Assessment of the Impact of Industrial Wastewater on the Water Quality of Rivers around the Bole Lemi Industrial Park (BLIP), Ethiopia

The discharge of industrial waste into water bodies without significant treatment can be a source of water pollution. This study was conducted to assess the impact of industrial wastewater on the water quality in rivers around the Bole Lemi Industrial Park (BLIP). Data were collected from six sampling stations in midstream, downstream, and upstream locations between May and June 2021. In situ (pH, electrical conductivity [EC], total suspended solids [TSS], and temperature) and ex situ (chemical oxygen demand [COD], total nitrogen [TN], total dissolved solids [TDS], total phosphorus [TP], and biological oxygen demand [BOD]) determinations of water quality were conducted. The quality of the water samples was examined using the weighted arithmetic water quality index (WQI) method. A statistical analysis showed that there are significant differences in the water quality parameters among the sampling stations along the river. The results showed different levels of temperature, EC, pH, TSS, TDS, COD, BOD, TN, and TP. The pH values were higher than the pH ranges (6.5-8.5) of USEPA, EU, CES, and WHO at two sampling stations. The results of the WQI showed that the analyzed water samples were in the "unsuitable for consumption" water quality category. These results will be useful for the city administration of Addis Ababa in crafting strategies for the protection and sustainable management of the Bole Lemi River

Agricultural growth linkages in Ethiopia: Estimates using fixed and flexible price models

"Accelerating growth and poverty reduction, and the ultimate achievement of structural transformation, are the critical policy challenges in present day Ethiopia. This paper examines relevant growth options in terms of their impact on overall growth and poverty reduction in the country. It deploys a fixed-price semi-input-output model and a flexible-price economy-wide multi-market model for that purpose. The paper finds that agricultural growth can induce higher overall growth and faster poverty reduction than non-agricultural growth, although the latter can also have large growth effects in some cases. Among sub-sectors within agriculture, staple crops have stronger growth linkages. Decomposition of these effects also reveals that consumption linkages are much stronger than production linkages, i.e., the impact of increased consumption demand due to growth (agricultural and non-agricultural) is much larger than that of the corresponding expansion in input demand. Moreover, non-agricultural sectors have to grow in order to match growing supply of agricultural products and increasing demand for non-agricultural products. Otherwise, falling relative prices of agricultural products may dampen the realized gains in growth and poverty reduction." from Authors' AbstractPoverty reduction, Agricultural growth, Linkages, Staple food crops, non-agricultural sector, agricultural products, Prices,

Bioflocs Technology in Freshwater Aquaculture: Variations in Carbon Sources and Carbon-to-Nitrogen Ratios

Aquaculture is one of the fastest food-producing sectors contributing half of the food fish destined for human consumption. Nevertheless, aquaculture production still needs to increase to fill the gap in supply and demand for fish, as the capture fisheries are stagnating over the years. Therefore, intensification of aquaculture production systems by increasing inputs such as feed has been devised as an alternative. On the other hand, intensive aquaculture has been associated with concerns related to environmental pollution in the past decades. Moreover, the increased cost of feed ingredients for aquaculture species has hampered the intensification of the sector. Therefore, alternative production systems such as biofloc technology were developed to mitigate the environmental impacts of intensive aquaculture and also to produce extra feed for cultured organisms. Due to their omnivorous feeding habit and tolerance to higher levels of suspended solids, freshwater finfishes have been the most cultured species in this system. The organic carbon sources used in the biofloc system are agricultural and industrial by-products which are cheap and readily available, making the technology economically feasible. C:N ratios of 10, 15, and 20 have been the most applied C:N ratios in the culture of freshwater aquaculture finfishes covered in this review

Risk factors for mortality among adult HIV/AIDS patients following antiretroviral therapy in Southwestern Ethiopia : an assessment through survival models

