NEWSPAGE 16 September
2011

(Photo: eventpolynesia.com)

(Photos: Pacific Islands Applied GeoScience Commission)

SAMOA: Samoa’s DRM priorities should guide funding
Source: Pacific Islands Applied GeoScience Commission Press Release
 
Matching Samoa’s priorities with the interests of funding agencies is an important aspect of the county’s plans for emergency preparedness said the Principal Disaster Management Officer, Ms Filomena Nelson, during the 3rd Pacific Platform for Disaster Risk Management (DRM) held in Auckland New Zealand in early August.

Two hundred delegates from 22 island countries and territories in the Pacific region, who met with experts from around the world to examine “a way forward” to reduce the risks of disasters, including the impacts of climate change, that are affecting development in the Pacific region.

Ms Nelson, who made a presentation at the week-long Platform meeting on the Needs Assessment that took place in Samoa after the 2009 tsunami, pointed out that there is an increasing awareness that preparedness and disaster risk reduction measures are a part of the development process within a country.

Ms Nelson said that funding assistance needed to be “based on our vulnerabilities, our financial and technical resources where Government has already made an investment.”

She explained that Samoa’s post-tsunami Needs Assessment demonstrated the impact that the disaster had had on Samoa’s development, and was undertaken using information and interviews with key stakeholders in Government, the private sector and affected villages.

“The effect of the disaster was SAT$310.11 million (USD$124.04) or about 22% of Samoa’s Gross Domestic Product, the total effect of the disaster is the value of the damage plus the value of the losses. Damage is the monetary value of replacing buildings and infrastructure to the same condition before the calamity took place, and loss being the changes in goods and services that were no longer available, the reduction of economic activity, and in personal and household income.”

Ms Nelson said that meeting gave delegates the opportunity to learn from other countries and experts, “and to see how aspects of those systems and mechanisms could be used to strengthen what we have, or are in the process of planning to do.”

She said that the Platform meeting provided “the opportunity to meet with all the donor agencies, to hear where their interests lie and what they are planning. In this way we can gear up our proposals and implementation plans to make good use of the funding and resources available.”

Photo Captions:

Photo 1 - Samoa’s Principal Disaster Risk Manager, Ms Filomena Nelson, at the Platform meeting.

Photo 2 - Tsunami damage on Samoa’s South Upolu Coast.

AMERICAN SAMOA: New energy saving technology in the territory

Two off-island companies are touting energy saving technologies their companies are bringing to American Samoa. SolarWorld Solar Panels and Greenearth Energy's wholly owned subsidiary Pacific Heat and Power Pty Ltd are supplying the hardware for projects contracted by the American Samoa Government.


Solar Panels

Island Energy and Marine of Pago Pago,has installed a 680-kilowatt installation using SolarWorld panels on 24 buildings in American Samoa.

Funded by the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act, the buildings included 10 commercial, 12 government and two non-profit buildings.

American Samoa is not the only U.S. territory for which SolarWorld is supplying panels.

In the U.S. Virgin Islands a 1,600-foot-long array of ground-mounted SolarWorld solar panels was installed recently paralleling a runway at Cyril E. King Airport. The 450-kilowatt system which is scheduled to be unveiled today (Sept. 14, 2011), is prominent among a recent series of high-performance SolarWorld solar panel installations, which includes Guam.

Pacific Solar and Photovoltaic completed a 24.84-kilowatt installation of Solar World panels on a library at Guam Community College late last year, then commissioned a 29.4-kilowatt system on a college health education building in May.

SolarWorld, the largest U.S. solar panel producer for more than 35 years, began supplying U.S.-centric islands around 1980.


Organic Rankine Cycle Turbines

Greenearth Energy's Pacific Heat and Power is supplying two PureCycle® Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC) Turbines to New Zealand based partner Service Engineers Limited, to capture waste heat from diesel engines that are owned by the American Samoa Power Authority.

Service Engineers, which recently won the Turnkey contract, says the technology will be commissioned in the first half of 2012. Mark Miller, managing director of Greenearth Energy, said "as the first diesel waste heat-to-energy project using ORC technology in the Pacific Islands we believe this will drive awareness and ultimately sales of this savvy technology."

According to company information, the PureCycle power system, developed by Pratt & Whitney Power Systems, is a pre-engineered system that harnesses waste heat to generate electricity. This results in a 280 kW on-site power generation system that requires no fuel input except heat in the form of hot water, low pressure steam, or thermal oil.

