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21 February 2018 Photo pixabay
Water-wise expert says Is there a solution to pollution
Next time you want to throw something away, think twice. Look for ways to reuse, recycle, or repurpose.

Dr Cindé Greyling completed her PhD in Disaster Management with DiMTEC (Disaster Management Training and Education Centre for Africa) at the University of the Free State (UFS). Built on prior studies and years of communication experience, she opted to study ways in which to communicate drought mitigation information. Part of the mitigation process included saving water and reducing pollution.

A practical approach
“Look, we are all here now. And we need to eat, live, work, survive, and ultimately thrive using our planet’s resources,” she says. “But I think we’ve become so fixated on thriving, that we don’t consider survival anymore. Of course, some people do! There are wonderful projects around the world aiming at more responsible consuming, ranging from pre-loved baby clothes, to water harvesting for individual dwellings and larger compounds.” However, she understands that people may get so overwhelmed by the vast pollution problem that they consider any of their own efforts as insignificant. “That is not true. Every single bit of plastic (or cloth, glass, iron, etc.) that is recycled or repurposed, and does not end up in a landfill, makes a difference.” And here is why…

The tip of the iceberg
“Whatever you are holding in your hand and aiming for the bin is much larger than what you see. Take a piece of paper, for example. A tree was planted – the process involved fossil fuels, water, fertiliser, time, wages, administration, etc. And many years of that! Once it was felled, the resource usages continued, and expanded to processing plants, wholesalers, retailers, and then you – who also used resources to acquire that piece of paper. Do you see how large the wastage is? The same is true for food waste … that rotten tomato you forgot in the fridge is a grave loss.”

“Whatever you are holding in your hand,
aiming for the bin, is much larger what
you see.”


Little by little  
Fortunately, all is not lost. “Respect stuff,” Dr Greyling says, “it is as simple as that. To survive, we must take from the resources that the Earth provides. Because we became clever, we were able to alter these elements to make, from high-rise buildings to tiny technology. But we simply cannot keep on taking and taking without giving back Start with giving respect. Next time you want to throw something away, think twice. Look for ways to reuse, recycle, or repurpose. Consider that the denim you are wearing possibly used up to 10 000 litres of water to produce.”  

LISTEN: Dr Greyling elaborates on solutions for pollution

 

News Archive

UFS hones focus to nurture world-class research - Business Day
2006-02-10

 

Sue Blaine
THE University of the Free State plans to concentrate academic study in five areas to strengthen its status as a research institution, the university said yesterday.

The Bloemfontein-based university will focus on areas it classes as development (economics, health, literacy and other human activities) and social transformation — an analysis of how South African society is changing from a philosophical and political viewpoint.

The other three research areas are new technologies, water resources and security, and food production and security.

“It makes sense to concentrate the university’s human resources, infrastructure, financial resources and intellectual expertise,” said university rector and vice-chancellor Prof Frederick Fourie.

The move introduces a style of research that matches international trends.

Universities in Canada, Britain and Australia are setting up their research departments in this way.

In SA, the universities of Stellenbosch, the Witwatersrand, Cape Town and KwaZulu-Natal have embarked on similar strategies.

Fourie gave the example of his alma mater, the US’s Harvard University, whose Nanoscale Science and Engineering Centre is an example of “clustering” on a larger scale.

The centre is a collaboration with Harvard, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the University of California, Santa Barbara, the Museum of Science, Boston, and universities in the Netherlands, Switzerland and Japan.

Fourie said the modern research world was so diverse and complex that no university could cover all bases so it was better to establish areas of expertise that made it different from its peer institutions.

Having scientists and researchers work in teams meant certain issues could be researched and developed in a multidisciplinary manner. “I think it’s the only way in which any university can excel. This will help SA become world class in selected areas,” Fourie said.

It is in chemistry that the cluster model has already had its most visible results, with a slice of the university’s on-campus pharmacological testing company Farmovs, established in the 1980s, sold to the US’s Parexel International.

The company is one of the largest biopharmaceutical outsourcing organisations in the world, providing knowledge-based contract research, medical marketing and consulting services to the global pharmaceutical, biotechnology and medical device industries, according to Biospace, an internet-based company providing resources and information to the life science industry.

President Thabo Mbeki, in his state of the nation address last Friday, committed government to allocating more resources to research, development and innovation, and increasing the pool of young researchers in SA.

He said government would “continue to engage the leadership of our tertiary institutions focused on working with them to meet the nation’s expectations with regard to teaching and research”.

The university used to be home to several A-rated scientists, who are considered by a peer review, conducted by the National Research Foundation, to be world leaders in their fields, but had lost them to other institutions. Fourie hopes to lure them back, and with them postgraduate students and funding for their work.

“At universities where you get a star researcher they tend to attract people and funding; if they leave they take that with them,” he said.

Fourie said R50m would be spent on the project, with some already spent last year and the last disbursements to be made next year.

There is R10m in seed money to gather experts and improve equipment and infrastructure, and R17m has been invested in chemistry equipment and staff.

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