Introduction: Efforts have been made to reduce HIV/AIDS-related mortality by delivering antiretroviral therapy (ART) treatment. However, HIV patients in resource-poor settings are still dying, even if they are on ART treatment. This study aimed to explore the factors associated with HIV/AIDS-related mortality in Southwestern Ethiopia. Method: A non-concurrent retrospective cohort study which collected data from the clinical records of adult HIV/AIDS patients, who initiated ART treatment and were followed between January 2006 and December 2010, was conducted, to explore the factors associated with HIV/AIDS-related mortality at Jimma University Specialized Hospital (JUSH). Survival times (i. e., the time from the onset of ART treatment to the death or censoring) and different characteristics of patients were retrospectively examined. A best-fit model was chosen for the survival data, after the comparison between native semi-parametric Cox regression and parametric survival models (i. e., exponential, Weibull, and log-logistic). Result: A total of 456 HIV patients were included in the study, mostly females (312, 68.4%), with a median age of 30 years (inter-quartile range (IQR): 23-37 years). Estimated follow-up until December 2010 accounted for 1245 person-years at risk (PYAR) and resulted in 66 (14.5%) deaths and 390 censored individuals, representing a median survival time of 34.0 months (IQR: 22.8-42.0 months). The overall mortality rate was 5.3/100 PYAR: 6.5/100 PYAR for males and 4.8/100 PYAR for females. The Weibull survival model was the best model for fitting the data (lowest AIC). The main factors associated with mortality were: baseline age (> 35 years old, AHR = 3.8, 95% CI: 1.6-9.1), baseline weight (AHR = 0.93, 95% CI: 0.90-0.97), baseline WHO stage IV (AHR = 6.2, 95% CI: 2.2-14.2), and low adherence to ART treatment AHR = 4.2, 95% CI: 2.5-7.1). Conclusion: An effective reduction in HIV/AIDS mortality could be achieved through timely ART treatment onset and maintaining high levels of treatment adherence

Cereals Availability Study in Ethiopia, 2008

Unusual changes in grain markets have been the source of major concerns for the Government of Ethiopia and its development partners. Increase in cereal price presented serious challenges to the implementation of country’s food security programs. Local procurement of food by the WFP declined also in the recent years. Being one of the largest donors of local procurement of food, the European Union was particularly concerned about these developments. Thus, as a General Directorate in charge of supporting EU policies, the Joint Research Centre (JRC) of the EU developed the technical specification of a project to extend the scope of the usual Cereal Availability Study (CAS) in order to account for the developments in the Ethiopian cereal markets. International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) consortium with the Ethiopian Development Research Institute (EDRI) and the Ethiopian Institute of Agricultural Research (EIAR) was selected to carry out the study. A number of preliminary analyses, undertaken by the World Bank and IFPRI had put forward a number of hypotheses to explain unusual high cereal prices. While the different hypotheses were widely debated in the country, there is limited primary information to validate or refute them. It is in this context that the current study was undertaken. The focus has been mainly on achieving the following objectives: • To gather information regarding recent changes in cereal production, storage, and marketing patterns in order to test the hypotheses that have been proposed to explain the high price of cereals in Ethiopian markets. • To improve the general methodology of the past cereal availability studies. • To estimate the quantity of maize, sorghum, and wheat that can be procured from domestic markets in the 2008 for relief purposes without disturbing the local market. Implementation of the study was carried out in three broad stages. The first stage involved an overview of cereal availability methods and a consultation for determining the survey / sampling methods. Three surveys were conducted in the second stage, namely, a household survey, a traders’ survey, and a rapid assessment of cross border trade. At third stage, results from the surveys, and some secondary data, have been used to develop a spatial equilibrium multi-market model (ESGMM) to analyze policy impacts of various policy interventions. The results were presented in a final workshop held in the United Nations’ Economic Commission for Africa in Addis Ababa on December 5, 2008.JRC.H.4-Monitoring Agricultural Resource

The global burden of cancer attributable to risk factors, 2010-19 : a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2019

