MONDAY, FEBRUARY 13, 2017 HEALTH & SCIENCE ‘Catastrophic’ fire conditions scorch Australia SYDNEY: Eastern Australia endured severe “off the northwestern NSW some 470 km from Sydney, was scale” fire conditions yesterday amid a record-break- flown to the harbor city after suffering burns. ing heatwave that sparked dire warnings from Further north in Queensland, the Bureau of authorities. While bushfires are common in Meteorology said yesterday numerous February Australia’s arid summer, climate change has pushed temperature records were being broken across the up land and sea temperatures and led to more state as the mercury soared above 40 degrees extremely hot days and severe fire seasons. “The con- Celsius. Temperature records were also breached ditions for Sunday are the worst possible conditions across NSW on Saturday, the weather bureau said. when it comes to fire danger ratings,” New South Cooler conditions were forecast to come through Wales (NSW) state Rural Fire Service Commissioner later yesterday. Shane Fitzsimmons told reporters Friday. Australia has warmed by approximately 1.0 C “They are catastrophic, they are labelled cata- since 1910, according to the biannual State of the strophic for a reason, they are rare, they are infre- Climate report from the Bureau of Meteorology and quent, and to put it simply, they are off the old con- national science body CSIRO released in October. ventional scale. “It’s not another summer’s day. It’s The number of days each year that post tempera- not another bad fire weather day. This is as bad as it tures of more than 35C was increasing in recent gets in these circumstances.” Fitzsimmons said yes- decades except in northern Australia, the report terday afternoon several homes may have been lost said. Meanwhile, rainfall has reduced by 19 percent in bushfires across the state. between May to July in southwestern Australia Some 2,500 firefighters were battling more than since 1970. “Black Saturday”, the worst firestorm in 80 blazes in NSW, with 32 “not contained”, the Rural recent years, devastated the southern state of Fire Service said. The organization added that a Victoria in 2009, razing thousands of homes and This screen-grab from video footage taken from a New South Wales (NSW) Rural Fire Service aircraft person from a fire at Boggabri, a small town in killing 173 people. — AFP yesterday shows a bushfire near Leadville in New South Wales. — AFP DR Congo’s street food mushrooms amid crisis KINSHASA: In crisis-hit Democratic selling hot food in front of their Kinshasa Republic of Congo, people in the capital homes. Better known as Mama Marie, the increasingly turn to street hawkers to feed 48-year-old mother of eight said she set up themselves and their families cheaply, but her malewa six years ago “to pay my chil- the makeshift option is often not a hygienic dren’s school fees”. one. From civil servants and students, to Customers for her malewa stand in line construction workers and parents with their from 5:00 am every day, waiting to be children, hungry Kinshasa residents depend served from pots of fish, chicken, meat and on so-called malewas, or street food sellers, pondu, a local dish made from cassava whose numbers have grown as the econo- leaves and vegetables. Mama Marie, who my has worsened. “Here, I eat my fill for serves all the customers herself, does not under 2,000 Congolese francs ($1.1),” said know how many people come in a day. “A Jose Bangamba, a 29-year-old taxi driver. hundred or so, I guess,” she says, standing Leaning over a plate of chicken in gravy, under a parasol by her makeshift food which cost him just 1,500 francs, Bangamba stand, stuffing the cash she makes into a also tucked into a side dish of fufu, a tradi- handbag slung over her shoulder. For the tional recipe made from cassava flour that past seven years, Mama Annie has been run- cost 400 francs. “In a normal restaurant, this ning a similar business just a couple of meal would have cost me at least 10 times streets away. Most of her profit, she says, more. How can I possibly afford that?” he goes “to my children, to buy them shoes” said. DR Congo has been mired in political and clothes. and economic unrest for years. A fall in com- modity prices that hit the country’s mining ‘Public health problem’ industry, leading to mass job losses, sparked Papi Bula Mbemba, a 49-year-old regular a crisis in mid-2015. who works for a pest control company, The slump in production left the govern- comes to Mama Annie’s every day. “You get ment without a much-needed source of rev- the best prices here. Malewas really do offer enue. The situation has been further com- the people of Kinshasa the solution they pounded by high inflation after a fall in the need,” he said. But these cheap