COLLABORATION WITH LOCAL STUDENTS AND PROFESSIONALS AS ONE WAY OF SOLVING SOCIETAL ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES IN DEVELOPING NATIONS

Several opportunities abound for the geosciences community to affect the world by serving the needs of people and their environments. Geology with its large applied component stands to have a greater societal impact in developing nations that needs simple, labor-intensive equipment/instruments. Most developing nations either don’t have the infrastructure, or the personnel or resources to solve, mitigate or provide the basic necessity of life like potable water. Also, in most developing nations, it takes minimal resources to make great changes in the lives of people and their environment.

During a four-week stay in a West African country, local scientists and engineers were engaged in the examination of the local problems with the aim of providing solutions and research ideas. Once the bureaucracy was taken care of, the professionals in the area were eager to identify several societal and environmental issues and began brain storming for plausible solutions. As part of the four-week program, lectures on use of some low-tech equipment in solving environmental issues were identified to work on. Providing potable water and waste disposal are two of the most important societal and environmental issues. The waste disposal is the focus of this research.

A private Nigeria university disposes of its wastewater on campus using constructed wetlands. The effectiveness of the wetland in the removal of ‘waste’ was investigated. Initial results using basic water chemistry of temperature, DO, pH, TDS and conductivity show that the wetlands removed about 70% of the TDS. A follow-up study shows that the wetland does a good job of removing bacterial and nutrients from the wastewater. The water from the wetland empties into a river used by thousands of people downstream from the campus. Simple equipments including multi probe meters that are often taken for granted in developed nations are gold mines in developing nations. The transfer of knowledge that involves local college/university students is a good way to help solve societal and environmental issues. Examples where students and professionals provided solutions will be presented.