The New Nation - Internet Edition

Dealing with climate change

BANGLADESH is likely to be faced with devastating climate change impacts. Actually, such a process is said to have already started. The country is in urgent need for a long-term and comprehensive plan to deal with the adverse effects on its environment and the economy. Therefore, special allocation to offset or adapt to climate change effects should be a regular feature of the national budget. Experts at a roundtable demanded allocation of more fund in the new budget.

Rapid global warming has caused changes to the climatic conditions. According to IPCC Special Report on the Regional Impacts of Climate Change, Bangladesh is 'especially at risk' from sea-level rise and its implications like coastal erosion and land loss, inundation and sea flooding and increasing salinity of rivers. About 16 per cent of the total land area of the country is feared to go under seawater due to sea level rise. It would cause huge damage to agriculture and forestry seriously affecting the national economy. About 17 million people might have to migrate to other areas. Natural calamities like cyclones, frequent floods, untimely and excessive rainfall and droughts are likely to affect the country.

A strategic plan to deal with the threats posed by climate change needs to be developed on an urgent basis. The devastating natural calamities last year affected every aspect of life including agriculture, forestry, communication and other infrastructure. The losses could not yet be recuperated. Such damages are likely to repeat with increased intensity and frequency of disasters. Ways and means should be evolved to cope with the changed climatic conditions and their immediate and long-term impacts. The government should allocate more fund to carry on necessary adaptation activities on a priority basis.

Taming prices of essentials

WHILE the energies of the government remain engaged mainly in political tasks, price monitoring and control, probably calls for more attention. The commerce adviser had earlier aired an idea of constant price monitoring leading to improved price control of essential goods. A permanent price control mechanism along with new and updated laws, plus institutional mechanisms to enforce government's price control measures, were pledged and thought to be on the way. But nearly five months down the road since then, the price monitoring cell and its activities are little heard about by the hard pressed consumers.

It was reported that the cell has not yet got premises from where to organise and do its work regularly. It is only doing shabby work from temporary and shifting locations at different government offices. Besides, the laws to support its activities have not been updated. More importantly, the institutional capacities to help with enforcement decisions of the cell are still in the realm of conceptions only. Thus, it is no surprise that price normaliszation or stabiliszation moves have gone simply haywire.

This lack of emphasis in price control activities is starkly seen in the price hrike afresh of essential commodities. It had been pledged that about 12 core commodities-mainly kitchen items-would be identified and all-out efforts made to keep their prices from irrationally rising. But little has been heard about this move also from that time. Meanwhile, prices of rice and potatoes, the basic staples, have marked rise. Their price hikes are considered by the people as unreasonable. Similar upward movement of prices of other essentials are also noted which are accentuating the hardships of common consumers. It is high time for the government to act. Very great public interests are also involved in effective price control.

Excessive irrigation promotes desertification

Sharmia Sultana

Desertification, decline in the biological or economic productivity of the soil in arid and semiarid areas resulting from various factors, including human activities and variations in climate is going ahead with an reeducated pace Desertification refers to the formation and expansion of degraded soil, not to the advancing movement of the current deserts. Desertification is found on every continent except Antarctica.

Poor land management, such as overgrazing and over cultivation of dry lands, can easily lead to land degradation and desertification. Increasing population and improper irrigation techniques also contribute to desertification.

Desertification occurs in cropland (both irrigated and nor irrigated), pasture, and woodlands. Loss of soil, deterioration of soil, and loss of natural vegetation lead to desertification. Drought, a period of unusually dry weather, can cause loss of vegetation, which in turn leads to desertification. Poor land management and increasing population are factors that promote increased irrigation, improper cultivation or over cultivation, and increased numbers of livestock. These events alter the land and the soil, diminish the resources, and increase the chances of desertification.

Desertification has sometimes been mistakenly described as the expansion of deserts into nondesert areas. Pictures of sand dunes engulfing agricultural lands encourage this misconception, but this type of desertification is rare. Arid and semiarid lands can be degraded even if there is no adjacent desert. Drought has also mistakenly been called the primary cause of desertification. Desertification can occur without drought, and drought can occur without resulting in desertification. Droughts are short-term and cyclical. By themselves, they do not degrade the land. However, they intensify the pressures that lead to mismanagement of land, plant, and water resources.

