BBC新闻稿

BBC新闻稿 World Bank says Population Growth,Climate Change Demand Better Water Management “As every high school child knows, water runs through absolutely every we do,” says World Bank Water Sector Manager Julia Bucknall. “We can’t grow any food without water. We can’t live without water. We can’t run our cities without managing our water properly.” The floods in Pakistan, she says, show the importance of having a good water management policy in place. "Both from the resource point of view, in the sense of the floods, but also from the basic management of water supply and sanitation. That's what is going to be killing a lot of people now after the immediate impact of the floods," she says. Strategy plan In 2003, the World Bank issued a strategic plan for water projects. In a new report, called Sustaining Water for All in a Changing Climate, the bank reviewed that strategy. "The strategy itself," says Bucknall," was quite a path-breaking strategy, which really put infrastructure to the front and center of the development agenda and anticipated many of the issues...population growth, climate change and the need to manage water for food." She says the strategy has resulted in "enormous success." World Bank "We have been able to triple our lending in the water sector. And we've been able to be much more integrated so that we look at building irrigation systems, for example, at the same time as looking at the water resources that those systems depend on," she says, adding, "We are very pleased with the results." Making water a priority At recent climate change conferences, advocates for water management tried to put the issue high on the agenda but were not always successful. Bucknall says, "Everybody knows it's a priority in some very generic sense. I think what people don't always do is take the very hard choices that have to be made in order to manage water properly." In making those tough choices, the World Bank official says some people will face "disruptions." "Many governments are just not willing to take that decision now and sort of put it off until it becomes a crisis later. They don't actively put it off until it becomes a crisis later, but that's what ends up happening." What next? The review makes a number of recommendations. "One is to continue efforts to integrate water resources with water services. So, this is something we've done quite well over the past five or six years, but we want to do it more and more consistently," she says. Other recommendations include putting water management higher on the climate change agenda and increase efforts to improve sanitation. "One third of the world's population does not have access to a toilet, which has huge social and health implications," she says, "You know more people die of diarrhea than of AIDS, malaria and TB combined." The review also calls for support for hydro power, calling it "the largest source of renewable and low carbon energy, including high-risk, high-reward infrastructure projects." But Bucknall admits it's a complicated issue. Dams, for instance, have been criticized by some as harmful to the environment and the livelihoods of those living near lakes and resources. Bucknall says hydropower could mean building damns but also could mean making better use of existing dams or rehabilitating them. "Sometimes making better use out of them so that you can use them for adaptation to climate change,' she says, "And also to give more space for the environment. One of the things we're looking at actively is reengineering existing dams to make them have more multiple uses for people, for energy and for the environment." Inger Andersen, vice-president for sustainable development at the World Bank, says, "Only 23 percent of hydropower potential located in developing countries has been exploited. The gains for the poor can be enormous." BBC News with Jonathan Wheatley The man who led Britain into war in Afghanistan and Iraq, Tony Blair, has described radical Islam as the greatest threat facing the world. In a BBC World Service interview, the former British prime minister said radical Islamists - whether in Chechnya, Kashmir, the Palestinian territories, Iraq or Afghanistan - believed that anything done in the name of their cause was justified. "After September 11th, rightly or wrongly, I felt the calculus of risk had changed, and I feel it's still changed. I still think there is the most enormous threat from the combination of this radical extreme movement and the fact that if they could, they would use nuclear, chemical or biological weapons. I think they would if they could, and I think you can't take a risk with that happening." Mr Blair said Iran needs to understand it couldn't have nuclear weapons; otherwise it would be stopped. Mr Blair denied that his own policies when in power had fuelled support for radical Islamists. Police in Pakistan say a suicide bomb at a Shia Muslim procession in the city of Quetta has killed at least 50 people. The procession is an annual event in support of the Palestinian people, and the bomber struck as he passed through a crowded market area. The Pakistani Taliban said they carried out the bombing. The Brazilian oil company Petrobras has unveiled plans to sell more than $64 billion of new stock in what some analysts are describing as the world's biggest ever share offering. The money will fund new developments aimed at turning Brazil into a major oil exporter. Here is our economics correspondent Andrew Walker. Petrobras has a very ambitious plan to spend over $200 billion on expanding production from Brazil's vast deep-sea oil and gas fields over the next four years. The plan to go to the capital market will raise an important part of the funds for that programme. Over $40 billion worth of the new shares will go to the government to pay for the right to exploit Brazil's offshore reserves. The company is retaining the right to expand further the offer of new shares if there is sufficient demand. The total could end up as high as $75 billion. A court in Portugal has found six people guilty of sexually abusing children in a state-run orphanage in Casa Pia. They have been given prison sentences of between 5 and 18 years. Among these convicted were a prominent television presenter, a former ambassador, a lawyer and a doctor. From Lisbon, here is Alison Roberts. Six of the 32 former Casa Pia pupils whose testimony triggered the investigation eight years ago were in court to hear the judges hand down custodial sentences to the six men accused of abusing them. Before that, the court heard a lengthy catalogue of hundreds of crimes ranging from attempted abuse to violent rape. Most were found to have been committed by Carlos Silvino, a driver at the institution, not only abusing children but passing them onto other abusers over three years. World News from the BBC The security forces in Colombia say they have killed at least 11 left-wing rebels in a clash in the northeast of the country, close to the Venezuelan border. The army said troops captured a camp belonging to the ELN - the smaller of Colombia's two guerrilla groups. The fighting came a day after the authorities confirmed that 14 policemen had been killed by suspected fighters of the larger rebel group, the Farc. Figures for employment in the United States reveal a better-than-expected rise in private sector jobs, but the jobs market overall remains weak. A report for the US Labor Department shows that 67,000 new private sector jobs were created last month. President Obama said the figures were positive but not good enough. Mark Mardell reports from Washington. With important elections for Congress, the Senate and state governors two months away, the state of America's economy is deeply political. And President Obama challenged his Republican opponents to support plans for tax cuts and loans for small businesses which they have so far blocked. Speaking outside the White House, he announced there would be more action soon. "The key point I'm making right now is that the economy is moving in a positive direction. Jobs are being created; they are just not being created as fast as they need to, given the big hole that we experienced." The European Union's trade commissioner, the Belgian Karel De Gucht, has apologized for remarks in which he spoke of a Jewish lobby in the United States, preventing peace between Israelis and Palestinians. Mr De Gucht said he hadn't meant to cause offence, and anti-Semitism had no place in today's world. An earthquake of 7.2 magnitude has struck the South Island of New Zealand. The United States Geological Survey said the quake struck some 30 kilometres from the country's third largest city of Christchurch. Initial reports say some roads and buildings there have been damaged. BBC News