meals often Congolese currency. Since December, the come at the cost of hygiene. Bangamba, the This photo taken on Feb 7, 2017 shows stranded rafts and pontoons near the shores of the Jablanicko artificial lake near the Bosnian political crisis has also worsened, with taxi driver, says some malewa owners use town of Konjic. — AFP President Joseph Kabila refusing to step unwashed plates and glasses. Customers down despite his mandate coming to an also run the risk of diseases such as typhoid, end. Though the vast central African nation diarrhoea and even cholera as malewas are Race for electricity is rich in mineral wealth and water, it has often located near rubbish dumps and pol- long been one of the continent’s poorest luted water tanks. nations and rising unrest has only deepened “Worsening living conditions force the the economic malaise. population to eat what they can afford,” said Benjamin Kewngani Mavard, director of DR empties Bosnia lake Making ends meet Congo’s public hygiene service. Warning of For the past year and a half, malewas a “growing public health problem”, have become massively popular in Kinshasa, Kewngani conceded it would be “impossi- KONJIC, Bosnia and Herzegovina: Bosnia’s fish- drought” between September and January as in southeastern Europe, bringing 165 million home to 10 million people. And it isn’t just ble” to shut down all the malewas. “We have eries watchdog gazes over an expanse of sand well as very low temperatures last month which euros ($176 million) into the state’s coffers last those looking for a cheap meal who are to improve them,” he said, adding that and mud, a space once occupied by a large increased electricity consumption. “Despite year. But officials say only 30 percent of Bosnia’s turning to malewas; it is also housewives authorities would seek to raise street food thriving lake but recently emptied in the race for these circumstances, the emptying of the lake hydroelectric potential is being used. like Marie Aloka Hioma, who have started vendors’ hygiene awareness. —AFP electricity production. “I have nothing to do here was done in line with the rules and with a single anymore,” said Emir Alebic by the greyish valley objective, to meet the system’s needs,” it said in a ‘Extreme situation’ that was once the site of the artificially formed, statement. But conservationists remain fearful Following complaints from fishing groups, 30-km long Jablanica lake on the Neretva river in for the future of the lake, for which about 700 the authorities have begun an on-site investi- southern Bosnia. The water level should soon fishing permits were issued last year. gation. And Elektroprivreda BiH ordered its begin to rise again, with snow on the surround- “An entire ecosystem was brought into ques- own report, asking a biology professor at ing mountains melting and rains starting to fall tion,” said Amir Variscic from Bosnian environ- Sarajevo University, Samir Djug, to look into after a prolonged period of drought. mental group Zeleni-Neretva. According to local possible damage. Djug warned of an “extreme But fishermen and environmental groups say NGOs, some fish have been trapped and situation” due to “extreme dryness” but said the damage has been done, with stocks of “more remained buried in swampy areas, while others water life was adaptable and that the fish “will than two million” fish, such as perch and trout, have migrated towards the dam. They fear the return if they are alive”. “This situation could “devastated” by the sudden drop in water about fish will not return as the microorganisms they have negative effects on biodiversity, especial- 40 days ago. They blame the national power firm eat have also suffered from the near disappear- ly fish, but also other animals.” Elektroprivreda BiH, which manages the ance of the water. According to Variscic, the Zoran Mateljak, who represents the World Jablanica dam and the hydroelectric power sta- lake’s level drops every year by around a third, Wildlife Fund in Bosnia, says the threats go tion about 30 km west of the lake. “This is an eco- but this time it has almost dried up. well beyond Jablanica. He is worried about logical catastrophe,” said Hrabren Kapic, head of He accused the national power company of plans to build other hydroelectric facilities a local fishing association, the valley below him an “exacerbated desire” to “transform each litre including “hundreds of mini power plants” littered with dozens of stranded boats. He admit- of water into a kilowatt, in a period of exception- across the country. He is particularly con- ted that the lake’s water level had dropped in ally high electricity prices in the market due to a cerned about a huge project slated in the previous years - “but never like this”.