Centre for Environmental Management and Control

The dwindling fortunes of low and middle-income countries across the globe seem to be exacerbating the burden of diseases. The infrastructure deficit that is noticeable in the urban slums of Sub-Saharan Africa hinders efforts in combating diarrhoea, a persisting health challenge. This qualitative study aimed to assess the available infrastructure in suburban districts of Abuja and their relationship with diarrhoea occurrence in under-five years children. The study population was the under-fives in Abuja Municipal (AMAC) and Bwari (BAC) Area Councils. Available infrastructure was assessed through a pre-tested questionnaire administered to 797 mothers/ childminders of under-fives in randomly selected households. Descriptive statistics and the Chi-Square test of the association at p<0.05 was used in the analysis. Occupation of the mother/childminders and wealth quintile of the households were shown to be associated with diarrhoea occurrence. The available water resources were limited, and sanitation and hand washing services were basic. A significant relationship (p<0.05) was established between some of the independent and dependent variables excluding the source of drinking water. This study suggests that the provision of sustainable infrastructure services and critical engagement of women in environmental infrastructure policy formulation should be prioritized.

Climate change remains a threat to the world's peace, security, and well-being, and women are not spared from these effects as they are among the most vulnerable to its negative impacts. The effects range from extreme storm events, flooding, multiyear droughts, saltwater intrusion, and long-term changes to groundwater availability threatening existing water and sanitation systems. The deepening climate crisis with its plethora of worsening environmental infrastructure deficit has become a source of concern for women all over the world more so in Africa as there is a further drawstring on water security and health burdens. The health effect can be seen in pain, fatigue, perinatal health problems, disability related to musculoskeletal disorders, and work performance or satisfaction. Incidents and fear of physical and sexual violence, stress, or self-reported mental health and general health status. Though women outnumber men in the world population and bear the most burden of environmental infrastructure deficit and water security matters, they barely have representation in Government's decision-making or policymaking programs throughout the world. This paper tends to review observational and interventional studies conducted globally to identify the consequences of environmental infrastructure deficit on water security and maternal health; identify key themes for addressing health burdens associated with water security/insecurity, women, climate change, and policymaking. This will be by interrogating the question, does environmental infrastructure deficit on water security cause health burden among women? If it does; what can female participation in policymaking engender? In conclusion, women can address the issue of climate change from different perspectives through indigenous knowledge. They can take significant roles in policymaking. This area of interest which is less explored has good potential for further research.

Pharmaceuticals and personal care products (PPCPs) are continuously released into the environment following regular household use. With the improvement in analytical techniques, research addressing the occurrence, fate and effects of these compounds in various environmental media has increased over the last two decades. There is however, a significant knowledge gap regarding environmental exposure to PPCPs for different regions particularly low-to-middle income countries and emissions from sources other than wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs), such as Onsite wastewater treatment systems (OWTSs). A cross-sectional survey of 350 households in southern Nigeria was used as a proxy to estimate the annual household use of personal care products (PCPs) and the mass of active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) consumed per capita per year by applying the WHO Defined Daily Dose concept. A risk-based prioritization scheme was developed to pre-select PPCPs with the greatest potential to enter ...

Objective: This paper uses the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) to rank main actions and their associated task areas outlined in the Hyogo Framework for Action (HFA) in the case of Nigeria. The focus is on three major challenges namely (1) stakeholder inclusiveness, (2) capacity building and communication and (3) local adaptation. Methods: The perceptions of a sample of 26 field disaster management experts on the HFA were studied and analyzed using AHP. The study found that &quot;Disaster Preparedness&quot; is the most important expected goal followed by &quot;Risk Assessment and Early Warning.&quot; Results: Their priority indices are 0.258 and 0.219, respectively. &quot;Local/City Governance&quot; however, shows poor performance with a priority index of 0.085. Monte Carlo simulation was further applied to examine the robustness of the AHP assessments. Conclusion: The results are indicative of the perceptions of the performance levels attained and the areas that need improvement.

