Latest News Archive

Please select Category, Year, and then Month to display items

Dr Gladys Belle’s research dedicated to reducing impact of COVID drugs on water resources

11 February 2024 | Story Leonie Bolleurs | Photo SUPPLIED

Beyond the destruction caused by the Coronavirus during the COVID-19 pandemic, it continues to impact not only the lives of many people but also the environment.

Dr Gladys Belle, a postdoctoral researcher in the Centre for Environmental Management at the University of the Free State (UFS), is currently focusing her research on the risk assessment of pharmaceuticals of emerging concern in water resources, specifically concerning human health and aquatic ecosystems. She explains that her research investigates the occurrence, fate, and behaviour of four drugs used during COVID-19 and assesses the risk these drugs pose to human health and the aquatic ecosystem within the Orange-Senqu River Basin.

“I am passionate about water research and more passionate about human health. My interest in water and health-related research grew due to the health crisis caused by human exposure to contaminated water sources in South Africa,” she states.

Dr Belle adds that she wants to raise awareness and shape the behaviour of local communities in South Africa regarding safe disposal methods. Through programmes such as take-back initiatives, the research seeks to reduce the impact of pharmaceuticals on water resources. She states, “My research will also influence the implementation of various preventive measures, including policies regulating the disposal of drugs into the environment. This research may serve as the basis for better sanitation solutions within communities and improving wastewater treatment processes in the country.”

Focusing on women scientists such as Dr Belle, the UFS will be celebrating the United Nations International Day of Women and Girls in Science on 11 February, commemorating women in the field of science and encouraging girls to pursue careers in this field.

A passion for academia and science

From a young age, Dr Belle was deeply enthusiastic about academia, particularly in the field of science. She studied Environmental Sciences at a university in Cameroon, earning her BSc in 2003. Taking a ten-year break, she focused on being a mum and also worked as Biology teacher in Lesotho.

Despite staying away from the university for an extended period, Dr Belle never let go of her passion and vision to one day become a renowned researcher and academic. In 2012, she enrolled for her honours degree in Environmental Health, followed by her master's in 2013, which she passed with distinction. Immediately after, she enrolled for a PhD and successfully graduated in 2021.

She mentions that her PhD journey came with various challenges, balancing responsibilities as a part-time lecturer, a mother, and a wife while pursuing her studies. “Regardless of all those challenges, I never gave up. Instead, they kept me motivated to get going,” she says.

The same year that she obtained her PhD, Dr Belle joined the university as a postdoctoral researcher. “Being a researcher at the UFS has allowed me to advance my research career and provided a platform for me to meet and learn from the gurus in my field,” she comments. Dr Belle considers Prof Paul Oberholster, the Dean of the Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences and her current supervisor, as a true mentor. He not only teaches her the skill of hard work, but he also encourages her to aim high in research. She also expresses great appreciation to the Directorate of Research Development for its support during her research journey, providing her with access to tools and resources to effectively pursue her work as researcher.

As postdoctoral researcher, Dr Belle expanded her research expertise by publishing in peer-reviewed journals and gaining experience in writing grants and managing projects. In 2023, she received two prestigious research grants. In the Water Research Commission grant, she is leading a team of six national and international experts in risk assessment of emerging contaminants in water resources.

Furthermore, Dr Belle received the Innovation Postdoctoral Fellowship award for 2023 from the National Research Foundation (NRF). She explains that the project focuses on investigating sources, pathways, occurrences, and potential risks of pharmaceuticals of emerging concern on potential receptors in water resources. “This study targets the different wastewater treatment plants (WWTP) in Mangaung, as these plants pose a potential risk of introducing pharmaceuticals into water systems,” she remarks.

Strengthening capacity development

Focusing on understanding the risks of new pollutants in water resources, Dr Belle is well on her way to becoming one of the leading researchers in water and health, a long-standing aspiration of hers. “I see myself working with top researchers in my field, both nationally and internationally, to be part of important international research projects, including working with the European Union and the United Nations,” she says.

