These
Ghanaian women had to travel about a mile and a half
from their village to get water from a local pond.
The untreated water is a source of disease, or, most
commonly, parasites such as the larvaeof the guinea
worm, which can immobilize victims for several months
at a time. The photo was taken by Dr. Braimah Apambire
last February on a visit to Ghana for a DRI/Hilton
Foundation project.
|
Hydrology
Students: Assisting Developing Countries
The Desert
Research Institute and the University of Nevada, Reno
(UNR) Hydrologic Sciences Program are jointly sponsoring
a new student organization focusing on water supply
and quality problems facing developing nations. The
Student Association for International Water Issues (SAIWI)
involves about 30 graduate students and faculty advisors
from UNR and DRI.
SAIWI President
Dr. Braimah Apambire, a post-doctoral research associate
in DRI's Division of Hydrologic Sciences (DHS), says
the association will encourage discussion of solutions
for the lack of reliable, potable water supplies in
developing countries and work with aid groups and international
technical experts to promote research, education, and
training concerning international water resource issues.
SAIWI's faculty advisors are Dr. Jim Thomas, an associate
research professor at DRI, and Dr. Scott Tyler, Director
of UNR's Hydrologic Sciences Program.
|
Apambire says Tyler
is helping SAIWI collaborate with the University of Notre
Dame to send four student members to maintain water well hand-pumps
in Haiti. Another trip is planned to World Vision's Ghana
Rural Water Project, where students will participate in water
resource development for rural communities in Ghana. Apambire,
a Ghanaian, was instrumental in establishing SAIWI.
"More than
30 percent of the developing world's population-more than
a billion people-do not have access to potable drinking water
supplies," Apambire says "In certain population
segments of Africa and Asia, safe drinking water coverage
can even be as low as five percent. Eighty percent of illness
and death among children in these regions is attributed to
unsafe drinking water."
DRI has contributed
a light, portable drill rig to SAIWI for training students
in drilling water wells and is providing some travel funds
for international water resources development projects.
SAIWI would like
to establish a colloquia and possibly a workshop series describing
issues related to water supplies in developing countries,
such as low-cost water supply technologies and strategies
for the development of water resources. During the 2001 Spring
semester, Apambire taught a class on water supplies in developing
countries at UNR.
Through partnering
with aid agencies in developing countries, SAIWI also hopes
to provide members with hands-on, overseas experiences. Such
experience will help SAIWI members understand and participate
in the design and implementation of community based, safe,
and dependable water supply systems in various countries.
|
