Abstract: Schistosomiasis is a severe neglected tropical disease caused by trematodes and transmitted by freshwater snails. Snails are known to be highly tolerant to agricultural pesticides. However, little attention has been paid to the ecological consequences of pesticide pollution in areas endemic for schistosomiasis, where people live in close contact with non-sanitized freshwaters. In complementary laboratory and feld studies on Kenyan inland areas along Lake Victoria, we show that pest...
Abstract: Background Tungiasis is a highly neglected tropical skin disease caused by the sand fea, Tunga penetrans, the female of which burrows into the skin, causing pain and itching. The disease occurs throughout South America and sub-Saharan Africa but there are few systematic data on national disease burdens. The tungiasis research community is keen to develop survey methods to fll this gap. Here we used a school-based, thorough examination method to determine the prevalence and risk fac...
Abstract: A study was carried out at Karima Village in the Mwea Rice Irrigation Scheme in Kenya to assess the impact of rice husbandry and associated land cover change for mosquito larval abundance. A multi-temporal, land use land cover (LULC) classification dataset incorporating distributions of Anopheles arabiensis aquatic larval habitats was produced in ERDAS Imagine version 8.7 using combined images from IKONOS at 4m spatial resolution from 2005 and Landsat Thematic Mapper (TM)™ classi...
Abstract: Background: Within the last decades, there has been increasing research on the occurrence of chemicals of emerging concern (CECs) in aquatic ecosystems due to their potential adverse efects on freshwater organisms and risk to human health. However, information on CECs in freshwater environments in sub-Saharan countries is very limited. Here, we investigated the occurrence of CECs in snails and sediments collected from 48 sites within the Lake Victoria South Basin, Kenya, which have...
Abstract: Climate change and bush encroachment pose huge challenges to rangeland management in Namibia. These challenges require a holistic management approach that ensures consistent and optimum forage productivity and sustainability. Mechanical and chemical control methods are the most used techniques in controlling woody encroaching species to improve pastoral properties in the Namibian savannas. However, there is very little information regarding the management options that concurrently ...
Abstract Large-scale production of mine wastes and their secure disposal has been a problem of global concern. In this work, the chemical kinetics of roasting of crude pyrite, a mine waste from Merelani to form sulphur dioxide, a key precursor in the production of sulphuric acid was studied. Conversion of pyrite into sulphur dioxide revealed pseudo first order kinetic with respect of solid reactant in gas-solid system. The activation energy (Ea) value of 15kJ/mol was deduced from Arrhenius e...
Abstract Heavy metals in soil and water were determined at four points along Msimbazi River valley in Dar es Salaam city, which is popular for vegetable farming. Results indicated that the concentration of chromium in water ranged from (1.414±0.922) to 0.01 mg/L. Maximum and minimum lead concentrations of 0.113 and 0.083 mg/L were detected. The concentration of copper was generally low at all sites, ranging from (0.013±0.005) to (0.016±0.005) mg/L. The concentration of lead in water throug...
Abstract Leaching and speciation of heavy metals in stabilized gold mine tailings were investigated by using leaching tests and leaching model (Visual MINTEQ 3.1®) respectively. Results indicate that the Stabilized/Solidified (S/S) tailings has high acid neutralizing capacity, which is dependent on binder content used. The dissolution of alkaline metals and oxyanions (such as SO4 2-, HCO3 2-) raises both the pH and electric conductivity of the leachant and, in-turn, affects leaching of the ...
Abstract This paper presents results of the investigation of Chromium III removal from tannery wastewater using groundnut shells under laboratory scale batch experiments. The effects of pH, contact time, particle size and dosage of the adsorbent on the adsorption of Cr (III) were studied. Determination of Chromium ion concentration in the wastewater was done using Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometer (AAS). Results show that removal mechanism is dominantly adsorption, which is dependent of th...
In different cities and towns of Ethiopia, solid waste is a major environmental problem. Woldya town also face the challenges of solid waste management. Effective and efficient solid waste management in a town is a mandatory to ensure human and animal health and also to ensure clean and sound able environment in urban development. The aim of this study is to assess challenges and opportunities for improvement of solid waste management services in Woldya town. Interviews, questionnaires and ob...
A quality management system (QMS) is a set of policies, processes and proceduresrequired for planning and execution (production/development/service) in the core business area of an organization. (i.e. Areas that can impact the organization’s ability to meet customer requirements. The term "Quality Management System" and the acronym "QMS" were invented in 1991 by Ken Croucher, a British management consultant working on designing and implementing a generic model of a QMS within the IT indust...
An organization’s activities can pose a risk of injury or ill-health, and can result in a serious impairment of health, or even fatality, to those working on its behalf; consequently it is important for the organization to eliminate or minimize its OH&S risks by taking appropriate preventive measures. An organization’s OH&S management system can translate its intentions to prevent incidents into a systematic and ongoing set of processes (supported by the use of appropriate methods and too...
1,277 patients were diagnosed and treated (July – September, 2017) for malaria, typhoid or co-infection at the University Health Services; 34.06% of the patients were diagnosed and treated in July; 32.58% in August; and 33.36% in September, 2017. The study reveals that the prevalence or incidence of malaria, typhoid and co-infection is higher in males (53.80%) than females (46.20%). 7.75% of the study population had blood cultures confirming only typhoid infection; 31.95% had blood cul...
Increased agricultural and domestic activities around and within aquatic ecosystem could poseserious threats to the habitat quality and ichthyofauna diversity. Nigeria is a country notablefor the alarming rate of water pollution. On the other hand, increased human populace aroundthe Apodu Reservoir has led to an intensifying rate of pollutants’ influx into the water body.To date, there is limited information on the habitat quality and associated genotoxic effectsof pollutants on physiology...
Source–rock deductions of major ions and saturation states of minerals in groundwater were employed to determine the origin of dissolved ions and the thermodynamic controls on the groundwater composition respectively in groundwater within the Amansie and Adansi Districts. The main objective of this study is to characterize groundwater and delineate soil-water-rock interactions responsible for the chemical evolution of groundwater within the districts. Fifty-nine boreholes, twelve wells and ...