Call for Abstracts

The WaTER Technologies for Emerging Regions (WaTER) Center at the University of Oklahoma will host the Third OU International WaTER Conference and International Water Prize Award Ceremony on Sept. 23-25, 2013 in Norman, Oklahoma, USA. Abstracts, for oral presentations and posters on any topic related to water and sanitation issues in emerging regions, are due on March 15 (international developing countries) and April 1 (U.S. domestic and all other).

International guests make new friends at the 2011 WaTER Conference.

 Topical areas include, but are not limited to, the following:

•       Fluoride / arsenic mitigation systems
•       Appropriate drilling technologies
•       Novel WASH technologies
•       Drinking water treatment innovations
•       Ground water exploration/production systems
•       Treatment wetlands for water quality mitigation
•       Conservation and reuse technologies
•       Social entrepreneurship/microfinance
•       Cultural and behavioral change
•       Climate change effects on water resources
•       Educational initiatives in WaSH
•       Student service organizations
•       Role of NGOs and charitable organizations in WaSH

Guests at the Conference are treated to traditional Native American dance.

A limited number of international (developing country) travel scholarships are available!

Conference and workshop registration information is now posted and can be found here.

Ecological Engineering in Bolivia

Surrounded by mining, the mountainous region of Potosi, Bolivia, is plagued by extensive environmental contamination from past and current mining operations. One mountain alone annually discharges an estimated 161 tons of zinc, 157 tons of iron, and more than two tons of arsenic in addition to dozens of other toxic minerals, including cadmium and lead, through its water. Researchers from the University of Oklahoma have discovered a technique to remove pollutants from water that requires minimal labor costs and is powered by nature itself. After 15 years of testing, research has shown this passive water treatment method to be successful in as diverse geography as the flatlands of Oklahoma and the mountains of Bolivia. 

OU researchers measure water quality in mine drainage flows in Bolivia.

Improved water quality is clearly visible at the Tar Creek site in Oklahoma.

The passive water treatment system is created by engineering an ecosystem consisting of a series of filtering ponds. As the water moves through each specifically designed pond, a natural chemical or biological process removes certain contaminants as it slowly moves from one cell into the other before being re-released into natural waterways. “When the water reaches the last pond, it has gone from looking like orange, sediment-laden sludge to clear water,” said Robert Nairn, Associate Director for OU’s Water Technologies for Emerging Regions Center and director of the Center for Restoration of Ecosystems and Watersheds.

Bolivian highland villagers depend upon surface water for drinking and cooking.

The ecological filtering system requires less fossil fuel input and produces less pollution than traditional energy intensive water filtration technologies. “Since it is powered by the sun, wind and gravity, it requires minimal labor cost and only needs to be checked about once every three months,” said Nairn.
The passive water treatment system captures contaminated water from the mines, which flows through the series of constructed ponds for treatment. “The region gets less than 17 inches of rain per year,” Nairn said. “Much of the limited water is used for irrigation of staple root crops by the local farmers, resulting in contaminated soils and crops, posing substantial health risks.”

Dr. Bob Nairn, OU WaTER Center Associate Director, teaches courses in ecological engineering and wetlands science.

Building upon their experience in the Tar Creek, Okla., Superfund site, the researchers are engineering an ecosystem to treat polluted water in Potosi. The difference between the Tar Creek project and Potosi project is the extreme geographical conditions. Instead of Oklahoma flatlands, the team is working in a desert at 16,000 feet, which poses new challenges. “Massive water pollution is an issue that affects us all,” Nairn said. “If left untreated, the results are the same: unsafe living conditions and potential health risks. We learn from research in both developed and undeveloped countries to counteract this man-made threat with ecologically friendly solutions.”

Researchers present at GeoGen Conference

Four researchers with the WaTER Center - Dr. David Sabatini, Dr. Jim Chamberlain, Laura Brunson, and Anne Kroeger - presented at the GeoGen 2013 Conference in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, Feb. 5-7. This conference, the first of its kind, focused on naturally-occurring water contaminants of geologic origin, primarily arsenic and fluoride. Participants from 15 countries were present to share research and dialogue about such topics as water treatment methods, health impacts and assessments, and alternative water source options that avoid ingestion of harmful contaminants.

Anne and Laura (first and second from right) share drinks and laughs with friends at the Conference banquet.

 

Conference participants were treated to an evening of Ethiopian dance and music.

Laura (PhD candidate, Environmental Engineering) presented on "Optimizing fluoride removal materials for drinking water in Ethiopia" while Jim (WaTER staff engineer) presented on "Alternative water sources in Cambodia: reaching the bottom billion". Anne (PhD candidate, Anthropology) presented a much-admired poster on her research, "The health effects of fluorosis in the Ethiopian Rift Valley", and Dr. Sabatini (WaTER Center Director) was an invited keynote presenter. His address was a case study of geogenic contaminant mitigation in the U.S., comparing three different-sized communities and their public water supply decisions.

