POTENTIAL EFFECT OF SEPTIC TANK LEACHATE ON THE GROUNDWATER RESOURCES IN ONITSHA, ANAMBRA STATE, NIGERIA: HEALTH, ENVIRONMENT, AND WATER SUSTAINABILITY IMPLICATIONS
Funding Area: Community governance / Gobernanza comunitaria
Problem Statement: The proliferation of septic tanks due to the absence of a central municipal sewage system in Onitsha, Southeastern Nigeria is a potential health risk to the immediate population of about two million people. Almost every building in the city owns a septic tank, which is designed in such a way that the liquid effluents are sucked away into the surrounding soil. Continual discharge of the liquid sewage content into the surrounding soils will lead to the leaching and dispersion of the dissolved contaminants from the source. Downward migration of the leachate will continue till it meets the underlying aquifer. Health implications of groundwater contamination by sewage effluents include cholera, dysentery, heavy metal poisoning, cancer, and other diseases. These diseases are commonly reported in the health centres within the study area and have been linked to the major causes of high infant mortality in developing countries. However, there is inadequate evidence to link the diseases to the underlying groundwater, which serves as a source of water for domestic and consumption purposes for the immediate population. This has led to the inability to make groundwater protection policies that will ensure the safe extraction of the natural resources; hence the need for this research. The outcome will assist stakeholders to make policies that will strengthen the protection of groundwater resources and provide public sanitation infrastructure.
Proposed Activities: The research will adopt field investigations and laboratory research approaches. A preliminary reconnaissance investigation will be carried out to determine the sampling points, which will consider population density, borehole locations and proximity to septic tanks, and areas suitable to carry out geophysical investigation of the subsurface using the resistivity method (VES). The field investigation will involve the use of ABEM SAS 1000 instrument to determine the aquifer characteristics which include the depth to the aquifer, protective capacity, aquifer thickness, hydraulic conductivity, porosity, transmissivity, formation factor, and water saturation. Thereafter, water and effluent samples are proposed to be collected from the candidate boreholes and septic tanks, respectively. The samples will be subjected to laboratory tests to determine the microbial and chemical (organic and inorganic) contaminants following APHA standard procedures. The data will be analysed using geoelectrical, geospatial, and statistical analysis tools such as ZondRes2d, Surfer 17, ArcGIS, and Microsoft Excel to reveal the central and dispersion tendencies in the data distribution, the hydrogeochemical indices, and the relationships that exist between the concentration of contaminants in the effluents and in the water samples. The reconnaissance investigation is proposed to be in the first three months of the research which will be overseen by the entire four researchers within the team. This will be preceded by geophysical field investigation and water-effluent sampling simultaneously, which is expected to last from the fourth month through the sixth month. Data analysis and interpretations as well as report writing and seminar presentations are expected to proceed from the seventh month to the eleventh month. The areal characterization, GIS interpretations, and geophysical investigations will be done by R1 and R2 who are engineering geologist and Geophysicist experts, respectively. Enquiries about disease prevalence within the study area, water-effluent sampling and analysis will be done by R2 and R3 who are microbiologist and environmental chemist, respectively. Data analysis, result interpretations, and report writing will be a combine effort of the research team. The team has access to ABEM SAS 1000 instrument, geolelectrical interpretation programs, geospatial and statistics analytical software, and a functional microbial analytical lab. However, chemical analysis of the samples will be carried out in a private laboratory that has the capacity to determine the chemical contaminants under close supervision of the R4. R = Researcher
Openness: The comprehensive findings of the research will be presented at seminars/workshops to the government, community, and other relevant stakeholders. The findings will help the state government to draw up policies that will ensure the protection of groundwater from pollution and empower the municipal authorities to enforce the policy. Such a policy will also encourage the local authorities to provide public sanitary facilities and central sewage infrastructure to distribute the generated urban effluents to a central point. Urban sewerage schemes if properly developed can be utilized by local farmers to improve their crop yield at low cost and provide irrigation for dry season farming; hence ensuring food security. The research findings will also reveal the aquifer characteristic of the underlying aquifer such as the protective capacity of each of the aquiferous horizons. Such a result will assist the local authorities to enforce that water boreholes are drilled to safe zones before extraction; thus, ensuring that uncontaminated groundwater is produced and distributed for use. The research outcomes is all planned to be presented in academic conferences and subsequently published in open access geoenvironmental-related journals which will be made available to the public at no cost.