While dry land rainfall is low on average, it is extremely variable from year to year and from place to place. Native plants and animals have adapted to this variability. For example, the seeds of many desert plants can remain dormant through several years of drought, waiting for a good rain to sprout. In order to survive in this harsh environment, humans must adapt their activities as well. However, many factors, including population growth, poverty, politics, disrupted social institution and the pursuit of short-term economic opportunity, may work together to promote unsustainable practices.

Ironically, the availability of water for irrigation can cause desertification. Nearly all irrigation water contains some salt. If an irrigation system lacks a good drainage system, then the salt accumulates in the soil. Eventually, the salt reaches levels toxic to most plants. This problem is now jeopardising about one-third of the world's irrigated land.

In most cases of desertification, there is a reduction in total species richness, an increase in the proportion of exotic (nonnative) plants, and a decline in overall biodiversity-the variety of life forms and the ecological roles they fill. Once desertification starts, it often causes changes that accelerate the process. For example, desertification often results in a decrease in the amount of vegetation covering the land. With less vegetation providing shade, soil temperatures rise, accelerating the breakdown of organic matter in the soil and the evaporation of water. Some soils may become compacted or crusted, reducing their ability to absorb the limited rainfall that occurs, which further reduces the amount of water available for plants.

The absence of vegetation also enhances runoff and erosion by water and wind. Erosion may form deep gullies, lowering the local water table (level of water within the ground) and making less water available for plants.

Wind erosion blows away nutrients in the soil and may physically damage plants. Each of these effects makes plant growth more difficult and may further reduce the amount of vegetation covering the land, which in turn leads to more degradation.

For land managers, desertification is a downward spiral. As it proceeds, the impact of any down turn such as a drought may become catastrophic and result in loss of human lives due to lack of necessary resources, such as water. With diminishing productivity any profitability comes increased pressure to compensate for declines. Livestock grazers increase herd sizes, and farmers plant all available lots of land and continue to irrigate even though yields poorest regions where no other employment is available, rural populations turn to woodcutting and charcoal production, which lead to deforestation. This deforestation forces families to spend more time seeking firewood for domestic use, leaving less time for tending fields or animals.

Desertification has become a large-scale problem. Arid and semiarid regions, known as dry lands, account for one third of the world's land area and support a combined population of about 900 million people. Soil degradation reduces crop output and is a major concern economically.

About 70 percent of dry lands are susceptible to degradation, 50 percent have been degraded to some degree, and 15 percent show extreme degradation where agricultural yields are less than half of their former level. Almost all the areas of extreme degradation are in the African Sahel from Senegal to Sudan, along the Mediterranean from Tunisia to Egypt, and in central and southwestern Asia from China to Syria.

Desertification can also have impacts that extend beyond the immediate degraded area. Wind-borne dust from the Sahel creates havoc with air traffic across western Africa, and sediment eroded from central China damages water control systems far downstream. Many regions are affected indirectly by desertification as they absorb waves of people uprooted by their inability to grow enough food or raise enough livestock.

Such people, called environmental refugees, swelled the urban areas of the Sahel during the 1970s and 1980s. Moreover, migrations of environmental refugees may cross national boundaries and contribute to political friction within and between countries. This migration problem has occurred at various times, such as during the drought years from 1968 to 1973 when Mauritanian nomads fled into Senegal.

Most efforts to combat desertification require temporary reductions in economic productivity or increases in investment. Experts commonly recommend decreasing herd sizes, changing plowing practices, planting windbreaks, planting less profitable crops, and allowing each field to lie fallow on a rotating basis. In irrigated agriculture, more expensive and intensive water management is recommended, requiring improved water delivery systems, field preparation, and drainage systems. Increasingly poor populations, however, cannot absorb a reduction in income, cannot usually invest in improvements, and may not have sufficient labour available to implement even simple measures.

Nonetheless, desertification remains an international concern. A new treaty, the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) was signed in 1994 and enacted in 1996. Improving on the old UNCOD, the UNCCD addresses linkages between poverty and environmental degradation, and focuses more on fostering small-scale grassroots solutions instead of massive international interventions.

