SciDev Net

[Thiruvananthapuram, SciDev.Net] Wider adoption of wastewater surveillance systems is critical to address the growing public health challenge in India posed by resistance to antimicrobial medicines, say researchers who found urban waste samples teeming with resistance genes.

Investing in irrigation technologies will make food security a more achievable goal in the decades ahead, writes Richard Colback of the International Finance Corporation. [SciDev.Net] Just six per cent of cultivated land in Africa is irrigated. On a continent where small-scale farms produce around four fifths of the food consumed across Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa, that figure is striking—and it points to an opportunity that has gone largely unrealised for far too long.

[GITEGA, SciDev.Net] Les soins palliatifs (SP) restent largement sous-développés dans la majorité des pays d’Afrique francophone, souligne une étude menée par Atlantes, l’Observatoire mondial des soins palliatifs. Pour parvenir à cette conclusion, les auteurs de l’étude ont analysé les données quantitatives de l’Initiative Globale de Cartographie des soins palliatifs (2023–2025) à travers le « Global Development Score » (GDS) et 14 indicateurs regroupés en six dimensions structurelles.

[GOIÂNIA, BRAZIL, SciDev.Net] A massive area of protected land in the Brazilian Amazon could be at risk from expansion of mining driven by the demand for materials used in clean energy technologies, according to new analysis. The study published in the journal Resources Policy indicates that nearly 363,000 square kilometres of the Brazilian Legal Amazon are threatened by current and potential future mining for critical minerals such as copper, bauxite, manganese and iron.

[BUKAVU, SciDev.Net] Une étude menée dans les forêts du parc national de Kahuzi-Biega située dans la province du Sud-Kivu dans l’est de la République démocratique du Congo (RDC), révèle que des images satellites montrent une perte importante de la couverture arborée dans les zones du parc réoccupées par les Batwa depuis 2018.

[NEW DELHI, SciDev.Net] It’s not often that microbes receive recognition for their contribution to human health and ecosystems. But in Kerala, India, the multiple benefits of Bacillus subtilis, from improving human and animal nutrition to sealing cracks in concrete and raising agriculture productivity, has led to it being accorded the status of “state microbe”.

[YAOUNDE, SciDev.Net] Selon Alphonse Ayissi Abena, président de la Fondation camerounaise des consommateurs (FOCACO), « le droit à l’information n’est pas un luxe, c’est une composante vitale de la sécurité sanitaire. Un silence administratif en période de crise est une mise en danger délibérée d’autrui ».

[LAGOS, SciDev.Net] Partout en Afrique, les communautés s’adaptent déjà aux chocs climatiques, qu’il s’agisse du changement des régimes des précipitations ou de l’intensification des inondations. Mais les fonds destinés à les soutenir parviennent rarement jusqu’aux populations les plus exposées.

This article was supported by Global Health Strategies [LAGOS, SciDev.Net] Across Africa, communities are already adapting to climate shocks, from shifting rainfall patterns to intensifying floods. But the money meant to support them rarely reaches the frontlines. In parts of Africa, farmers are adjusting planting seasons, coastal communities are reinforcing shorelines, and local innovators are developing low-cost resilience solutions.

Climate adaptation finance models have led to measurable results in Benin, Namibia and Ethiopia, AU report finds. [YAOUNDE, SciDev.Net] A climate change adaptation financing model implemented in Benin that has enabled new flood defences, irrigation systems, and resilient crops, has been hailed as an example to other African nations.