Based on a thermodynamic cycle known as the ORC, the PureCycle power system converts low to moderate temperature resource fluids like water into electricity through vaporizing and expanding a working fluid in a closed system. The company says their ORC Turbine application will result in an additional 300kWe net, baseload, zero emissions power for American Samoa.

According to its website, Service Engineers LTD has over 30 years engineering experience, based on Auckland's North Shore, and offers its clients cost effective engineering solutions.


Other energy saving measures

On Tuesday (September 13, 2011), the Department of Interior Office of Insular Affairs awarded $600,000 to American Samoa for energy efficiency initiatives.

Funding will assist American Samoa Power Authority's efforts to install energy saver compact fluorescent bulbs that save consumers money on their utility bills while protecting the environment and reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Resources will also initiate a recycling rebate program and allow for the installation of prepaid electricity meters for homes in Tutuila and the remote islands. The prepaid program permits consumers to buy certain units of power by making an advance payment.

This is part of a total $2 million energy efficiency award for American Samoa, CNMI and Guam.
 

(Photo: Radio Fiji)

FIJI: President highlights ties with China
Source: China Daily
 

Fiji's President Ratu Epeli Nailatikau has highlighted the development of relations between the Pacific island nation and China, saying he has followed the cordial ties over the years.

President Nailatikau made the remarks while recalling his recent visit to China on the occasion of the 26th Summer Universiade in Shenzhen in August, according to a media release by the Ministry of Information on Tuesday.

Nailatikau was quoted as saying that although he had enjoyed his past visits to China, each new visit was an adventure in itself, expressing his gratitude for the opportunity to again meet with Chinese President Hu Jintao in August.

Nailatikau noted that it was a great honor for him to be in China and was happy to be involved with the Universiade games particularly as it involved the participation of the youths of the world.

The organization that China had shown the world during the Beijing Olympics had already guaranteed the success of the 26th Summer Universiade, he added.

The president said that the cordial relations between Fiji and China were built on mutual trust and respect and expressing his deep appreciation for China's strong commitment to maintaining and deepening bilateral relations.

Both China and Fiji have worked on the cordial relationship over the years thus enabling it to stand the test of time and to endure through trying times, he said, adding the Fijian government and the people were ever grateful to the Chinese government and the people for their understanding of the situation in Fiji and for standing by Fiji.

He stressed that Fiji would always uphold the one-China policy.

Nailatikau, meanwhile,thanked China for financial assistance to Fiji, saying the government and the people of Fiji would be overwhelmed by many such assistance that China had made to Fiji in the past particularly from 1975 when the two countries established diplomatic relations.

Photo Caption: Fijian President Ratu Epeli Nailatikau.
 

(Photo: South Pacific Regional Environment Programme)

NIUE: Improved regional pesticides management
Source: South Pacific Regional Environment Programme Press Release
 
Niue is to have its pesticide contaminated soil removed as part of a project on “Improved regional pesticides management”, between the Food and Agriculture Organisation and the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP).

This was announced by Dr Kevin Helps, a senior officer with FAO at a side event during the 22nd SPREP meeting in Apia, Samoa.

This activity is part of a larger project which focuses on many different aspects of Pacific pesticide management that is a partnership between the SPC, FAO and SPREP.

According to Dr. Helps of FAO, these contaminated sites in the Pacific “need to be excavated, cleaned up, and dealt with.”

“Dealing with pesticide management in the Pacific is an important environmental issue,” said Dr David Haynes, SPREP’s pollution and waste management adviser.

“Better management will help protect the Pacific’s terrestrial and marine environments into the future.”

There will also be assessments of contaminated sites in Samoa, Fiji and Tonga as part of this regional project. These assessments will allow Dr. Helps and his team evaluate the sites to prioritise their remediation.

The removal of contaminated soil in Niue will provide a demonstration of how this will be carried out in other countries in the region.

“There were some concerns as to the contamination of the local water lens. That’s why we approached UNEP and FAO to see if there would be any assistance in trying to remediate some of the sites,” said Sauni Tongatule the Director of the Department of Environment of Niue.

(Photo: Secretariat of the Pacific Community)

WORLDWIDE: Pacific NCD crisis declared
Source: Secretariat of the Pacific Community Press Release

An epidemic of chronic lifestyle diseases such as diabetes, heart failure and cancer is undermining economic development and has placed the region in ‘an NCD crisis’, Pacific Islands Forum leaders have declared.

At their meeting in Auckland last week, Forum leaders heard the facts about the impact of NCDs (non-communicable diseases, so-called in medical circles to distinguish them from communicable ones such as malaria, influenza, tuberculosis and dengue).

