Mulday Mondays: Water Forums and Fukushima

JAPAN

“Fake it till you make it....
”

— The philosophy of Japan since the sun

…JAPAN WILL ALWAYS HAVE ANOTHER PERSPECTIVE ON EVERYTHING

The rest of the world sees this image if you say “Fukoshima Daiichi”

AP Photo

THREE YEARS AGO: THE PERCEPTION OF THE JAPANESE BUSINESS MAN

“Yes, Water from the same area......

I would like to try some. ”

— Buddha be a fence and filtration system on kidneys.

TODAY: GREENPEACE REPORT ON FUKUSHIMA

“ There are 16,280,000,000,000,000,000,000 Bq of potassium-40, rubidium-87 and many more radionuclides already in the world’s oceans and anything from Fukushima won’t affect these levels at all.”

— Scientist, James Conca

The plan is to slowly release the TREATED water into the pacific ocean. The pacific ocean has some other pressing issues and this will not be the reason for massive fish death or “disruption” to the ecosystem.
By the way, for massive fish deaths, just take a look at Australia. We have an interesting video below on the reasons behind these catastrophic deaths.

“Great Britain’s National Radiological Protection Board
(NRPB) predicts that there will be up to 1,000 additional
cancers over the next 70 years among the population of Western Europe exposed to fallout from the accident at Chernobyl. ”

— U.S EPA (Environmental Protection Agency)

LET us PLAY the ADVOCATE for the DEVIL…

Increasingly, we notice that international organizations are becoming stronger non state actors in state affairs. However, there is a pick and choose attitude towards this “care for the environment and people”.

Where is the Greenpeace outrage on the United States Pacific Ocean States constantly recycling the pacific? As you filter the pacific, it gets saltier and can you guess the damage to the ecosystem?

The Mekong River and the South China Sea did not exactly blossom from the U.S administration’s use of Agent Orange during the Vietnam War or “Conflict”

RESPONSE FROM JAPAN

WATER FORUMS IN AFRICA AND ASIA…

UGANDA

Kampala will host the 20th Congress of the African Water Association with over 2000 actors expected to discuss and provide solutions on WASH concerns from a scientific and technical lens.

KOREA INTERNATIONAL WATER WEEK
Daegu, September 4-7

Just another example of South Korea displaying middle power behavior. The title is not just earned because a state is geographically in the middle of two different size states or on paper(economically speaking). The state must invest in forums and conferences that invite the world to deal with security matters such as water.

Korea International Water Week

Cape Verde-1st International Forum on Water Scarcity in Agriculture
Praia, March 19-22

This small island state is becoming more active in engagement through small state niche diplomacy. This forum will focus on Small Island Developing States (SIDS) and West African States. The aim is to understand water scarcity in agriculture and capitalize on it for sustainable development, food and nutrition security, and tackling climate change. They will focus on six core areas: Water and Migration, Drought Preparedness, Mechanisms, Water and Nutrition, Sustainable Agriculture Water Use and Saline Agriculture. 

South Africa- Transforming Sanitation in Africa
Capetown, February 18-22

The Regional power will be hosting a water related conference. AfricanSan5 and FSM5 are the organizations behind this event of looking at Sustainability, Policies,Funding, Practices of Sanitation.

SIDEBAR

The focus of this blog is always on Africa and Asia but every now and then we get alarming news from our neighboring continents.

Australia is experiencing a very bipolar version of mother nature and a combination of human stupidity. There are mass fish deaths in some rivers with reports of over 1 million in a few weeks. Another concern is the raising temperatures in Australia with temperatures ranging from 1130°C (113°F) to 50°C (122°F) .

See you next Mulday!