People
But because this is all about raising awareness of the water crisis, I did 40 marathons to symbolize the fact that by 2030 there will be a 40 percent difference between demand for water and supply.
You did Marathon des Sables in the past – how does this compare?
From a physical perspective, it’ s very different. For a start, this is seven weeks, not one! And each day didn’ t end with me in a tent relaxing, it ended with me telling stories, making notes and figuring out how to tell messages about the water crisis. Also, this involves many different continents and time zones, so it is on another level Having worked in climate change policy for the World Bank, and on countless climate change projects, Guli launched educational charity Thirst in 2012.“ Even though I’ d grown up through 10 years of drought in Australia, I didn’ t know that 95 per cent of the water I use every day is actually used outside the home,” she tells SBS. In fact, she discovered that having shorter showers is“ not really what’ s going to shift the needle on water.”
Her running campaign has meant Melbourne-born Guli has seen firsthand the devastating effects of the world’ s water shortage. During her second desert run in Jordan, she struggled to top up her supply after running out of water.“ Locals have been harvesting from the local environment – collecting it off big rocks or in small dams – we had one day where we went to well after well and there was no water.” She also recalls meeting farmers in Spain at risk of losing their livelihood.“ They were trying to grow crops and used to be able to use underground water to supplement water from rivers, but now that’ s drying up.”
19-Year-Old Starts Project to Provide Clean Water for Kayonza Residents
Clean, safe water is a basic need and Ishimwe plans to supply more households with her treated water in Rwanda.
Yvette Ishimwe is the winner of the Grand Prize from Accelerate Academy, a project of the NGO‘ These Numbers have Faces’. She is set to receive $ 10,000( Rwf 7.8 million) investment and training in her new
Yvette Ishimwe
business enterprise called IRIBA water project as the youngest innovative entrepreneur after beating 300 other competitors.
And it is not the first time she is winning, the nineteenyear-old Rwandan already has success written to her name after she received a grant worth $ 5000 dollars and another $ 5000 dollars of investment after emerging top of the 15 Rwandan contestants in the Tonny Elumelu Entrepreneurship program.
The competition attracted 45,000 entrepreneurs from 54 African countries from which 100 ideas were selected. Ishimwe is also a fellow of YALI RLC East Africa 2015, an initiative by President Barack Obama.
This young entrepreneur will next month complete her first year in Business and Communications at Kepler Institute in Kigali, Rwanda.
UN Secretary-General Appoints Erik Solheim of Norway as Executive Director of the UNEP
Following his nomination by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, the General Assembly elected Erik Solheim of Norway to a four-year term as Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme( UNEP).
He will succeed Achim
Erik Solheim
Steiner of Germany, to whom the Secretary-General conveys his gratitude and appreciation for having managed, during his 10-year tenure, to inspire and lead significant transformation of UNEP into a strategically powerful and substantively confident organization. Mr. Steiner’ s leadership and tangible achievements as Chair of the High-Level Committee on Programmes, the principal mechanism for coordination of the United Nations system, are praiseworthy.
Mr. Solheim is currently Chair of the Development Assistance Committee of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, a post he has held since 2013, and serves as UNEP’ s Special Envoy for environment, conflict and disaster. Known in Norway as the“ green” politician, he held the combined portfolio of Minister for the Environment and International Development between 2007 and 2012, later serving as Minister for International Development from 2005 to 2007.
Holder of an undergraduate degree in history and social studies from the University of Oslo, Mr. Solheim was born in 1955, is married and has four children.
Africa Water, Sanitation & Hygiene • May- June 2016 23