Latest News Archive

Please select Category, Year, and then Month to display items
Previous Archive
21 June 2021 | Story Dr Patricks Voua Otomo
Dr Patricks Voua Otomo
Dr Patricks Voua Otomo is the Head of the Ecotoxicology Research Laboratory and Subject Head: Zoology and Entomology in the Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences at the University of the Free State (UFS).

The month of June is earmarked for the celebration of National Environment Month, with the South African government and captains of industry leading the way by stimulating awareness on environmental issues and challenging everyone to become agents for change. World Environment Day, the biggest annual event of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), is commemorated on 5 June, with the aim of galvanising positive environmental action. The University of the Free State (UFS) – through researchers from the Afromontane Research Unit (ARU) housed on the Qwaqwa Campus of the UFS – is playing its part in the fight against pollution, and especially water pollution in the eastern Free State.

The ARU initiated a research project in 2021, focusing on the assessment of the quality of local natural water resources in order to foster sustainable development in Phuthaditjhaba, and because of the recurring challenges pertaining to water quality and quantity in the Maluti-a-Phofung (MAP) Local Municipality. For the first such project focusing exclusively on pollution issues in a select Afromontane region – led by Dr Patricks Voua Otomo, Head of the Ecotoxicology Research Laboratory and Subject Head: Zoology and Entomology in the Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences – a vibrant team of ARU scientists and students set out to determine the ecotoxicological and bacteriological state of water resources in MAP. With the permission of MAP, ARU researchers and students were allowed access to municipal wastewater treatment plants in the towns of Phuthaditjhaba and Harrismith, and ethical clearance from the UFS permitted limited environmental sampling and laboratory testing using live organisms such as snails and earthworms.

Focusing on the quality of natural water bodies
In November 2016, Ms Portia Mosolloane (2016 honours student) presented the preliminary findings of the project at an ARU colloquium held in the Golden Gate Highlands National Park. Her work has drawn attention to potential localised incidents of terrestrial contamination linked to sewage sludge management in the region. Those early findings were published internationally, and in May 2018, Ms Mosolloane went on to present her research at the 28th Annual Meeting of the Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry (SETAC) in Rome, Italy.

In an attempt to mitigate sewage sludge-induced soil pollution, Ms Nomasonto Dlamini (master’s student) conducted research from 2018 on the potential beneficial effects of biochar amendment on the sewage sludge as an alternative management strategy. The results revealed that mixing biochar with sewage sludge prior to open-air storage would significantly decrease the toxic effects on terrestrial organisms such as oligochaetes. This work is still ongoing, although in May 2019, Ms Dlamini presented some of her findings at the Fifth World Congress on Risk Development and Resilience in Cape Town.

From the start, an important focus of our research has been the quality of natural water bodies in our region and its ability to support life. In 2020, Ms Mosolloane graduated cum laude with a Master of Science, having successfully established that, particularly along polluted and degraded sections of our rivers, the diversity of riparian invertebrate was heavily skewed and reduced. Her work on water quality has suggested that our failing wastewater treatment plants (due to ageing, capacity overload, and poor management) are contributing to the release of pathogenic bacteria such as Escherichia coli in the local rivers.

Mr Mbuyiselwa Moloi (a 2020 Master of Science graduate from the project) found through his research that wastewater treatment plants only contribute partially to river pollution in the region. His work, focusing on metal pollution in the Elands River (Phuthaditjhaba) and the Wilge River (Harrismith), established that although there is evidence of metal enrichment after wastewater processing by the treatment plants, some of the metal in the rivers emanates from the communities that, due to the lack of adequate refuse removal services, often dispose of their household waste directly into the rivers. Mr Moloi’s research was presented at the 2019 International Mountain Conference in Innsbruck, Austria, and was subsequently published in the International Journal of Hygiene and Environmental Health in 2020.

Ms Matseleng Semase (a 2020 Master of Science graduate from the project) worked on establishing whether the quality of the effluent released from the local wastewater treatment plants was conducive to supporting aquatic life. Using a snail species in the laboratory, she found that although of substandard quality, the effluent released from the treatment plants did not hamper growth and reproduction in her test organism. This pointed to the fact that corrective measures could still be taken to reduce the harmful impact of wastewater management processes on river health in the eastern Free State. Ms Semase’s work was presented at the 9th SETAC Africa Biennial Conference held in Cape Town in 2019, and her findings were submitted for publication in Environmental Science and Pollution Research.