Dr. Sabatini presents at the gathering of 85 participants.

Injera, made of teff flour, is a yeast-risen flatbread and the national staple of Ethiopia.

The GeoGen Conference was organized and co-hosted by EAWAG (Switzerland) and Addis Ababa University in Ethiopia. Sponsors for the conference included World Vision, the World Health Organization (WHO), and the Chemical Society of Ethiopia.

Building capacity in Africa

Zachary Flamig knew he wanted to be a meteorologist from the time that he was 8 years old. It was then that his hometown of Dallas got pounded by a massive hailstorm, one that showed the fury and the power of the "Nature of the Sky".  He got his B.S. and Masters degree here at OU, and decided to stay on and pursue a PhD, working under Drs. Yang Hong (of the WaTER Center) and J.J. Gourley. His research is to develop and fine-tune a high-resolution hydrologic model that can be used to predict flash-flood events both in the U.S. and abroad. The model can be calibrated and tested using historical flood data from previous decades.

Zac Flamig is a 2nd year PhD student in Meteorology.

Zac Flamig teaching classes this spring in Namibia and Rwanda.

Although his doctoral research is centered on U.S. applications, Zac has been called upon by NASA to help build human capacity for flood predictions in Africa. Agricultural populations in south-central Africa are extremely vulnerable to flooding events, because of both damage to food crops and inability to relocate to safer ground. Accurate flood prediction can save lives in both the near-term and longer term. Zac has taught hydrologic model courses in Kenya and Rwanda, and has assisted local personnel in validating models using GPS and ground measurements obtained by helicopter, boat, and on foot. In addition, he is helping Namibian scientists create their own base map to be utilized in flash-flood predictions.

Pictures of the Okavango River in north Namibia.

While at OU, Zac has been active in the amateur radio club (served as president for 3 years), is seeking to get his aviation license, and is an avid storm-chaser in a region of the country where storms can be hugely entertaining! His first big view of a tornado was in the Texas panhandle in 2007. Zac is careful to point out that skipping class to chase a storm is specifically against school policy. One wonders why such a policy would ever have to be stipulated in the first place...?....

Preventing Epilepsy in Burkina Faso

Epilepsy has been shown to be nearly 10 times more frequent and remains a highly stigmatized disease in developing countries. In areas where pigs are raised traditionally (i.e., free roaming) and where sanitation is poor, it has been shown that about 29% of people with epilepsy have lesions of neurocysticercosis (NCC) in their brain. NCC is a zoonotic parasitic infection of the brain caused by the tapeworm Taenia solium, which infects both humans and pigs. Humans carry the adult form of the worm which they acquire from eating undercooked contaminated pork meat. Pigs get infected by directly eating feces or food contaminated with human feces. Humans may get NCC when ingesting food (or possibly water) contaminated with human feces. Hélène Carabin, DVM, PhD, a researcher with the OU Health Sciences Center, is pioneering a unique community-based randomized controlled study (60 villages in 30 departments and 3 provinces of Burkina Faso) to assess if an educational package could cut the life cycle of the worm to prevent epilepsy.

Villagers in Burkina Faso raise pigs as part of their household livelihood.

Dr. Carabin's research team in Burkina Faso initially focused on pig management - limiting the movement of pigs to stop them from having access to human feces as a way of curtailing the cycle of transmission. Using focus groups and in-depth interviews, the team realized that improved pig management was not a feasible option, given the community's behaviors, preferences and the difficulty in finding food for the pigs. The participants, however, were knowledgeable about the risks of open defecation and were willing to improve sanitation. The research team then considered community-led total sanitation (CLTS), an innovative methodology for mobilizing communities to completely eliminate open defecation (OD). Communities are facilitated to conduct their own appraisal and analysis of open defecation and take their own action to become ODF (open defecation free). But CLTS is costly and requires extensive support.

And so the team has agreed upon a more successful and sustainable approach, and one that is ingeniously American - make a movie! The group hired a local filmmaker to film an educational comedy that advocates and teaches about the life cycle of the disease and how to prevent it through improved sanitation and pig management. To accompany the movie, they worked with Water and Sanitation for Africa (WSA) to adapt previously used PHAST (participatory hygiene and sanitation training) tools to emphasize the role of pigs in the disease. They also developed a comic book to accompany the movie. The field team has started the first follow-up visits in September and is offering the intervention to half of the villages. The team is now analyzing the baseline portion of the study.

