14 November 2011 Last updated at 21:04

 BBC: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-15725207

Charity warning over raw sewage discharge levels

Sewage discharges from an overflow on to the beach at Godrevy in Cornwall

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Thousands more pipes could discharge raw sewage into the sea, rivers and lakes than was previously thought, the Marine Conservation Society has said.

The conservation charity said the usually published figure of 22,000 discharge pipes in England and Wales should actually be about 31,000.
That is because other categories of pipes have the same function, it said.
The Environment Agency said over £8bn has been invested to upgrade the sewage system over the past 20 years.
The MCS also called for overflow pipes to be mapped and managed more closely.
The charity said that overflow pipes which prevent sewage backing up into drains and houses in times of heavy rain are necessary in an emergency. But water companies needed to invest in the sewer network to ensure untreated waste water was only released in urgent cases.
The MCS also called for overflow pipes to be mapped and managed more closely.
Referring to the 22,000 discharge pipes, the charity said the figure only referred to pipes known as combined sewer overflows and emergency overflows.
'Public information' The organisation said it had discovered that four other categories of outflows - for example at pumping stations or waterworks - perform the same function, bringing the total figure to an estimated 31,000.
MCS pollution programme manager Dr Robert Keirle said the society "accepts that combined sewer overflows and emergency overflows are an essential part of a well-managed and maintained sewerage network, if sited, used and monitored appropriately.
"However, MCS insists that they should not be used for routine discharge of excess sewage, as an alternative to increasing the capacity of sewers to cope with a growing population."
Dr Keirle also said more needed to be done to map and monitor the outflows, so the public had more information about where they are, if they are monitored and when and for how long sewage is flowing into the sea.
"Mapping costs relatively little yet it could make the difference between an enjoyable trip to the beach or one that ends up in A&E with ear, nose and throat infections or stomach upsets," he added.
Research from the society also suggested there are outlets around the UK coastline which are discharging sewage more than the permitted 10 times a year, including one in Kent which let out waste for more than 1,000 hours during the bathing season in 2010.
A spokesman for the Environment Agency said in addition to the £8bn spent by water companies to upgrade sewer systems and reduce water pollution over the past 20 years, over 98% of beaches had met standards for bathing water quality this year.
He said that the agency had also helped to secure a further £4bn investment by water companies in environmental improvements by 2015.
He added: "The Environment Agency publishes detailed online profiles of every designated bathing water in England and Wales.
"The location of all types of outfall is included in these profiles, along with information on the work being done to improve bathing water quality."

Letter from Bill Gates Foundation regarding Operation OASIS

Dear Mr Gates

Following your interview on television yesterday regarding the logic in supporting developing countries so that they in turn help to support our own economy is precisely what we have been advocating within the Operation OASIS Project, detailed on the website link below.

This project was designed to prevent further drought in Somalia and Ethiopia following the Feed The World Appeal in the 80's and offers a common sense approach to restore arid coastlines into productive agro-forestry based practices by making use of the existing ballast water practices in the bulk ocean transport chain.

Currently, sea water is transported as ballast and released back into the sea at great financial and environmental cost. This practice is under close scrutiny  by the E.U. and the U.N.  and legislation is placing a heavy compliance burden on shipping, who's only option on the table so far is to install and run expensive sterilization equipment in a bid to prevent the introduction of invasive marine species which have already wreaked havoc on marine and shipping environments, depleting the food chain further.

Oasis offers a land based end use for the treated waste water ballast that can be used safely to grow crops and timber resources along the worlds arid coastlines and in doing so we believe we can stimulate increased annual rainfall in these regions to enable people to return to the land and find valuable employment in providing food and renewable resources.

This act alone will ease the amount of food required to support people in drought stricken areas.

We would welcome an opportunity to discuss Operation OASIS in more detail and thrash out any doubts you may have about this approach.

Best Wishes

Andrew K Fletcher

Info info@gatesfoundation.org to me show details 4 Nov 2011 (2 days ago) Dear Mr. Fletcher, Thank you for contacting the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. We appreciate the opportunity to review your request and learn about the mission of Operation OASIS. While we understand how important your work is on behalf of the community you serve, unfortunately, it falls outside of the foundation's giving priorities, and we are unable to provide support. As you may know, the foundation's work stems from our belief that all people deserve the chance to live healthy, productive lives. In developing countries, we focus on improving people's health and giving them the opportunity to lift themselves out of hunger and extreme poverty. In the United States, we seek to ensure that all people-especially those with the fewest resources-have access to the opportunities they need to succeed in school and life. For more information about the foundation, including our funding guidelines, recent videos, photo galleries, and a link to the foundation's blog, please visit www.gatesfoundation.org. We appreciate your commitment to your work and wish you all the best. Sincerely, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Grantee & Public Communications www.gatesfoundation.org

Operation OASIS wins Herts Green Award by FREdome Visionary Trust

Great news. Our carbon cycling project Operation OASIS has won the 2011 Herts Green Award for a communications project.

