ENERGY-AFRICA: Big Potential and Challenges for Biofuels

Biofuels offer Africa the chance to supply itself with alternative energy sources, and also to become a major supplier of these sources for developed markets. Yet, challenges - from creating the relevant infrastructure to competition for biofuel crops from food markets - remain.

DEVELOPMENT-MALAWI: Lack of Running Water Puts Girls&#39 Education at Risk

Rita Kalikokha of Dowa, a rural district in central Malawi, thinks about abandoning school every time she menstruates.

DEVELOPMENT-SOUTH AFRICA: “We Drink Condoms and Panties”

Police arrested ten people who were part of a large group of protesters blocking the N4 highway linking South Africa and Botswana earlier this month. Residents of the tiny village of Ntsweletsoku were so angry about the persistent water shortages in their area that they resorted to violent demonstrations to attract the attention of the authorities.

ENVIRONMENT: Parliaments Said to be "Weak" in Fighting Desertification

Legislatures have been taken to task over their track record in addressing desertification, this at the eighth session of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (COP8), currently underway in the Spanish capital, Madrid.

AFRICA: EPAs Clashing With Everything-But-Arms Trade Scheme?

The proposed economic partnership agreements (EPAs), which are due to come into force beginning next year, may undermine the benefits of another European Union trade initiative, called Everything-But-Arms, for the sugar industry.

ENVIRONMENT-AFRICA: Game Parks Offering Protection in Name Only?

The sharp decline of Africa's abundant wildlife is now happening inside the continent's protected areas, a new analysis indicates. Africa's world renowned parks are destined to become isolated pockets of wilderness with few large animals left, as is the case in Europe, conclude the authors of an article in the current edition of the 'African Journal of Ecology'.

ENVIRONMENT: 21st Century May Belong to the Shrub

As atmospheric carbon dioxide levels continue to climb shrubs and other woody plants will likely dominate grasslands, altering pastoral lifestyles around the world, a U.S. study has found.

SOUTHERN AFRICA: Plans to Dam the Cunene River Are Shelved Again

Political interests and specialist lobby groups appear once again to have stalled plans to dam the Cunene River where it forms the border between Angola and Namibia. After years of negotiations, several expensive feasibility studies and considerable political rhetoric, the proposed Epupa Dam on the Cunene River is not even close to the beginning of a construction phase.

ENVIRONMENT-ZAMBIA: Efforts to Halt the Strangulation of Kafue

The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), an international conservation organisation, has launched an initiative to protect Zambia's Kafue River from pollution: the 'Save the Kafue River Campaign'. At present, the river provides potable water to over 40 percent of people in the Southern African country.

POLITICS-MALAWI: Budget Held Hostage to Squabbling Parliamentarians

Malawi's national budget, scheduled to pass in June, is in limbo following a parliamentary impasse - and there are fears that government services may be halted through lack of funding.

MOZAMBIQUE: Water Supplies Still a Pipe Dream at Certain Health Facilities

A swelling crowd of people has gathered at the rural health centre at Monte Xiluvo in Nhamatanda district, in the central Mozambican province of Sofala. Most are mothers with young children who try to protect themselves from the gusty winds as they wait for their consultation with Caetano Mendosa, the nurse responsible for the centre.

SOUTH AFRICA: Copper Thieves, an Abattoir and Coal Mining Threaten Lake District

Raw sewage flowing into Lake Chrissie is threatening to turn South Africa’s largest natural freshwater body into a massive cesspool. Environmentalists claim that for seven years, local authorities ignored their pleas to upgrade water treatment facilities; officials only took action, they say, when local revenue was affected by the closure of tourism routes such as biking trails, as a result of pollution.

TRADE-MALAWI: Government Joins Chorus of Concern about EPA

Manufacturers, exporters and even government officials in Malawi are jittery about January 1, 2008. On that day the economic partnership agreements (EPAs), currently being negotiated between the European Union (EU) and six groupings of African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries, will come into force.

MALAWI: Informal Trade Crucial For Job Creation

Every day a bus, usually packed to capacity, leaves Malawi for South Africa. Most of the passengers are traders, off to sell wooden curios in the main South African cities of Johannesburg, Durban and Cape Town.

ZIMBABWE: Traders Are Now Importing Basic Foodstuffs

Sithabile Khuzwayo is one of many women who bring groceries and clothing from across the borders of neighbouring Botswana and South Africa to sell at the flourishing flea markets of Zimbabwe’s second largest city, Bulawayo.

DEVELOPMENT-MAURITIUS: ”Our Sea and Lagoon Are Not For Sale”

‘‘We are selling everything in this country: from our bodies to our land and now our sea and lagoons. Is there anything left for us?’’ asked Jack Bizlall, spokesperson for a nongovernmental network of organisations called Kalipso.

DEVELOPMENT-ZIMBABWE: The City of “Passport Size” Ablutions

The City Council of Bulawayo, Zimbabwe’s second largest city, has issued a warning to residents of a possible outbreak of disease following a massive cut in the city’s water supply. This is the first time in Bulawayo's history such a health warning has been issued.

DEVELOPMENT-ZIMBABWE: Water Shortages in Capital Leave Residents Desperate

Taps in the Zimbabwean capital, Harare, are running dry even though the city’s main supply dams are more than 60 percent full, according to figures from the Zimbabwe National Water Authority (ZINWA). With more than half of Harare's three million inhabitants now experiencing water shortages, residents are resorting to desperate measures to find supplies.

TRADE-ZIMBABWE: Multilateral Still Better Than Bilateral Talks

Kumbirai Katsande, the managing director of a top Zimbabwean horticultural company, is in a buoyant mood. He hopes that his firm, Ariston Holdings, will make a big break in the lucrative European horticultural market where it sells its products.

SOUTHERN AFRICA: Blind, Translucent, Vulnerable – And Important For Your Health

An unexpectedly rich variety of organisms can be found in groundwater, a source that more than 37 percent of people in Southern Africa are dependent on, according to the Southern African Development Community's Water Sector Co-ordinating Unit. And, an Australian scientist visiting South Africa believes these tiny animals should be studied more intensively to monitor the quality of groundwater.

RIGHTS-MOZAMBIQUE: Law to Stop Human Trafficking

Over 1,000 Mozambicans, including children, are trafficked to South Africa every year where they are forced into prostitution or to provide free or cheap labour. In response, Mozambique’s government last week approved a new law which will make human trafficking a crime punishable with long prison sentences.