First such project focusing exclusively on pollution issues
Some of our findings infused new life into the project, steering our work in unexpected directions. Early in the project we came to realise that there was a paucity of research focusing on pollution in mountain areas in South Africa and in Africa at large. Mr Hendrik Stander joined the project in 2019 as a master’s student. His task was to work on the development of fast and reliable behavioural testing protocols that could be used in the project. His preliminary findings were presented at the 40th annual meeting of SETAC North America in Toronto, Canada, and were subsequently published in the Bulletin of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology. Ms Sanele Mnkandla, who joined the project as a PhD candidate in 2020, is working on proposing water remediation strategies that could help improve the state of the rivers in the region. She recently submitted a review article on the topic for publication in Environmental Evidence. Another review article in the making and focusing on literature evidence of mountain pollution in Africa, is the brainchild of Dr Ozekeke Ogbeide, a collaborator from the University of Benin (Nigeria), who co-supervised several students and co-authored some of the scientific publications from the project.

This ongoing research, under the auspices of the ARU, is the first such project focusing exclusively on pollution issues in a select Afromontane region. With Ms Dlamini, Mr Stander, and Ms Mnkandla still actively involved in the project, we look forward to finding more answers to the environmental challenges of the eastern Free State and to working together with MAP towards environmental sustainability in the region.

News Archive

Research helps farmers save with irrigation
2017-02-15

Description: Irrigation research Tags: Irrigation research

Marcill Venter, lecturer in the Department of
Agricultural Economics at the University of the
Free State, has developed the mathematical
programming system, Soil Water Irrigation
Planning and Energy Management in order to
determine irrigation pump hours.
Photo: Rulanzen Martin

Her advice to farmers is that they should make sure they are aware of the total cost (investment and operating costs) of an irrigation system. In most cases the investment cost is low, but the operating cost over the lifetime of the system is high.

“It is very important to have a look at the total cost and to install the most economic system,” says Marcill Venter, lecturer at the University of the Free State (UFS), who has done research on the economic sustainability of water-pipe systems.

Irrigation systems important components for farming
This research comes at a time when many farmers are relying on their irrigation systems due to persistent drought and low rainfall during 2016. South Africa has also experienced an abnormal increase in electricity tariffs in recent years. Due to tariff increases which threaten the future profitability of irrigation producers, the Water Research Commission (WRC) has launched and financed a project on the sustainable management of irrigation farming systems. “I had the opportunity to work on the project as a researcher,” says Venter.

The heart of every irrigation system is the water pipes that bring life to crops and livestock, and this is what Venter’s research is about. “Water pipes are part of the whole design of irrigation systems. The design of the system impact certain factors which determine the investment and operating costs,” she says.

Mathematical system to help farmers
Venter and Professor Bennie Grové, also from the Department of Agricultural Economics at the UFS, designed the Soil Water Irrigation Planning and Energy Management (SWIP-E) programming model as part of the WRC’s project, as well as for her master’s degree. “The model determines irrigation pump hours through a daily groundwater budget, while also taking into account the time-of-use electricity tariff structure and change in kilowatt requirements arising from the main-line design,” says Venter. The model is a non-linear programming model programmed in General Algebraic Modeling System (GAMS).

Design of irrigation system important for sustainability

The main outcome of the study is that the time-of-use electricity tariff structure (Ruraflex) is always more profitable than the flat-rate structure (Landrate). The interaction between the management and design of a system is crucial, as it determines the investment and operating costs. Irrigation designers should take the investment and operating cost of a system into account during the design process. The standards set by the South African Irrigation Institute (SAII) should also be controlled and revised.

Water-pipe thickness plays major role in cost cuts
There is interaction between water-pipe thickness, investment and operating costs. When thinner water pipes are installed, it increases the friction in the system as well as the kilowatt usage. A high kilowatt increases the operating cost, but the use of thinner water pipes lowers the investment cost. Thicker water pipes therefore lower the friction and the kilowatt requirements, which leads to lower operating costs, but thicker pipes have a higher investment cost. “It is thus crucial to look at the total cost (operating and investment cost) when investing in a new system. Farmers should invest in the system with the lowest total cost,” says Venter.

We use cookies to make interactions with our websites and services easy and meaningful. To better understand how they are used, read more about the UFS cookie policy. By continuing to use this site you are giving us your consent to do this.

Accept