Showing posts with label Al Hayat International Water Organisation. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Al Hayat International Water Organisation. Show all posts

Tuesday, March 23, 2010

Sudan: April elections as scheduled - Election monitor deadline extended - SLM's Minnawi calls for delay

SUDAN'S elections on the 11th, 12th and 13th of April, will be keenly watched by the international community.

Sudan' elections April 2010

At an International donor conference for Darfur on the weekend, organisers in Cairo, Egypt fell far short of the $2 billion they'd hoped to raise, due to concerns over Sudan's security situation ahead of April's elections. Read more at Deutsche Welle (DW-WORLD.DE) Tuesday, 23 March 2010: Sudan instability hampering international aid to Darfur.
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April elections as scheduled

THE National Elections Commission (NEC) has repeated its commitment to conduct the April elections as scheduled.

Also, the NEC has extended the period for receiving applications from local and international observers who would wish to participate in the April elections.

However, the leader of the Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM), Mini Arkou Minnawi, says that the postponement of the April general elections, will pave the way for the conduct of free and fair elections in Sudan.

Note that the SLM is not registered as a party to participate in April’s elections. Reportedly, Mr Minnawi claims his party is being intentionally excluded from participating in the elections.

Full story here below.

NEC Still Committed To April Elections
From SRS - Sudan Radio Service, Tuesday, 23 March 2010:
(Khartoum) – The National Elections Commission has repeated its commitment to conduct the April elections as scheduled.

The NEC met on Monday in Khartoum to analyze a report by the Carter Center last week requesting NEC to delay the elections. The deputy chairman of the commission, Prof. Abdallah Ahmed Abdallah, addressed the press after the meeting.

[Prof. Abdallah Ahmed Abdallah]: “The report by the Carter Center stirred up the media. However, we would like to inform you that the report is not from NEC. The NEC has gone through the details. We saw a need to study the report in detail and that’s why we formed a committee to look into the report. And the conclusion is the elections will be conducted as scheduled, God willing, on the 11th 12th and 13th of April.”

Aside from a newly-deployed European Union mission, the Carter Center is the only international elections observation mission in Sudan.
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Election Monitor Deadline Extended
From SRS - Sudan Radio Service, Tuesday, 23 March 2010:
(Khartoum) – The National Elections Commission has extended the period for receiving applications from local and international observers who would wish to participate in the April elections.

An NEC expert on elections, Mohamed Abdul-Daiem, told the press in Khartoum on Monday that they have received hundreds of applications from NGOs willing to observe the conduct of elections in Sudan.

[Mohamed Abdul-Daiem]: “After we had declared the 21st March as the final date for accepting applications for institutions wanting to observe the elections, we continued to receive applications and we realized that many civil society organizations are still carrying out trainings. And so, in appreciation of their efforts, we decided to include them in the observation process and we extended the initial date until 30 March. This will enable these organizations to participate in the first democratic exercise in Sudan. This morning, we received 8192 applications from local observers all over the country. We are now examining these applications and we will then issue them with identity cards.”

Mohamed Abdul-Daiem was speaking to the press in Khartoum on Monday.
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Minnawi Calls For Delay in Elections
From SRS - Sudan Radio Service, Tuesday, 23 March 2010:
(Khartoum) – The leader of the Sudan Liberation Movement says that the postponement of the April general elections, will pave the way for the conduct of free and fair elections in Sudan.

Mini Arkou Minnawi, who is the senior presidential assistant, spoke to SRS from Khartoum on Tuesday.

[Mini Minnawi]: “The voices that are calling for postponement of the elections are right. Although the NCP do not accept the idea, it would have a positive impact on the security situation in Sudan. It would also impact on whether the elections will be free and fair. So we should consider all these issues, then move together towards finding the solution. But personally, I’m not part of these elections.”

Minnawi’s movement is not registered as a party to participate in April’s elections.

Minnawi claims that the NCP and the intentionally excluded his party from participating in the elections.

[Mini Minnawi]: “Our brothers in the NCP and the NEC have colluded to exclude us from these elections. But we will talk about that after the elections, because it is premature to talk about the result of the elections before we discuss the conduct of the elections.”

That was the leader of SLM, Mini Arkou Minnawi speaking to SRS from Khartoum.
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More news from SRS

Tuesday 23-Mar-2010

Thursday, August 13, 2009

A massive reservoir built by locals as a WFP food-for-work project in central Sudan’s desolate North Kordofan state

For years, residents of central Sudan’s desolate North Kordofan state spent precious time and money to obtain water. No longer – thanks to a massive reservoir, built as a World Food Programme food-for-work project.

Water Arrives In Sudan’s Drought Belt

Photo: Building the haffir in Sudan's parched North Kordofan region was a community effort. (Copyright WFP/Mohamed Etigani)

This is a great, heartwarming story.

From World Food Programme
Tuesday, 12 August 2009

Rachid Jaafar

By Rachid Jaafar, Spokesperson - Sudan

Water Arrives In Sudan’s Drought Belt
EL TYINA, NORTH KORDOFAN – Water is an elusive commodity in this parched region, where local farmers and nomads often pay hard-earned cash for tins of the precious liquid to meet their daily needs.

Now the rains have arrived to El Tyina, in central Sudan’s North Kordofan region, along with a more sustainable solution – a massive haffir, the Sudanese term for a traditional, hand-dug rain catchment system, built by the local community in exchange for nearly 450 tonnes of WFP food.

“The people are very happy and the local government appreciates it very much,” said Mahendra Balhubai, WFP logistics officer in El Obeid who was involved in delivering food to the project, roughly an hour’s drive away. “And this is also a lesson learned – that it is possible to make a haffir this big.”

A community project

Completed in June and able to hold up to 25,000 cubic metres of water, the reservoir is the largest of about 150 haffirs built and rehabilitated in Sudan since 2002 under WFP’s food-for-work programme. WFP’s partner in the project, Qatar-based NGO Al Hayat International Water Organization, provided expertise and tools.

A massive reservoir built as a WFP food-for-work project in central Sudan’s desolate North K ordofan state

More than a thousand residents, including the elderly and women, toiled under a burning sun for four weeks to build the haffir in a region that is part of Sudan’s drought belt.

“There’s interest in replicating this in other parts of Sudan, and not only because of the size. It was made by the community, all the partners were involved. And it gave people food at a time when there’s a food gap,” Balhubai said, referring to the dry season when the building took place.

Living on the edge

Experts estimate the reservoir will provide enough water to meet the needs of about 1,600 families living in El Tyina and seven other nearby villages, where farmers raise sheep and goats and grow sorghum and groundnuts during the rainy season.

Before the reservoir was constructed, dry spells saw villagers travel many kilometres by foot, donkey or car in search of water. Some paid up to US$ 2 for 200 litres of water – enough for a household’s needs for just a few days and an enormous sum in this impoverished region.

Beyond water, the haffir project has brought a degree of stability to a population living on the edge.

“Many families used to migrate to Um Durman and El Obeid, but they have settled down this year,” said Amany Mohamed, Al Hayat’s coordinator in the project, naming two municipalities in central Sudan.

Now, she said, “they won’t have to migrate to the cities to find food.”
Further reading
Sudan Watch - September 12, 2006: The 21st century's most explosive commodity will be . . . WATER