Enviro award for Barnes
2005-11-24
THE Cape Times/Caltex Environmental Award 2005 for a contribution to environmental concerns was awarded to Dr Jo Barnes of the Department of Community Health at the Stellenbosch Faculty of Health Sciences during a ceremony in Cape Town on 9 November.
Dr Barnes was given this award in recognition for her contribution over the past eight years in investigating the extent of the pollution in the rivers of the Boland due to contamination with untreated sewage.
This sewage originates in the many settlements along the river banks that are without proper sanitation, as well as in the leaking sewerage systems of towns and poorly equipped and maintained sewerage treatment works.
Dr Barnes showed that there are disquieting levels of disease-causing organisms in the water of our rivers and that many of those organisms are resistant to commonly used antibiotics. This means that patients who get ill from these organisms are not easily treated - a grave risk.
A further finding was that the water in the rivers below the dense settlements is not easily disinfected by the usual chlorine treatment employed by most municipalities since a significant number of the organisms showed chlorine resistance as well.
This is an important risk when using such water to produce foodstuff for the market, as well as a risk to the health of farm dwellers who have no other source of drinking water.
The most heartening aspect of the years of research was the clear demonstration that the levels of faecal pollution in the Plankenbrug River near Stellenbosch could be reduced drastically by the simple, combined measures of community education and community-based upkeep of the ablution facilities that were already in place.
This message should be carried out to a much wider audience of local authority officials in order to inspire them to tackle the problem of sewage pollution with more energy and conviction than is the case at present, the judges said.
More
News
|
