11 June 2015
Ban Ki-moon is visiting Central Asia ‘to support and promote a common response to the many cross-border challenges the region faces, including environmental issues, water and energy, drug trafficking and trans-boundary crime’. He will visit five countries (Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, and Turkmenistan), and will emphasise the importance of cooperation and will also touch on key UN priorities, such as ensuring sustainable development and tackling climate change during his visit. (more…)
Source: UN News Centre | INTERVIEW: Heading to Central Asia, UN chief pledges to promote ‘common response’ to region’s diverse challenges
13 February 2014
Over the next two and a half years, the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) will provide technical assistance to Belarus in managing its stocks of obsolete pesticides. The effort is part of a joint plan with the European Union, launched in 2012 throughout the former Soviet Union, to build capacity to minimise the threats from hazardous waste to human health and the environment, as well as to strengthen legislation and build capacity in the management of pesticide containers.
An estimated 200,000 tons of obsolete pesticides (around 40 per cent of the world’s stockpiles) can be found in thousands of unprotected sites in Belarus and the 11 other former Soviet republics, according to the FAO. These sites “pose a serious threat to peoples’ health and the environment”. According to the World Bank, there is significant risk that pesticides could pollute the groundwater in parts of Belarus, affecting well water, along with rivers and other bodies of water in the entire region.
The UN agency will first identify and assess the most highly contaminated sites in the country. In addition to also mobilising resources for risk reduction, the plan also promotes alternatives to the most hazardous chemicals in use.
Source: UN News Centre | UN agency, EU partner to reduce risks from pesticides in Belarus
Source: FAO | FAO and EU to help Belarus reduce risks from dangerous pesticides
25 September 2013
Chad, Egypt, Libya and Sudan signed a UN backed ‘Strategic Action Programme’, to ensure the equitable use of the Nubian Sandstone Aquifer System, a water resource that lies beneath the four states. The Action Programme envisages improving cooperation among the four arid nations, and strengthening their capacity to manage and monitor the aquifer effectively. It also establishes a new Joint Authority for the Nubian Aquifer System.
Source: UN News Centre | Four African nations agree to improve use of key water resource under UN-backed plan