Thus, rather than attempting to hold back the desert by planting trees across an entire region, the UNCCD tries to improve resource management by working directly with resource managers and their communities. Also, instead of relying exclusively on government agencies, the UNCCD attempts to involve national and international nongovernmental organisations that are already at work in the countryside. Whether the UNCCD brings more results than the UNCOD remains to be seen.

Would Pakistan come out of the political instability

Dr.Abdul Ruff

Talk of impeachment of Pakistan's president Pervez Musharraf has been in the air for quite some time now causing uncertainty and contributing to the stability of the nation. Democracy talk is Ok, but it seems PMLN supremo Nawaz Sharif depends too much on the lawyers to help him oust President Pervez Musharraf and he thinks if the currently available chance is missed, he might not get another opportunity to make his sweet dream come true: to remove Musharraf form Presidency and, if that comes to him, to assume the post himself. It seems Sharif is trying to use his political strength to coerce the PPP-led government in order to settle score with his arch enemy who now occupies presidency. PMLN has already withdrawn its ministers from the government protest against the delay in restoring the judges.

Brokered and helped by Saudi Arabia and USA, Sharif was allowed back from exile late last year to take part in the political process in the country as Musharraf's grip on power slightly slipped following a clash with the judiciary. However, Sharif was barred from contesting the election, but he will contest a by-election on June 26 for a National Assembly seat. His party came second in an election in February that resulted in defeat for pro-Musharraf parties, and brought to power a coalition government led by the Pakistan People's Party (PPP) of assassinated former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto.

Musharraf's problems erupted in March last year when he tried to dismiss the Supreme Court chief justice, Iftikhar Chaudhry. In November, General Musharraf resorted to emergency rule to purge the judiciary, including Chaudhry, to stop the Supreme Court ruling on whether his re-election while still army chief the previous month was legal. Having secured the presidency, Musharraf quit as army chief and ended emergency rule in mid-December 2007, but his actions left him increasingly isolated and unpopular among politicians. Political parties backing the lawyers' movement hope that reinstating the judges will lead to Musharraf's ouster. Hence the tussle between parliament and presidency is on, even while the compromise efforts are also under way.

Sharif is against any compromise with Musharraf because, according to him, he is waging a war against double-standards in policy statements and actions of Musharraf who dethroned him almost a decade ago, sent him to jail and later into exile.

In a show of strength, about 20,000 protestors assembled recently on 14 June at a ground located a stone's throw from parliament and the Presidency to demand the reinstatement of the judges deposed during last year's emergency. Pakistan's former Prime Minister said: "We asked you to quit with honor after the election but you didn't," Sharif told the crowd, referring to U.S. ally Musharraf, who overthrew him in a 1999 coup. "Now people have given a new judgment for you t they want you to be held accountable," The crowd chanted "hang Musharraf" as it listened to the two time former prime minister's fiery speech. "Is hanging only for politicians?" asked Sharif, referring to former Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, hanged by a military dictator in 1979. "These blood-sucking dictators must be held accountable."

The "long march" of the lawyers' movement from different parts of the country to Islamabad and the rally represented a "new ray of hope for Pakistan" that would lead to the "restoration of the constitution, law and judges and the burial of dictators once and for all", Sharif said. Imran Khan, who was among the first leaders to address the rally at around, said there is no place in the superior judiciary for judges who had sworn allegiance to Musharraf. He opined the independence of the judiciary is not possible in the presence of these judges, he said

Nawaz Sharif has added that President Musharraf must be held accountable for all his actions as thousands of protestors gathered near parliament here to demand the restoration of judges sacked by the embattled ex-military ruler. Sharif stepped up his attack on Musharraf on 14 June, suggesting he could be hanged while addressing thousands of protesters outside the presidency. Sharif has called for Musharraf to be tried for treason for tearing up the constitution during a brief spell of emergency rule late last year and for the coup nearly nine years ago.

The demonstration marked the climax of an almost week-long rolling protest across the country led by lawyers, though by the end they were easily outnumbered by Sharif party activists. The protestors, who were carrying placards and banners denouncing Musharraf, dispersed this morning. Leaders of the lawyers' movement had earlier said they would stage a sit-in at the ground near parliament till the deposed judges are restored but later changed their plans.

