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LOCAL

Over 800 families in Oshakati are allocated free plots

The Oshakati Town Council has begun relocating over 800 families from unserviced land in informal settlements, to Onawa location roughly two kilometres from Oshakati's main street. The town’s mayor, Leonard Hango, said the erven are free and the residents only have to pay for their water connection at a considerably discounted price. He added that the council has also made provision for electricity lines, with prepaid electricity boxes available at each plot. Resident Terttu Namulo says that in the informal settlement sewage from the Oshakati sewerage dam would flood her and her neighbours’ homes during floods.

Source: The Namibian

Omaruru correctional facility produces over a ton of veggies

According to the Namibia Correctional Service (NCS) spokesperson, commissioner Sam Shaalulange, the prison produced about 1 359 kg of vegetables last year. While the facility is small and houses only 100 inmates, they work hard to grow vegetables that add much needed nutrition to their meals. “The Omaruru Police Station, the Walvis Bay Correctional Facility as well as the Lucius S Mahoto Correctional Service Training College were among the institutions that benefited from the Omaruru facility's harvest,” Shaalulange said.

Source: The Namibian

AFRICA

Nigerian mom designs solar-powered cribs that cures infant jaundice

After first-time mom Virtue Oboro, a visual designer, experienced the lack of treatment in Nigeria for infant jaundice, she made a 360° career change and founded Tiny Hearts – a tech startup manufacturing solar-powered blue light cribs. Phototherapy (blue light treatment) has been proven to cure infant jaundice and is readily available in developed countries. Oboro’s husband has experience in solar power installations and helped with the design. Now, Crib A’Glow can be found in 500 hospitals around Nigeria and has already benefited more than 300,000 babies, all with the power of the African sun.

Source: CNN

Congolese nun becomes electrician to deal with blackouts

Sister Alphonsine Ciza from the small town of Miti in the Republic of Congo picked up electrical skills as a young nun. Supervisors at her convent then sent her to study mechanical engineering, giving her the skills to run a hydroelectric plant. After three years, Ciza’s convent had raised the necessary $297,000 to build the plant and it is now lighting up the convent, a church, two schools and a clinic free of charge. Prior to the hydroelectric plant kids were learning computer skills from books instead of screens due to daily blackouts. The plant generates between 0.05 and 0.1 Megawatt.

Source: Reuters

THE WORLD

Scientists in Texas have created a plastic-eating protein

Professor Hal Alper and his colleagues at the University of Texas in Austin have created an enzyme that breaks down PET into simple chemicals which can be reassembled. By means of artificial intelligence machine learning, novel mutations of a natural PETase enzyme that degrades PET were generated. From these mutations the scientists identified those that would function in lower temperatures and created FAST-PETase (functional, active, stable and tolerant PETase). While plastic-eating enzymes are no revelation, FAST-PETase is portable and affordable at large scale, and it will be ready for industrial application once the patent is filed.

Source: Good News Network

Construction of world’s biggest wildlife crossing started on Earth Day

A corridor for animals to cross all ten lanes of the 101 freeway in Los Angeles broke ground on 22 April. It will be the largest animal crossing in the world and the first of its kind in California. Two decades of study by the National Park Service have shown that roads and urban development are not only deadly, but create islands of habitat, genetically isolating wildlife. California Governor Gavin Newsom described the crossing as “an inspiring example of the kind of collaborative efforts that will help us protect our common home for generations to come.”

Source: Good News Network