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Indian bizman installs hand pumps in impoverished Pak

Agencies
June 6, 2019

Dubai, Jun 6: Unfazed by the recent Indo-Pak tensions, a Dubai-based Indian businessman has installed over 60 hand pumps in a poverty-stricken district of Pakistan's southeastern Sindh province, according to a media report.

Joginder Singh Salaria set up nearly 62 water pumps in Tharparkar district with the help of local social workers after knowing the plight of the area through social media. He also sent bags of grains to the community.

Salaria, who has been a UAE-resident since 1993 and runs a transport business said he reached out to social workers in Pakistan via social networking sites such as Facebook and YouTube, established contacts with them and funded the entire operation.

"While India-Pakistan tensions were high following the Pulwama incident, we were installing hand pumps in these poor villages," Joginder Singh Salaria, who launched the Pehal Charitable Trust, was quoted as saying by the Khaleej Times.

The tension between India and Pakistan were at an all-time high after 40 CRPF personnel were killed and five injured on February 14 when a suicide bomber of Pakistan-based terror group Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) attacked their bus in Pulwama district.

India responded by launching air strikes across the LoC and destroyed terror camps in Balakot in Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.

The philanthropist said he spent weeks and months researching the plight of people in Tharparkar and a lot of it was done through social media.

Bheal Khangar, a social worker, coordinated with Salaria for the entire project.

"There are very few roads in the villages. The nearest hospital is 50km away, and people need to walk 25km to reach the main road. Schools are also very bad in those areas. Most children can't go to school due to lack of opportunities, lack of easy access to school and lack of schools," he said.

The Khaleej Times quoted a United National Development Programme report as saying that the Tharparkar district has some of the lowest social and development indicators in Sindh province and across Pakistan with poverty headcount of 87 per cent.

Over the past decade, high levels of deprivation have resulted in a steady increase in the multi-dimensional poverty headcount in the district, the report said.

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Agencies
July 28,2020

Sydney, Jul 28: Nearly 3 billion koalas, kangaroos and other native Australian animals were killed or displaced by bushfires in 2019 and 2020, a study by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) said on Tuesday, triple the group's earlier estimates.

Some 143 million mammals, 2.46 billion reptiles, 180 million birds and 51 million frogs were impacted by the country's worst bushfires in decades, the WWF said.

When the fires were still blazing, the WWF estimated the number of affected animals at 1.25 billion. The fires destroyed more than 11 million hectares (37 million acres) across the Australian southeast, equal to about half the area of the United Kingdom.

"This ranks as one of the worst wildlife disasters in modern history," said WWF-Australia Chief Executive Officer Dermot O'Gorman in a statement.

The project leader Lily Van Eeden, from the University of Sydney, said the research was the first continent-wide analysis of animals impacted by the bushfires, and "other nations can build upon this research to improve understanding of bushfire impacts everywhere".

The total number included animals which were displaced because of destroyed habitats and now faced lack of food and shelter or the prospect of moving to habitat that was already occupied.

The main reason for raising the number of animal casualties was that researchers had now assessed the total affected area, rather than focusing on the most affected states, they said.

After years of drought made the Australian bush unusually dry, the country battled one of its worst bushfire seasons ever from September 2019 to March 2020, resulting in 34 human deaths and nearly 3,000 homes lost.

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News Network
June 22,2020

Geneva, Jun 22: The global count of coronavirus cases has surpassed 8.7 million, with 183,020 new cases recorded on Sunday, the World Health Organisation said in its daily situation report.

Over the last 24 hours, 4,743 people died from COVID-19 worldwide, taking the death toll to 461,715 fatalities, according to the report.

The cumulative global toll of confirmed cases has now reached 8,708,008, as stated in the report.

The WHO Regional Director for Europe, Dr Hans Henri P. Kluge, shared that Europe accounts for 31 per cent of COVID-19 cases and 43 per cent of COVID-19 deaths globally.

Dr Kluge highlighted that several countries continue to face increasing disease incidence and that "preparing for the autumn is a priority now at the WHO Regional Office for Europe"

The United States continues to be worst affected by the contagion with the highest count of cases and fatalities -- 2.2 million and 118,895, respectively.

The novel coronavirus was declared a pandemic by WHO on March 11.

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Agencies
August 2,2020

New Delhi, Aug 2: India's COVID-19 tally crossed the 17 lakh mark with 54,736 positive cases and 853 deaths reported in the last 24 hours.

"The total COVID-19 cases stand at 17,50,724 including 5,67,730 active cases, 11,45,630 cured/discharged/migrated and 37,364 deaths," said the Union Health and Family Welfare Ministry.

As per the data provided by the Health Ministry, Maharashtra -- the worst affected state from the infection -- has a total of 1,49,214 active cases and 15,316 deaths. A total of 4,31,719 coronavirus cases have been recorded in the state up to Saturday, as per the state health department.

Tamil Nadu has a total of 60,580 active cases and 4,034 deaths.

In Delhi, the total cases rose to 1,36,716, including 1,22,131 recovered/discharged/migrated cases and 3,989 deaths. There are 10,596 active cases in the national capital.

The total number of COVID-19 samples tested up to August 1 is 1,98,21,831 including 4,63,172 samples tested yesterday, said the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) on Sunday.

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