Preparations are finalized to construct 4100 safe water units in North Gondar Zone, Amhara State at a cost of over 129 million Birr in the current Ethiopian budget year, zonal water resource development office said.

Planning, monitoring and evaluation expert with the office, Berhane Gidey told ENA on Saturday that the water facilities will be constructed in 20 rural woredas and three towns.
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Thirty-four-year-old Salva Dut lives in New York. He was one of Sudan's "Lost Boys" - one of the many thousands of children orphaned during the country's 20 year civil war. For more than a decade, Dut wandered homeless with no news of his family. He wound up in Ethiopia, then Kenya, where he lived in a United Nations refugee camp for nearly six years, before coming to the United States in 1996.
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An estimated 3.8 million people in Kenya are in urgent need of emergency food assistance in the next six months, according to official reports, as the country continues to suffer from prolonged drought. Poor seasonal rains have affected crop production, resulting in widespread food and water shortages, high food prices, and disrupted livelihoods in pastoralist communities.

Among the worst affe ... read more >>

For more than a century, a few scientists have occasionally daydreamed of transforming much of the Sahara desert green, with a lush inland sea or vast tracts of farmland. Now researchers say they have actually found a way to make such a scheme work with forests across the desert--and to slow climate change in the process.

The idea is the brainchild of Leonard Ornstein, a cell biologist at the ... read more >>

For almost 20 years, Somalia has been ravaged by war. It is also a victim of the drought that has afflicted the Horn of Africa in recent years. Henri Maindiaux is an agricultural specialist who has just completed a two-year assignment in the country. Here, he explains the programmes developed by the ICRC to re-start agricultural production and ease people's suffering.

What have been the conseq ... read more >>

On September 1, flooding resulting from unusually heavy rain killed at least 5 people and affected approximately 150,000 others in the capital of Ouagadougou, according to the Government of Burkina Faso (GoBF). On September 1, Ouagadougou received approximately 10.5 inches of rain in 12 hours, the most rainfall recorded in the city during one day since 1919. Displaced people sought refuge in scho ... read more >>

Egypt wants to reduce its domestic rice production to 2 million tonnes per year from 2.4 million tonnes per year to save water, Trade Minister Rachid Mohamed Rachid said on Monday.

He put production at about 2.4 million tonnes, consumption around 1.4 million, and previous exports at around 1 million tonnes. "So obviously we would like to reduce that from 2.4 (million) to maximum 2 million tonn ... read more >>

A Series of 10 Pictures ... read more >>