World Health Organization (WHO) surveys show NCDs now account for three out of every four deaths in the region and leaders were told the Pacific has some of the highest rates of these diseases and their causes in the world. This has resulted in a growing burden on health systems and high levels of slow, painful and premature deaths with considerable social and economic impact.

Recognizing the situation as a ‘human, social and economic crisis requiring an urgent and comprehensive response’, Forum leaders said decisive action was needed to address the NCD crisis.

In their statement, ‘leaders expressed alarm that 75 per cent of all adult deaths in the Pacific are due to NCDs, with the majority coming from the economically active age bracket, and that many more times this number suffer severe side effects that undermine their capacity to contribute further to economic development’.

Noting the World Economic Forum’s ranking of NCDs as one of the top global threats to economic development, leaders concluded the crisis could undermine the future economic development of countries of the region.

Leaders are now concerned that NCDs cause a substantial drain on economic potential by adversely affecting the four main factors of economic growth: labour supply, productivity, investment, and education. The crisis could also undermine the region’s achievement of the 2015 Millennium Development Goal (MDG) health targets.

The main causes of NCDs are high levels of tobacco and alcohol use, low consumption of fruit and vegetables and low levels of physical activity. Leaders thus committed their governments to fast-track five key actions proven to reduce NCDs—tobacco control, improved diets (mainly through reduction of salt, fats and sugar), physical activity, reduced alcohol intake, and access to essential drugs and technologies. They also noted that many NCD interventions are revenue-generating, such as increases in taxes for tobacco and alcohol.

Forum leaders further commended and welcomed the commitment by Pacific Ministers of Health to provide sustained leadership and support for NCD prevention and control through ‘whole of government and whole of society’ approaches to address the NCD crisis. They also welcomed a similar commitment by Pacific Ministers of Sport.

They specifically called on the Secretariat of the Pacific Community and World Health Organization and other regional agencies to work with all Pacific Island countries using their respective ‘whole of government, whole of society’ approaches to strengthen their capacities to address NCDs as a matter of urgency.

WHO Western Pacific Regional Director, Dr. Shin Young-soo, and Director-General of the Secretariat of the Pacific Community, Dr Jimmie Rodgers, acknowledged ‘with great appreciation’ the priority accorded by the leaders to NCD prevention and control and pledged their support and cooperation to assist the region address this number one public health problem.

Welcoming the declaration, Dr Rodgers said that top-level political commitment to taking action on NCDs was critical.

‘The call for a ‘whole of government and whole of society approach’ is both timely and crucial as most of the risk factors and determinants for NCDs lie outside of the health sector and so do most of the solutions,’ he said.

‘The war against NCDs needs to be fought at the individual, family, community, whole of government and the whole of society level in each country and in the Pacific region.’

‘The war needs the vision of leaders, the commitment of governments, the support of partners, and assistance from regional and international bodies. Together we will make a difference. ‘

‘Pacific leaders have declared the crisis. Now we in the Pacific must take up the challenge’.

Also supporting the declaration, Dr Shin Young-soo said it was ‘great to see the urgency’ leaders have placed on NCDs since they are among the biggest health burdens in Pacific Island countries. They impact on all spheres of development and hinder the achievement of the MDGs and the ‘Healthy Islands’ principles agreed to by all countries and territories.

‘It augments the commitment by Ministers of Health to scale up their action including the strengthening of their respective health systems to deal with NCDs and other areas in their last meeting in Honiara,’ he said.

WHO Western Pacific Region has prioritised NCD prevention and control and the 62nd Regional Committee next month will address NCDs with a view to expanding and intensifying prevention and control in the region.

SPC’s governing body, the Committee of Representatives of Governments and Administrations (CRGA) has prioritised prevention and will also address NCDs at its 41st meeting in November with a view to intensifying prevention and control efforts in collaboration with WHO.

Both WHO and SPC are supporting the Pacific Islands delegations to the United Nations General Assembly High-Level Meeting on NCDs in New York next week (19−20 September 2011) which should add global momentum to the fight against NCDs and lead to enhanced collaboration between agencies and partners.

SPC and WHO applaud Pacific Island Forum Leaders for their leadership and foresight in addressing the issue of NCDs with urgency. They acknowledge the current support for NCD work provided by Australia and New Zealand through the 2-1-22 Pacific NCD programme and welcome the recent announcement by Australia of continued support for NCD prevention and control in the region.