stay in Tahoe and will go to these disadvantaged communities, which we recognize their need for safe drinking water.
However, taxing Californians’ water is not the solution."
Boyd said local water agencies already don’t meet California’s requirements to receive state funding, and the tax would mean more money leaving the area.
The effect of the bill, which was first introduced as SB 623 in 2017, would essentially tax Californians for something that is essential to life, according to the Tahoe City Public District, erode the affordability of water for local water users, turn hundreds of local water agencies into taxation entities that send money to Sacramento, impact families just above low-income thresholds, and would open the door to future taxes on water customers.
"We believe our customers should be aware of this legislative proposal and our efforts to actively oppose it, unless amended to remove the water tax as a funding mechanism," the district said in a statement.
Many of the local water agencies are aligned with the Association of California Water Agencies, which stands opposed to the bill.
The bill would establish a fund to be administered by the California Water Resources Control Board to assist those who do not have access to safe drinking water, according to the association.

The Truckee-Tahoe area’s water agencies say they oppose a budget trailer bill that is part of Gov.
A Lake Tahoe regional coalition of local water agencies including Tahoe City Public Utility District, South Tahoe Public Utility District, North Tahoe Public Utility District, Truckee Donner Public Utility District, Northstar Community Services District, Squaw Valley Public Service District and Alpine Springs County Water District strongly oppose the legislative proposal, which would tax Californians’ drinking water.
"Our issue is more on the tax as a funding mechanism … that money is not going to stay in Tahoe and will go to these disadvantaged communities, which we recognize their need for safe drinking water.
“Not only do we not qualify for state funding but we are also going to be taking money out of Tahoe.” — Kim Boyd, senior management analyst for the Tahoe Public Utility District "Your local, public water agencies are committed to providing safe and reliable water and support the intent of the bill.
However, taxing Californians’ water is not the solution."
Boyd said local water agencies already don’t meet California’s requirements to receive state funding, and the tax would mean more money leaving the area.
The effect of the bill, which was first introduced as SB 623 in 2017, would essentially tax Californians for something that is essential to life, according to the Tahoe City Public District, erode the affordability of water for local water users, turn hundreds of local water agencies into taxation entities that send money to Sacramento, impact families just above low-income thresholds, and would open the door to future taxes on water customers.
Many of the local water agencies are aligned with the Association of California Water Agencies, which stands opposed to the bill.
Justin Scacco is a reporter for the Truckee Sun.
Contact him at jscacco@truckeesun.com.

OXFORD, United Kingdom — The Rockefeller Foundation and UBS Optimus Foundation are backing a new financing tool to bring clean water to 1.4 million Ugandan school children, saying the model can potentially be replicated across other countries and sectors.
Official development assistance for the issue is now about $8 billion a year.
In this first pilot of the SSN model, the UBS Optimus Foundation will provide a $500,000 loan to Impact Water, a social enterprise, to expand its work installing low-cost UV-based water purification systems in schools across Uganda.
Impact Water will pay back the loan after five years and the rate of interest will go down if certain outcomes are achieved.
“The social business gets financing adequate to what they need and keeps them aligned to their social mission,” Bruysten said.
To support their initiatives, social businesses need continuous funding and I hope the Social Success Note becomes the leading instrument to fulfill this need.” The SSN is one of a string of results-based financing mechanisms that have emerged in recent years, including the development impact bond, a variation of the social impact bond pioneered in the United Kingdom in 2010.
She added that the SSN has a simpler structure than a DIB, to reduce transaction costs and time; and that complex impact metrics are avoided in favor of simple key performance indicators linked to the number of water systems installed.
However, some at the session said using installation-based key performance indicators as the outcome measure would not ensure sustainability in the long run — a problem that has dogged water projects in developing countries in the past.
In response, Bruysten said social businesses focused on the poor still face major challenges in accessing capital and paying interest and returns, meaning such subsidies are still needed.
“While the business model is really a relevant tool, we still think this subsidy … can be instrumental in making these types of social businesses sustainable in the long run,” she said.

ISLAMABAD: Recently International Water Day was observed in a bid to spread the message of effective water management globally.
Unfortunately, in Pakistan, it remained ignored for the most part.
According to the World Resource Institute, the country is among the leading five nations that face extremely high water scarcity and low access to safe drinking water and sanitation.
Similarly, the UN has categorised Pakistan amongst those few unfortunate countries where water shortage will destabilise and jeopardise its existence in the next few decades.
Today a quarter to a third of Pakistan’s population lacks access to safe drinking water.
According to the recent report of Unicef, 53,000 Pakistani children die of diarrhoea after drinking contaminated water every year.
Hence, more effective in measures are required to mitigate the water deficit.
Many developing countries are adopting a strategy of water-pricing that needs to be implemented in the country for better and efficient use of water.
According UNDP, the development of lesser levelling technology and furrow bed irrigation has resulted in saving 30 per cent of water and has led to increasing water productivity by 25 per cent in Punjab.
Its scope needs to be widened across Pakistan to achieve water availability.

Since Mesa Water District was founded as our local water agency in 1960, Mesa Water customers have received safe and reliable drinking water.
As a result of Mesa Water’s strategic water resource planning, prudent financial policies and water system management and capital improvements, our community continues to benefit from having safe, resilient and sustainable water and water services.
This is not the case in other areas of the state where, unfortunately, some Californians in small, rural communities may not have the same reliable access to safe drinking water.
Additionally, a budget trailer bill proposed by the Brown administration is also seeking this same tax on drinking water.
While the concept of ensuring safe drinking water for all Californians is an admirable one, the Mesa Water board of directors has taken the position that the proposed legislation is not the appropriate funding method for addressing this issue.
Simply put, taxing Mesa Water customers for essential drinking water in order to fund other community water systems outside of our area is not sound policy from either fiscal or local control standpoints.
The board believes that there is a better approach.
A broad, statewide coalition of water providers, led by the Assn.
of California Water Agencies (ACWA), is advocating for the state to take a fiscal leadership role in addressing this situation.
Mesa Water’s ability to provide our customers with clean, reliable and safe drinking water depends on our local control and rate-making authority, which allows us to use the rates you pay to fund the local water infrastructure repairs and capital improvements to sustain our community’s high-quality water service.