Challenges: The challenges that are envisaged will be: Access to people’s private properties (water boreholes and septic tanks); The availability of sites to conduct geophysical investigations at densely populated areas; Getting accurate and liable information from hospitals on water borne related diseases; and The willingness of the government and other stake holders to consider the outcome of the research in environmental protection policy formulation which will discourage the proliferation of septic tanks and boreholes and encourage the provision of municipal sanitary infrastructures and urban water supply schemes.
Neglectedness: The authors have previously submitted this proposal to the Structural Transformation & Economic Growth (STEG), which is a research programme funded by the FCDO and coordinated by CEPR and they got the response below after undergoing review. “Thank you for your application to the recent Small Research Grants funding call. The STEG Review Committee appreciates the time you put into your application, however, the programme only awards grants for economic research directly related to structural transformation. While there may be indirect connections to certain issues surrounding structural change, your proposed research was not considered sufficiently related to this area and is therefore not eligible for funding. We hope these comments go some way to explaining our decision, but we are unfortunately unable to recommend funding for this proposal. We appreciate the opportunity to consider this project.”
Success: The success in this work will be measured by the following steps: Initiation: identifying the key deliverables which include determining the aquifer characteristics, identifying potential contaminant sources (septic tanks), ascertaining the degree of contamination of the groundwater by the potential contaminant sources, investigating the prevalence disease within the study area, providing evidence that the prevalence disease are waterborne and that they are from the consumption of the underlying groundwater. The research outcome will be presented to the stake holders as evidence that will support enacting policies that will discourage proliferation of septic tanks and construction of public sanitary infrastructures. Planning: Established workflow, in this case the methods of carrying out this research from reconnaissance to data analysis, which the standard methods, equipment, and facilities to be used have been identified. The resources that will be required have been identified and the budget stipulated. Execution: This phase monitors the budget, progression, and quality of work. Closure: This phase analyzes the completion of milestones and deliverables. In this case, the research outcome will be presented to the stake holders as evidence that will support the formulation of policies which discourages proliferation of septic tanks and supports the construction of public sanitary infrastructures.
Total Budget: 24996
Budget File: pdf
Affiliations: This proposal is not affiliated to any organization
LMIE Carveout: The authors have previously submitted this proposal to the Structural Transformation & Economic Growth (STEG), and they got the response below after undergoing review. “Thank you for your application to the recent Small Research Grants funding call. The STEG Review Committee appreciates the time you put into your application, however, the programme only awards grants for economic research directly related to structural transformation. While there may be indirect connections to certain issues surrounding structural change, your proposed research was not considered sufficiently related to this area and is therefore not eligible for funding. We hope these comments go some way to explaining our decision, but we are unfortunately unable to recommend funding for this proposal.”
Team Skills: The research team comprises of experienced engineering geologist, environmental geophysicist, microbiologist, and environmental chemist. Three members of the team are doctorate degree holders in their individual fields who have sufficient research experience to undertake the proposed research. This can be evidenced in the amount and quality of research output by the researchers in their individual field. Apart from the researcher 4 who is still a doctoral student with about 3 years of research experience, the other three researchers have more than 5 years research and teaching experience in their individual fields. The researchers understands the principals behind hydrogeology, hydrogeochemistry, environment geophysics, geospatial analysis, fate of contaminant transport, public health, pathology, and the United nations SDG 6, which centers on water, sanitation, and hygiene. Similar researches have been carried out by researcher 1, 2, and 4 where the characterized effect of mining on the environment, groundwater contamination by dumpsite leachates, absorption of contaminants by absorbents, environmental impact of lateritic fluxes on the surface and groundwater, etc. Two of the researchers are staff of the University of Nigeria, whereas the other two are staff of Nnamdi Azikiwe University both in Nigeria, West Africa. Therefore, an inter university collaboration is promoted while also maintaining gender balance since one of the researcher is a female chemist.
How Did You Hear About This Call: Word of mouth (e.g. conversations and emails from IOI staff, friends, colleagues, etc.) / Boca a boca (por ejemplo, conversaciones y correos electrónicos del personal del IOI, amigos, colegas, etc.)
Submission Number: 99
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