There are generally no acceptable views on the conservation of biodiversity because there are no known best approaches to that. This has presented a challenge on what and how to conserve in developing countries like Nigeria. This paper used a multi-criteria decision-making model based on the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) to elicit experts’ opinions on biodiversity conservation approaches and their corresponding conservation targets. The rationality of the experts was checked by measuring their consistency in the decision-making process. A greedy search algorithm based on linear programming application was also used for resource allocation. This technique is holistic and allows the decision maker to consider all pertinent factors. The approach allows policy makers to integrate worldviews; culture; diverse flexibility of concerned communities and other stakeholders in identifying conservation practices to achieve sustainability. In terms of current performance for the biodiversity ...

Five plant raw materials collected from South Eastern part of Nigeria were used for biofibre extraction and analysis to assess their suitability for biocomposite production. Lignocellulosic biofibres were extracted from young stems of Adenia lobata, Ampelocissus leonensis, Cissus palmatifida, Morinda morindoides and Urena lobata through natural water retting process for a period of 14-16 days and the resulting fibres were uniform with almost flat or circular cross sections. Phytochemical contents and extractives were determined on the untreated and treated fibres respectively. The %w/w cellulose contents of the pretreated biofibres were found to be 48.97± 1.33% for A. leonensis and 43.22±0.95% for A. lobata. The cellulose content of M. morindoides and C. palmitifida were found to be 55.76±1.40% and 55.20±1.59%, respectively. In all the plants studied, U. lobata had the greatest %w/w cellulose content of 58.94±1.05% while A. lobata had the least cellulose content of 43.22±0.95%. Estimation of %w/w hemicellulose contents showed A. leonensis to be 21.22±0.89% whilst the hemicelluloses content in A. lobata and U. lobata were observed to be 18.22±2.18% and 12.38±0.33% in that order. Lower hemicelluloses contents were obtained in C. palmitifida and M. morindoides as 10.32±1.27, 9.32±0.58 and 8.62±1.67%, respectively. The klason lignin contents were found to be 31.33±1.05% for C. palmitifida, 31.22±0.97% for M. morindoides, 28.22 ± 1.96% for A. lobata, and 24.91±0.61% for A. leonensis. The lignin content of U. lobata was found to be the least at 22.26±0.55%. Acid soluble lignin (ASL) content was greater in A. lobata (2.17±0.08%) while A. leonensis had the least value of 1.74±0.34%. ASL-derived products (vanillin, p-coumaric acid and ferulic acid) ranged between 0.50±0.12% and 1.41±0.02% for vanillin; 0.03± 0.02% and 0.65±0.14% for p-coumaric acid; and ferulic acid was only detected in A. leonensis as 0.41±0.11%. The mechanical properties of most fibres used in this study are comparable to those of other biofibres already used in manufacturing and can even match those of some synthetic fibres. Results obtained revealed that fibres used in this study had comparable properties with those already established for manufacturing in biofibre industries.

Groundwater in Eti-Osa and Ibeju-Lekki local government areas of Lagos state was investigated for the effects of beach water influence on adjacent aquifers. Beach water and Borehole samples at distances of 40-50m and 100-150m from adjacent beaches in the study area were collected and analysed for pH, Temperature, Electrical Conductivity, Total Dissolved Solids, Salinity, Ca 2+ , Mg 2+ , K + , Na + , HCO3-, NO3-, Cl-,SO4 2-, Total Hardness and Dissolved Oxygen. The results were compared with World Health Organisation (WHO) and National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) standards for water quality. Piper diagram was used to delineate the hydrochemical facies of the aquifer and to identify hydrogeochemical changes. The results showed that Cl-dominated in boreholes of both Ibeju-Lekki and Eti-Osa. Sampled boreholes in Eti-Osa showed prevailing dominance of major seawater ions (Na + > Ca 2+ > K + > : Cl-> SO4-) at levels far beyond permissible limits of potable water quality set by WHO and NAFDAC and showed a Ca-SO4 and NaCl water type for the boreholes 40-50m and 100-150m from the coastline line respectively. Water quality requirements of WHO and NAFDAC are within permissible limits for boreholes in Ibeju-Lekki. Analysed Water samples from Ibeju-Lekkiare characterised as Ca-SO4 water type. Groundwater resources of studied boreholes in Ibeju-Lekki are less influenced by saltwater intrusion from nearby beach, as opposed to Eti-Osa. This is can be attributed to overtly unsustainable exploitation of groundwater resources in Eti-Osa, which makes groundwater in Eti-Osa unsuitable for domestic purposes.