In addition to making an impact on the international stage and collaborating with experts in her field, she also aims to transfer and share her skills to the postgraduate students working with her, thereby strengthening their development.

For girls and young women aspiring to embark on a journey in any field of science, her message is that it is possible. “Whatever career path you wish to pursue in sciences, put your mind to it and be passionate about what you do; ultimately, you will testify that ‘it is possible’,” Dr Belle concludes.

News Archive

Protection of Information bill- opinions from our experts

2011-11-28

Prof. Hussein Solomon
Senior Professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of the Free State.

In recent years, given their failure to effectively govern, the ANC has become increasingly defensive. These defensive traits have become particularly acute in light of the various corruption scandals that members of the ruling party involve themselves in.

Given the fact that for now they are assured of an electoral majority (largely on account of their anti-apartheid credentials), coupled with the fact that they have managed to make parliament a rubber stamp of the executive as opposed to holding the executive accountable, it is the media which has increasingly held the ruling party to account by exposing such corruption and incompetence in government.

The passing of the information bill, therefore, is not merely an attack on the media, but an attack on the pivotal issue of accountability. Without accountability, there can be no democracy.

By defining national interest broadly, by refusing to accept a public interest clause in the bill, the ANC increasingly shows its disdain to South Africa's constitution and its citizens.

More importantly, as former Minister of Intelligence and ANC stalwart Ronnie Kasrils pointedly makes clear, the ANC is also betraying its own noble struggle against the odious apartheid regime. It was the media which played a key role in exposing apartheid's excesses, it is the same media which is coming under attack by the heirs of PW Botha's State Security Council - Minister of State Security Siyabong Cwele and his security apparatchiks whose mindsets reflect more Stalin's Gulag's than the values of the Freedom Charter.

The passing of this bill is also taking place at a time when journalists have had their phones attacked, where the judiciary has been deliberately undermined and parliament silenced.

Democrats beware!

Prof. Johann de Wet

Chairperson: Department of Communication Science

The ANC’s insistence on passing the Protection of State Information Bill in its current form and enforcing it by law, means that the essence of our democratic state and the quality of life of every citizen is at stake.

Yes, our freedom as academics, researchers, mass media practitioners and citizens comes into play. Freedom implies the right to choose and is, along with equality, an underlying principle which helps make democracy happen. While the South African state needs to protect (classify) information which could threaten its security and/or survival, the omission of a public interest clause in the Bill at this stage effectively denies a citizen the right to freedom of information.

Freedom of information, along with press freedom, freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, freedom of association and religious freedom, are essential to democracy. These freedoms are granted because they conform to basic liberal ideas associated with (Western) democracy and which resonate with South Africa’s liberal constitution, such as (1) belief in the supreme value of the individual (and thus not of the state); (2) belief that the individual has natural rights (rights which belong to all human beings by nature – such as the right to life and to control government)) which exist independently of government, and which ought to be protected by and against government; and (3) recognition of the supreme value of the individual.

One wonders how many cases of South African government corruption and mismanagement would have been uncovered by investigative journalists over the past number of years if this Bill in its current form was on the statute books. This Bill represents a backward step from the promise of democracy of having an informed public. The former National Party government had similar laws in place and one does not want to go there again. The infamous Information Scandal in South Africa of some thirty years ago, or Muldergate as it has come to be known, reminds one of what governments can do when it works clandestinely.

What South Africans need, is more information on what government structures are doing and how they are doing it with taxpayers’ money, not less information. While information in itself does not equal communication or dialogue, it is an indispensable part thereof, and the need for dialogue based on verifiable information is urgent for meeting vexed challenges facing South African communities. Academics in all fields of specialisation are constantly in need of untainted information to pursue answers and/or offer solutions to where South Africa should be moving in all spheres of life.

Back

Economic and Management Sciences

Education

Health Sciences

The Humanities

Law

Natural and Agricultural Sciences

Theology and Religion

Open Distance Learning

Business School

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