Building capacity for water, sanitation and hygiene in sub-Saharan

Funding:

Swiss National Science Foundation

Swiss cooperation: Swiss Embassy in Democratic Republic of the Congo

University of Geneva, Department F.-A. Forel for environmental and aquatic sciences via tripartite collaboration

Democratic Republic of the Congo’s Government

Building and strengthening of capacity in developing countries can be considered as one of major aspects of sustainable development in the World. The challenging water contamination, natural resources management as well as food production have the global consequences. For this proposal, the approaches are chosen to identify the most critical problems related to water contamination in general, particularly in developing countries such as India and Congo DR. The objective of this project is (i) to study the effects of urban and hospital effluents on the distribution and prevalence of toxic metals, persistent organic pollutants (POPs), pathogens, antibiotic resistant bacteria and their resistance genes in receiving systems, and (ii) to evaluate the impact of population and latrines on fecal contamination in rivers and well drinking waters. Both aspects are highly relevant from a global perspective for the economic, social and environmental development throughout the world. This project will also examine the environmental exposure pathways particularly anthropogenic influences associated with aquatic environment receiving systems, irrigation water and crops, and drinking water supplies.

Contact and supervisors:

- Pitchouna Kilunga: PhD student UNIKIN/UNIGE

- John Kayemba: PhD student UPN/UNIGE

- Goslin Ngafueni: PhD student UNIKIN/UNIGE

- Michel Kapembo: PhD student UNIKIN/UNIGE

- Alexis Nienie: PhD student UPN/UNIGE

Supervisor: John Poté

Partners: University of Kinshasa and UPN: Profs. Josué Mubedi, Pius Mpiana, Crispin Mulaji, Marie-Claire Yandju, Matthieu Bokolo and Jean-Paul Otamonga.