Our founder Greg Peachey accepted the award on behalf of the FREdome volunteer team at the ceremony at the Hertfordshire Green Exhibition, Knebworth Barns on October 25th.

Greg writes:

Just to let you know, FREdome &
Operation OASIS was a finalist in two categories of the Hertfordshire Green
Awards (Green Project & Green Communications) and we won the Green
Communications category!

Thank you, Suzanne, for writing our successful application! And, of course, thank you Andrew for the
brilliant project!"

Operation OASIS: Carbon Cycling in the news by FREdome Visionary Trust

"One thing that is abundantly clear as our forests teeter over the line dividing life and death, our planet’s future teeters with them. We must do whatever we can to protect them....."

A robust defence of the role of forest in climate stabilisation by RP Siegel is published today on Triple Pundit.

Read it to find out why trees are so vitally important to our future and why deforestation must be reversed;    http://www.triplepundit.com/2011/10/scientists-find-reasons-forests-be-preserved/

Published on the same day : why biofuels are posing a condundrum in the energy and climate change  debate by Jeremy Woods, Seyed Ali Hosseini and Nilay Shah, published in Chemistry World.

http://www.rsc.org/chemistryworld/Issues/2011/October/FacingUpToChallenges.asp

Our Operation OASIS Carbon Cycling project provides a solution to all these dilemmas. Find out more about Operation OASIS , a project supported by Liverpool John Moores University, University of Seville, The Cradle to Cradle Network,  the Energy Institute of UCL et al.

Trees can make it rain!

Operation OASIS 

Fredome OASIS Press Release

FREdome visionary TRUST           supporting:                                                                                                               Operation oasis

The FREdome Visionary Trust CIC   Unit 303B   The Wenta Business Centre Colne Way  Watford  WD24  7ND United Kingdom Phone: 01727 823450

Press Release

Contact: Anna Zachariassen Phone: 07949 924303

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE August 22 2011

THE FUTURE OF MANKIND LIES BENEATH OUR FEET – CAMPAIGN TO RAISE AWARENESS OF THE IMPORTANCE OF COASTAL SOIL MANAGEMENT SEEKS 1 MILLION EURO FUNDING

At the start of World Water Week, Hertfordshire volunteer group submits bid to the European Commission Life Plus programme for 1 million euro funding to promote innovative coastal soil project.

The ‘OASIS MEDia’ project is driven by the FREdome Visionary Trust, a Hertfordshire volunteer group which harnesses ingenuity and goodwill within society to facilitate positive change. This project aims to support countries affected by drought and famine by raising awareness of how desert coastal soil can be transformed into a viable and sustainable habitat for trees and plants.

Long-term, the team hope to facilitate the transportation of billions of tonnes of nutrient rich-treated waste water to desert shores around the world, using the return ballast capacity of Supertankers and other bulk shipping. Currently, empty tankers are filled with seawater on their return journeys which adds significantly to the price of oil, transfers invasive microbes to foreign ecologies and is widely considered to be unsustainable.

As the EU reviews traditional ballast practices, the OASIS project offers a safe alternative, helping to restore arid coastlines, induce rainfall and potentially mitigate the effects of drought and famine. If the bid is successful, it will enable FREdome to work with local communities in Andalucia, Southern Spain to trial the viability of the project and build links with scientific bodies in other countries.

At a local level, residents in Andalucia and East Anglia will be encouraged to nurture saplings in plastic bags of soil in their own gardens, ready to be transplanted to increase rainfall at the arid Spanish coastline and in a line connecting the East Anglian coast to an inland reservoir, as permitted by authorities and under the direction of scientists.

Greg Peachey, Director of the FREdome Visionary Trust, said:

 “This bid is a real opportunity to embrace change and support countries where arid landscapes have a negative impact on local communities. This bid will ensure our proposal is considered at the highest level and I look forward to the Commission’s response.”

The project is supported by a number of eminent partners including Liverpool John Moores University, who have taken on the co-ordinating role, together with the University of Seville, Green Europe and City of Santa Pola, with Cranfield University soil science department as a potential expert sub-contractor.

