[resumo] | [abstract]

Optimal allocation of available water in a middle Himalayan watershed by a linear programming model for maximizing production from crops and livestock, after meeting the present and future demands of human and environmental flows, was analyzed. Present and future water availability under different environmental scenarios at various locations in the watershed was considered. Rice Equivalent Production from the watershed was found to improve by 207% (to 919 tonnes) and Rice Equivalent Yield by 58% (to 4427 kg ha⁻¹) through optimal allocation of available water resource. Occurrence of drought of 60% intensity would limit production to 737 tonnes. Environmental degradation by 2025 would though reduce production marginally, the surplus water available within the watershed would, however, decrease significantly during January to March. Future competition for water would adversely affect economy of the watershed and the region. The government should, therefore, undertake water resource development programmes after making a proper inventory of available resources at watershed level by analyzing the current and future supply and demand scenarios.

The current phase (2010-2013) of the Challenge Program on Water and Food (CPWF) research is addressing the Volta Basin Development Challenge (VBDC) which has been defined as “integrated management of rainwater and small reservoirs for multiple purposes”. The research-for-development program is designed to explore the institutional, socio-economic and technical aspects of small reservoir development and maintenance within a wider rainwater management system in the Volta Basin to maximize water for food and ecosystem services. The purpose of the inception workshop was to review and assess all VBDC projects for coherence and integration towards achieving the overall goal. Secondly it provided an opportunity to launch the research agenda, share our plans and approaches with a wider, relevant stakeholder group, and to obtain important feedback which can be fed into the research process. The key question to address during the workshop was: “what are the lessons learned in the inception phase of VBDC research and how would these lessons shape project implementation in the next phase?”. It was expected that the workshop would contribute to ensuring relevance of the research agenda, as well as strengthening the integration of the five VBDC projects and their teams.

Bryophytes are abundant in streams and are a habitat for many invertebrates, but their contribution to the diet of fluvial zoobenthos is still debated. To estimate the amount of bryophyte-derived organic matter assimilated by benthic invertebrates, we used a combination of fatty acid and stable isotope analyses during a four-year monthly study of a littoral site in the Yenisei River (Siberia, Russia). Acetylenic acids, which are highly specific biomarkers of the water moss Fontinalis antipyretica, were found in lipids of all dominant benthic animals: gammarids, ephemeropterans, chironomids and trichopterans. The dominant zoobenthic species, Eulimnogammarus viridis, had maximum levels of the biomarkers in its biomass during winter, and minimum levels in summer. The zoobenthos in the studied site regularly consume and assimilate bryophyte-derived organic matter as a minor supplemental food. This consumption increases in winter, when the main food source of the zoobenthos, epilithic biofilms, are probably scarce.

The State of the World's Land and Water Resources for Food and Agriculture is FAO's first flagship publication on the global status of land and water resources. It is an 'advocacy' report, to be published every three to five years, and targeted at senior level decision makers in agriculture as well as in other sectors. SOLAW is aimed at sensitizing its target audience on the status of land resources at global and regional levels and FAO's viewpoint on appropriate recommendations for policy formulation. SOLAW focuses on these key dimensions of analysis: (i) quantity, quality of land and water resources, (ii) the rate of use and sustainable management of these resources in the context of relevant socio-economic driving factors and concerns, including food security and poverty, and climate change. This is the first time that a global, baseline status report on land and water resources has been made. It is based on several global spatial databases (e.g. land suitability for agriculture, land use and management, land and water degradation and depletion) for which FAO is the world-recognized data source. Topical and emerging issues on land and water are dealt with in an integrated rather than sectoral manner. The implications of the status and trends are used to advocate remedial interventions which are tailored to major farming systems within different geographic regions.

<p>The second special issue of the experiences of the basin focal project has been published in the Water International Journal. This issue focuses on some of the cross basin analysis. Articles include:</p> <ol> <li>Water, food and poverty: global- and basin-scale analysis by Simon Cook; Myles Fisher; Tassilo Tiemann; Alain Vidal</li> <li>Water availability and use across the Challenge Program on Water and Food (CPWF) basins by Mark Mulligan; L.L. Saenz Cruz; J. Pena-Arancibia; B. Pandey; Gil Mahé; Myles Fisher</li> <li>Producing more food with less water in a changing world: assessment of water productivity in 10 major river basins by Xueliang Cai; David Molden; Mohammed Mainuddin; Bharat Sharma; Mobin-ud-Din Ahmad; Poolad Karimi</li> <li>The resilience of big river basins by Graeme S. Cumming</li> <li>The nature and impact of climate change in the Challenge Program on Water and Food (CPWF) basins by Mark Mulligan; Myles Fisher; Bharat Sharma; Z. X. Xu; Claudia Ringler; Gil Mahé; Andy Jarvis; Julian Ramírez; Jean-Charles Clanet; Andrew Ogilvie; Mobin-ud-Din Ahmad</li> <li>Connections between poverty, water and agriculture: evidence from 10 river basins by Eric Kemp-Benedict; Simon Cook; Summer L. Allen; Steve Vosti; Jacques Lemoalle; Mark Giordano; John Ward; David Kaczan</li></ol>

This study assessed the quality street vended food and water as well as the effects of environmental pollution on them in 3 local government areas (LGAs) representing low, medium and high income areas in Lagos State in coparison to samples collected from 5 locations in Ogun, Oyo and Osun States being previously established as places of origin of most migrants to Lagos. Street vended roasted plantain and maize as well as water samples were collected as composites from each of the sample locations. All samples were analysed for physico-chemical as well as microbiological parameters. The study revealed that roasted plantain in the low income area had the highest level of contaminants such as Pb, Cd, Zn and Fe. The lowest value was in the high income area. Lead levels ranged between 0.2 – 125 µg/g with the highest value observed at the low income, high population density and high traffic area. Cd, Zc and Fe levels also followed a similar trend in the other three States. They ranged between 0.48 – 18.3 µg/g, 2.0 -4.5 µg/g and 0.4 – 13.5 µg/g respectively. It is opined that the pollution sources for the roasted plantain and maize include those from emissions from leaded gasoline. The aerobic mesophilic organisms, mould and Staphylococcus aureus were present in all the water samples. These results imply that government and its agencies should attend to the problem of unavailability of potable water and calls for greater monitoring and control of the environment where roadside foods are prepared. @ JASEM

This work describes the electroanalytical determination of pendimethalin herbicide levels in natural waters, river sediment and baby food samples, based on the electro-reduction of herbicide on the hanging mercury drop electrode using square wave voltammetry (SWV). A number of experimental and voltammetric conditions were evaluated and the best responses were achieved in Britton–Robinson buffer solutions at pH 8.0, using a frequency of 500s⁻¹, a scan increment of 10mV and a square wave amplitude of 50mV. Under these conditions, the pendimethalin is reduced in an irreversible process, with two reduction peaks at −0.60V and −0.71V, using a Ag/AgCl reference system. Analytical curves were constructed and the detection limit values were calculated to be 7.79μgL⁻¹ and 4.88μgL⁻¹, for peak 1 and peak 2, respectively. The precision and accuracy were determinate as a function of experimental repeatability and reproducibility, which showed standard relative deviation values that were lower than 2% for both voltammetric peaks. The applicability of the proposed methodology was evaluated in natural water, river sediments and baby food samples. The calculated recovery efficiencies demonstrate that the proposed methodology is suitable for determining any contamination by pendimethalin in these samples. Additionally, adsorption isotherms were used to evaluate information about the behavior of pendimethalin in river sediment samples.