IRIN - Asia
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PAKISTAN: Minorities test aid impartiality MUZAFFARGARH Wednesday, September 08, 2010 (IRIN) - People have been turned away from relief camps set up for flood victims in Pakistan mostly due to a lack of space, but in some instances decisions on who gets aid appear to have been affected by religious or ethnic discrimination.


NEPAL: Increasing use of filters for arsenic-contaminated water KATHMANDU Tuesday, September 07, 2010 (IRIN) - Aid organizations are distributing water filters to some 37,000 households in the Terai plains of southern Nepal who are being slowly poisoned by drinking arsenic-contaminated water.


PAKISTAN: The aid delivery conundrum RAJANPUR Tuesday, September 07, 2010 (IRIN) - Across Pakistan there are still marooned villages like Reikhbaghwala, a few kilometres from the overflowing River Indus in Punjab Province, where no assistance has been received in over a month.


BANGLADESH: Population pressure, climate change drive search for new rice varieties NAOGAON Monday, September 06, 2010 (IRIN) - Like many farmers in Bangladesh, Abdul Aziz from Naogaon District in northwestern Bangladesh has had to adapt his plantings to increasingly erratic weather: “Twenty years ago we had a rainy season at this time. Now we don’t even know when the seasons come."


PAKISTAN: Superstition undermining clean water messages RAJANPUR Monday, September 06, 2010 (IRIN) - From his village in the southern Punjab district of Rajanpur, a holy man believed to be endowed with mystical powers (`pir’) is frequently called upon to intone religious verses over containers of water - in the belief that this will purify them. His services are much in demand these days.


BANGLADESH: Taking toxins out of ship-breaking DHAKA Friday, September 03, 2010 (IRIN) - A Dutch engineering company is trying to make safer the dangerous job of dismantling old ships contaminated with chemicals - by building the world’s first “green dock wharf” in Bangladesh.


INDONESIA: Eruption spotlights "severe" volcano threat JAKARTA Friday, September 03, 2010 (IRIN) - The eruption of Mount Sinabung for the first time in 400 years has highlighted the urgent need for Indonesian authorities to boost disaster preparedness, experts warn.


PAKISTAN: No firewood, no hot food MINGORA Thursday, September 02, 2010 (IRIN) - A few kilometres outside Mingora, Swat Valley’s principal city in Pakistan’s Khyber-Pakhtoonkhwa Province, a group of village women discuss the various problems they have been facing in the wake of the recent devastating floods - including the lack of firewood, without which they cannot cook.


INDONESIA: Female genital mutilation persists despite ban JAKARTA Thursday, September 02, 2010 (IRIN) - Though the Indonesian government banned female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C) four years ago, experts say religious support for the practice is more fervent than ever, particularly in rural communities.


MYANMAR: Rural poor hit by arbitrary "taxes", says report BANGKOK Thursday, September 02, 2010 (IRIN) - Myanmar’s military government, with soldiers scattered throughout the country, is arbitrarily levying fees from the rural poor, pushing some into hunger and debt, experts say.


PHILIPPINES: Bracing for La Niña MANILA Wednesday, September 01, 2010 (IRIN) - The Philippines is bracing for severe flooding over the next few months as a result of the La Niña weather effect, which is expected to whip up heavy storms. Some specialists are saying the country is not adequately prepared.


PAKISTAN: What did you eat today? LAHORE Wednesday, September 01, 2010 (IRIN) - For hundreds of thousands of Pakistanis forced by the floods to abandon their homes, food is a primary concern: some families have gone days without a meal.


SRI LANKA: Addressing needs of stressed children MULLAITIVU Tuesday, August 31, 2010 (IRIN) - Few studies of children in Sri Lanka have examined the daily stress they continue to face since the tsunami and civil war, focusing instead on the direct impact of both, according to two studies in the latest Child Development journal.


In Brief: UNICEF warns of MDG gaps in Philippines MANILA Tuesday, August 31, 2010 (IRIN) - The Philippines will likely fail in meeting its Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by 2015 in conflict-affected Mindanao, the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) warns.


NEPAL: Another blow to food security KATHMANDU Tuesday, August 31, 2010 (IRIN) - - Farmers may reap as little as half of their normal harvests this year due to late monsoon rains in Nepal, a country constantly battling malnutrition and food insecurity, the World Food Programme (WFP) warns.


PAKISTAN: An administration as overwhelmed as the people KARACHI Tuesday, August 31, 2010 (IRIN) - In the courtyard of a building that was going to be an undergraduate college outside the port city of Karachi, Pakistan, Allah Baksh boils a pot of tea over an open fire. He and 3,000 others found sanctuary there after their lives were uprooted from villages in a 1,000 km radius around the city by the spreading waters of the Indus River, rolling through the southern province of Sindh to the sea.


PAKISTAN: Floods worsen child malnutrition QUETTA Monday, August 30, 2010 (IRIN) - “The food they give us is insufficient to fill me or my three children and much of the rice goes to my husband, as he is a man and needs more, leaving only a small plate to be shared between the other four members of the family,” said Shamoona Bibi, at a camp for flood displaced people in Quetta, Balochistan Province.


INDONESIA: Health concerns in volcano evacuation centres JAKARTA Monday, August 30, 2010 (IRIN) - Many of the 30,000 people evacuated after the eruption of Mount Sinabung on the Indonesian island of Sumatra to government emergency centres need urgent medical care, aid workers say.


ASIA: Making the most of disaster experience BANGKOK Monday, August 30, 2010 (IRIN) - Greater regional cooperation and decentralization are key to meeting the challenges of disasters in Asia, specialists say.


PAKISTAN: "At least someone can come and listen to our pain" THATTA Monday, August 30, 2010 (IRIN) - "The water is coming!" was the cry in the streets of Thatta, about 200km east of Karachi, as shutters came down on shops; wives, children and a few belongings were packed into vehicles and sent off to neighbouring Makli in the hills a few kilometres above the threatened city. Merchants closed their shops and did what they could to strengthen their doors against water and thieves.


AFGHANISTAN: Struggling to improve education KABUL Sunday, August 29, 2010 (IRIN) - Education in Faryab Province, northern Afghanistan, has never been as good as it is now thanks to the dozens of new schools built by Norway.


PAKISTAN: Reaching flood victims by truck, mule and chopper ISLAMABAD Friday, August 27, 2010 (IRIN) - Getting food and other aid to eight million or more people in urgent need is a logistical challenge. Based on World Food Programme (WFP) costs and times, IRIN takes a look at the main options for transporting 100 tons of food 100km.


BANGLADESH: Bringing education to the Bihari minority DHAKA Friday, August 27, 2010 (IRIN) - Helping the over 200,000-strong Bihari minority in Bangladesh learn how to read and write is key to their full integration, say activists.


SRI LANKA: IDP returns nearing completion JAFFNA Friday, August 27, 2010 (IRIN) - Almost 90 percent of the internally displaced in Sri Lanka have returned to their homes or are staying with host families, the government says.


INDONESIA/HAITI: Lessons for earthquake recovery JAKARTA Friday, August 27, 2010 (IRIN) - Indonesia's reconstruction after the 2004 tsunami is proving to be a compass for Haiti's efforts to avoid corruption and build back better, specialists say.