The OASIS MEDia communications project has been pioneered by scientist and inventor, Andrew K Fletcher. He said:

 “I have been striving to deliver this project for most of my life, to help countries affected by water scarcity and desertification, who are long term sufferers of drought and famine. Thanks to FREdome and all of the other partners that we have pulled together, this funding application is a major step in the right direction and I am delighted that we have secured €500k matched funding from our partners and university backing for our bid.”

Notes to Editors

1          The ‘OASIS MEDia’ Communications project is a keystone to secure global food, fuel, timber and water for future generations and supports the Operation OASIS approach pioneered by Andrew K Fletcher.

2          The European Commission will commence negotiations in November 2011 and announce successful bids in March 2012.

3          For more information about the FREdome Visionary Trust visit www.fredome.org

4          For more information about Operation OASIS visit www.operationoasis.com

5          For more information about the European Commission Life Plus programme visit http://ec.europa.eu/environment/life/funding/lifeplus.htm

-End-

Radical overhaul of farming could be 'game-changer' for global food security

Public release date: 21-Aug-2011
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Contact: Michelle Geis
mgeis@burnesscommunications.com
301-280-5712
Burness Communications

James Clarke
j.clarke@cgiar.org
+94-11-77-336-9533

Joanna Kane-Potaka
j.kane-potaka@cgiar.org
+94-777-592-908

Radical overhaul of farming could be 'game-changer' for global food security

New practices could enhance rather than degrade the world's ecosystems, double agricultural production and protect natural systems

This release is available in French.

STOCKHOLM (22 August 2011)—According to the authors of new research released today at the World Water Week in Stockholm, a radical transformation in the way farming and natural systems interact could simultaneously boost food production and protect the environment—two goals that often have been at odds. The authors warn, however, that the world must act quickly if the goal is to save the Earth's main breadbasket areas—where resources are so depleted the situation threatens to decimate global supplies of fresh water and cripple agricultural systems worldwide.

A new analysis resulting from the joined forces of the International Water Management Institute (IWMI) and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) outlines the urgent need to rethink current strategies for intensifying agriculture, given that food production already accounts for 70 to 90 percent of withdrawals from available water resources in some areas. The report, An Ecosystem Services Approach to Water and Food Security, finds that in many breadbaskets, including the plains of northern China, India's Punjab and the Western United States, water limits are close to being "reached or breached." Meanwhile, 1.6 billion people already live under conditions of water scarcity, and the report warns that number could soon grow to 2 billion. The current situation in the Horn of Africa is a timely reminder of just how vulnerable to famine some regions are.

"Agriculture is both a major cause and victim of ecosystem degradation," said Eline Boelee of IWMI, the lead scientific editor of the report. "And it is not clear whether we can continue to increase yields with the present practices. Sustainable intensification of agriculture is a priority for future food security, but we need to take a more holistic 'landscape' approach."

Meanwhile, a separate report by IWMI, Wetlands, Agriculture and Poverty Reduction, warns against seeking to protect wetlands by simply excluding agriculture. It argues that policies focused simply on wetland preservation and ignore the potential of 'wetland agriculture' to increase food production and contribute to reducing poverty.

"Blanket prohibitions against cultivation do not always reduce ecosystem destruction and can make things worse," said Matthew McCartney of IWMI, who co-authored the report. "For example, the grassy 'dambo' wetlands of sub-Saharan Africa often provide vital farmland to the rural poor. Banning farming in these areas, however, has exacerbated rather than reduced ecosystem destruction. It has prompted deforestation upstream and led to a shift from farming to grazing in the wetlands themselves so that, overall, there has been a much greater impact on these natural systems. What is needed is a balance: appropriate farming practices that support sustainable food production and protect ecosystems."

New Alliance Between Agriculture and Environment Groups

The two reports seek a new path toward achieving both food security and environmental health. They focus on radically reorienting practices and policies so that farming occurs in 'agroecosystems' that exist as part of the broader landscape, where they help maintain and supplement clean water, clean air and biodiversity.

"We are seeing a growing trend of alliances between traditionally conservationist groups and those concerned with agriculture," said David Molden, Deputy Director General for Research at IWMI. UNEP is the voice of the environment of the United Nations, and IWMI is part of the world's largest consortium of agricultural researchers, the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR).

"For instance," Molden continued, "UNEP has adopted food security as a new strategic concern. And IWMI and its partners in the CGIAR are developing a multi-million dollar research program that will look at water as an integral part of ecosystems to help solve issues of water scarcity, land and environmental degradation. IWMI has also recently become a key partner with the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands on the topic of the relationship between wetlands and agriculture."