Security was tight as the rally ended just as dawn broke on. An avenue in front of the parliament building was sealed off but there was no violence. Lawyers mingled with flag-waving supporters of Sharif's party, conservative religious activists, rights workers and students on a wide road overlooking the National Assembly. Unlike the beatings and tear-gas that protesting lawyers got from police under a pro-Musharraf government last year, the new government ordered police to assist this week's protest. PPP Co-chairman Asif Zardari said in a statement: "This unprecedented gathering in Islamabad shows the flourishing of democracy under the government of Pakistan People's Party. '

The coalition government led by PPP has committed to restore full democracy, while Musharraf has stressed the importance of national interest and offered full support to the government. Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani said that PPP would restore judges at any rate and PPP had not slighted the promise it made with the people of Pakistan.

PPP chief Asif Zardari, Bhutto's widower and political successor, has said that his party never accepted Pervez Musharraf as the constitutional president of Pakistan, nor endorsed his Nov 3 actions whereby he subverted the country's constitution and sacked judges. He seems to be is trying to take away Musharraf's powers through changes to the constitution that will take months to pass, and the PPP is worried that Sharif is making more political capital by seeking Musharraf's humiliation. About judiciary, he said that independent judiciary did not mean an individual but an institution. He said he stood committed to his promise for restoration of judges, and added that the federal government would form an advisory board for reforms of judicial system.

About differences with the PML-N, he said it was a routine matter in the democratic process, and added that the two parties had some difference of opinion earlier, but now they had overcome them. Treading a careful line, Zardari congratulated the lawyers on their "long march," a cross-country convoy of cars that set off days ago for the capital.

Meanwhile, the United States and other Western allies fear prolonged political instability in the turbulent nuclear-armed Muslim nation will play into the hands of Islamist "militants" and undermine the U.S.-led campaign against "terrorism". By making use of the current political war in Pakistan, US forces have killed many Pakistanis while Afghani President Karzai has warned of military intervention in Pakistan. Domestic crisis, it seems, has allowed a free for all situation in Pakistan.

Pakistan's protests notwithstanding, Indian Army is planning a civilian mountaineering and trekking expedition to the otherwise forbidden Siachen Glacier for the second year in a row in October-November this year. Even before the planned Siachen trekking kicks off, the Army will take out its own expedition to the glacial heights of Khatling on the Indo-Tibetan border in Uttarakhand later this month.

Both the expeditions are meant to show to the international audience that Indian troops hold both the Siachen and Khatling glacial heights and neither Pakistan nor China were anywhere near the two glaciers.

The security forces have again made rape attempts in Kashmir. So far, as per the reports available, at least 6,400 Kashmiri women have been raped. According to a report by Human Rights Watch 2001 Rape is being used by the Indian "security" forces to attack Kashmiri women under the garb of inspecting and terrorizing them suspected of sympathizing with Freedom Fighters. India it employs all curbs and other tactics on the rights groups to pressurize them to desist from publishing it.

One thing is pretty clear: though he does not allow Sharif to hijack popularity of Benazir Bhutto with his anti-Musharraf agenda, Zardari has also not denounced the Sharif's move to oust Musharraf. Though he is talking all the time about restoration of democracy and judges, Sharif has not come out with any pro-people socio-economic agenda to help the voters ease their sufferings. Sharif not only a mass leader, but also former Prime Minister and he should also take responsibility for the well being of the masses.

Undeterred by continuous warnings and threats from the new ruling dispensation, Musharraf has warned about his timely reaction if present government tries to play with his position and if his reconciliation efforts yield no fruits. If restoration of judges leads to trouble for his own seat, it looks certain, Musharraf will have his own alternatives to defend himself. He is sure about support from the West, for their own "terrorism" reasons, and from his own military establishment. This leads one to wonder if Pakistan is now heading towards another emergency or something even worse than that! Obviously, such an impending scenario is not good for people of Pakistan already under severe strains and pressures. For the sake of poor Pakistanis who already undergone severity for a long time, the politicians should make some compromise and the let the government function for a couple of years peacefully, improving the life of commoners. Domestic chaos cannot go on like this in an Islamic nation committed to uplift the people's well-being in all spheres.