Dr. Helene Carabin (left) with Dr. Linda Cowan on location in Pabre.

Dr. Carabin is a frequent collaborator with the OU WaTER Center. Her research includes study of infectious diseases, especially zoonotic infections that are transmitted between species of animals, including humans. Many of these diseases are transmitted due to poor sanitation and some are water-borne, water-based; they are significantly more problematic in regions of the world which lack sanitation and clean drinking water. Dr. Carabin wishes to acknowledge her colleagues in Burkina Faso (Rasmané Ganaba DVM PhD, Athanase Millogo MD, Jean-Bosco Ouédraogo PhD, and Zékiba Tarnagda DVM PhD) and in Belgium (Pierre Dorny DVM PhD and Nicolas Praet DVM PhD).
This study is funded by the National Institute of Neurological Disorders (NINDS) and the Fogarty International Center (FIC) under the BRAIN program.

Spotlight on a Student - Junyi Du

Anyone who is around Junyi Du ("Du") for very long knows that it is not very hard to get Du to laugh. He will laugh at almost anything, from the silly things that people do to difficult research problems that seem so out of reach. Why not laugh about it? He will eventually solve them anyway! Du's research, under Dr. Elizabeth Butler, is to investigate the efficacy of aluminum-based fluoride adsorption materials, especially as amended with coatings of metal oxides and oxyhydroxides. The ultimate goal is to amend natural media to use in fluoride removal and the production of safe drinking water.

Du spends a lot of time in his laboratory, testing the adsorptive properties of various media for arsenic removal.

Du's identity as an environmental engineer is one that has been evolving. He says: "Although I chose the major of environmental engineering when I entered college, I knew almost nothing about the major. With the studies in college, I found it was an interesting and promising major and decided to stay rather than changing my major. In China, the career prospect for environmental engineering students seemed pretty bright because of the rapid development of economy and the exponentially deteriorating environment, although it turned out not so good afterwards. On the other hand, I could learn the knowledge covering a series of majors in environmental engineering, such as principles of electricity, ecology, microbiology, chemical engineering, and even economics. It is very good for me to engage in and take advantage of the multidisciplinary study. Since then, my sophomore year of undergraduate, I began to gear up on the track of being an environmental engineer. Later, I continued my master’s study in the same major, and deepened the understanding of environmental work."

Part of what kept him going in the field is the realization that he could make a difference in the world: "I realized I could do more than only designing, mapping and researching as an environmental engineer. I could and have to expose myself to a bigger stage since it is really a challenging work to solve the environmental issues in real world."

Du practices block construction as part of the Field Methods course, May 2012

Du earned B.S. and M.S. degrees in Environmental Engineering from Nanchang University in China. While there, he conducted research on fluoride distribution and migration in carbonate bedrock and fluoride adsorption mechanisms of clay minerals. For enjoyment, Du likes reading history books and poems, cooking, and singing. To improve fitness, he also plays basketball and does some running and hiking.

And Du will always be learning. In his words, "I will keep going and stay thirsty of learning." We hope that that thirst will never fully be quenched.

Marc Parlange Gives NWC Seminar

Marc Parlange, Ph.D., presented a seminar - "Flows over Complex Terrain" - at the National Weather Center (NWC) on September 19. Dr. Parlange, Professor and Dean at the Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne (EPFL) in the School of Architecture, Civil and Environmental Engineering, was here at OU in conjunction with the 2012 WaTER Symposium. He and five other international experts in the fields of water and sanitation, nominated and selected the next International Water Prize winner and then gave talks and answered questions as part of the Symposium.

Dr. Marc Parlange

 
The NWC seminar presented field micrometeorological observations that were collected in the Swiss alps over steep terrain to understand the patterns of the wind fields which have an important impact on the melting of snow and glaciers in the generation of stream flows.  The talk then focused on ongoing work with colleagues Charles Meneveau and Marc Calaf on the impact of large scale wind turbine farms on these surface fluxes using new generation Large Eddy Simulation.  There is an apparent impact of increasing the fluxes of scalars into the atmosphere of some 10 to 15 percent.

Marc and his students measure and simulate wind fields over the Swiss Alps.

 
Previously, Parlange served as professor at Johns Hopkins University and UC Davis. He is Editor-in-Chief of Water Resources Research and member of the Division 2 (Engineering and Physical Sciences) of the Swiss National Science Foundation. His research concerns the measurement of and simulation in hydrology, water resources, and the lower atmosphere. In 1997 he was awarded the Macelwane Medal and was made Fellow of the American Geophysical Union, and in 2006 he was awarded the Dalton Medal of the European Geosciences Union. He obtained his M.S. and Ph.D. at Cornell University.