"The various political, research and community alliances now emerging are challenging the notion that we have to choose between food security and ecosystem health by making it clear that you can't have one without the other," he added.

Examples of Successful Integration in the Field

UNEP and IWMI and collaborators have identified multiple opportunities to use trees on dryland farms that will intensify the amount of food produced per hectare of land area while helping to improve the surrounding ecosystem. They note that by integrating trees and hedgerows, farmers can prevent runoff and soil erosion and retain more water for nourishing their crops.

Another example of innovative thinking include better water and soil management in rainfed systems in sub-Saharan Africa, which have demonstrated the ability to reverse land degradation while at the same time increasing crop yields by twofold or threefold.

Overall, the authors say it's time for decision-makers at the international, national and local level to embrace an agroecosystem approach to food production. These changes could include providing more farmers with incentives to adopt improved practices through 'payments for environmental services (PES)'.

One example being explored by the CGIAR's Challenge Program on Water and Food (CPWF) is the potential for benefit sharing in river basin areas of Peru, Ecuador and Colombia. Upstream users value the water for irrigation and ecotourism and also have a spiritual affiliation with the ecosystem. The hydropower companies need a steady stream to support electrification of the growing urban population downstream. Large-scale farms and agro-industry also need increasing supplies of water.

"More and more agriculture needs to be brought into the 'green economy'," said Alain Vidal of the CPWF. "We need to value farming practices that protect our precious water resources in the same way we are beginning to value forest management that helps reduce greenhouse gas emissions, especially because those natural resources support the livelihoods of the most vulnerable."

In the report, An Ecosystem Services Approach to Water and Food Security, experts from UNEP, IWMI and 19 other organizations acknowledge that one major impediment to adopting a more sustainable approach to food production is that it requires a new level of cooperation and coordination among officials and organizations involved in agriculture, environmental issues, water management, forestry, fisheries and wildlife management—individuals and groups who routinely operate in separated, disconnected worlds.

"It is essential that in the future we do things differently. There is a need for a seminal shift in the way modern societies view water and ecosystems and the way we, people, interact with them," said David Molden. "Managing water for food and ecosystems will bring great benefits, but there is no escaping the urgency of this situation. We are heading for disaster if we don't change our practices from business as usual."

###

The International Water Management Institute (IWMI) is a nonprofit, scientific research organization focusing on the sustainable use of land and water resources in agriculture, to benefit poor people in developing countries. IWMI's mission is "to improve the management of land and water resources for food, livelihoods and the environment." IWMI has its headquarters in Colombo, Sri Lanka, and regional offices across Asia and Africa. The Institute works in partnership with developing countries, international and national research institutes, universities and other organizations to develop tools and technologies that contribute to poverty reduction as well as food and livelihood security (www.iwmi.org).

The CGIAR Challenge Program on Water and Food (CPWF) was launched in 2002 as a reform initiative of the CGIAR. The CPWF aims to increase the resilience of social and ecological systems through better water management for food production (crops, fisheries and livestock). The CPWF does this through an innovative research and development approach that brings together a broad range of scientists, development specialists, policymakers and communities to address the challenges of food security, poverty and water scarcity. The CPWF is currently working in six river basins globally: Andes, Ganges, Limpopo, Mekong, Nile and Volta (www.waterandfood.org).

Two poems written for OASIS by R.J. Appleby

I live in Africa where I pray for the rain

My prayers and my dreams are always the same

MY belly is swollen and my family are dead

The pain is unbearable until I get fed

I hope I survive and have a family of my own

and we can eat fresh food from seeds we have sown

I will suffer the pain until my dream comes true

and one day it will because of people like you

Author R.J. APPLEBY

A VIEW FROM THE PROM

The view from the promenade is a sight to be seen

Fish should be jumping and the sand should be clean

But if you look closely the truth is there

AS fish lay around and their dead eyes stare

The smell of the sea should be salty and" fresh

But today it just smells of rotting birds flesh

We need not look far to see its pollution

Sewage and oil caused this mass execution

How much more will the ocean bare

Of this relentless onslaught and lack of care

All along the beach we are bathing and walking

Yet why don't we here the animals talking

We will never hear if we simply don't listen

Answers are here to make the seas glisten

Please support OASIS each and all nations

For in this vision lies all our salvations.

Author R.J.APPLEBY Sewage and oil and mass execution