Background Understanding the magnitude of cancer burden attributable to potentially modifiable risk factors is crucial for development of effective prevention and mitigation strategies. We analysed results from the Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study (GBD) 2019 to inform cancer control planning efforts globally. Methods The GBD 2019 comparative risk assessment framework was used to estimate cancer burden attributable to behavioural, environmental and occupational, and metabolic risk factors. A total of 82 risk-outcome pairs were included on the basis of the World Cancer Research Fund criteria. Estimated cancer deaths and disability-adjusted life-years (DALYs) in 2019 and change in these measures between 2010 and 2019 are presented. Findings Globally, in 2019, the risk factors included in this analysis accounted for 4.45 million (95% uncertainty interval 4.01-4.94) deaths and 105 million (95.0-116) DALYs for both sexes combined, representing 44.4% (41.3-48.4) of all cancer deaths and 42.0% (39.1-45.6) of all DALYs. There were 2.88 million (2.60-3.18) risk-attributable cancer deaths in males (50.6% [47.8-54.1] of all male cancer deaths) and 1.58 million (1.36-1.84) risk-attributable cancer deaths in females (36.3% [32.5-41.3] of all female cancer deaths). The leading risk factors at the most detailed level globally for risk-attributable cancer deaths and DALYs in 2019 for both sexes combined were smoking, followed by alcohol use and high BMI. Risk-attributable cancer burden varied by world region and Socio-demographic Index (SDI), with smoking, unsafe sex, and alcohol use being the three leading risk factors for risk-attributable cancer DALYs in low SDI locations in 2019, whereas DALYs in high SDI locations mirrored the top three global risk factor rankings. From 2010 to 2019, global risk-attributable cancer deaths increased by 20.4% (12.6-28.4) and DALYs by 16.8% (8.8-25.0), with the greatest percentage increase in metabolic risks (34.7% [27.9-42.8] and 33.3% [25.8-42.0]). Interpretation The leading risk factors contributing to global cancer burden in 2019 were behavioural, whereas metabolic risk factors saw the largest increases between 2010 and 2019. Reducing exposure to these modifiable risk factors would decrease cancer mortality and DALY rates worldwide, and policies should be tailored appropriately to local cancer risk factor burden. Copyright (C) 2022 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an Open Access article under the CC BY 4.0 license.Peer reviewe

The global burden of cancer attributable to risk factors, 2010–19: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2019

BACKGROUND: Understanding the magnitude of cancer burden attributable to potentially modifiable risk factors is crucial for development of effective prevention and mitigation strategies. We analysed results from the Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study (GBD) 2019 to inform cancer control planning efforts globally. METHODS: The GBD 2019 comparative risk assessment framework was used to estimate cancer burden attributable to behavioural, environmental and occupational, and metabolic risk factors. A total of 82 risk–outcome pairs were included on the basis of the World Cancer Research Fund criteria. Estimated cancer deaths and disability-adjusted life-years (DALYs) in 2019 and change in these measures between 2010 and 2019 are presented. FINDINGS: Globally, in 2019, the risk factors included in this analysis accounted for 4·45 million (95% uncertainty interval 4·01–4·94) deaths and 105 million (95·0–116) DALYs for both sexes combined, representing 44·4% (41·3–48·4) of all cancer deaths and 42·0% (39·1–45·6) of all DALYs. There were 2·88 million (2·60–3·18) risk-attributable cancer deaths in males (50·6% [47·8–54·1] of all male cancer deaths) and 1·58 million (1·36–1·84) risk-attributable cancer deaths in females (36·3% [32·5–41·3] of all female cancer deaths). The leading risk factors at the most detailed level globally for risk-attributable cancer deaths and DALYs in 2019 for both sexes combined were smoking, followed by alcohol use and high BMI. Risk-attributable cancer burden varied by world region and Socio-demographic Index (SDI), with smoking, unsafe sex, and alcohol use being the three leading risk factors for risk-attributable cancer DALYs in low SDI locations in 2019, whereas DALYs in high SDI locations mirrored the top three global risk factor rankings. From 2010 to 2019, global risk-attributable cancer deaths increased by 20·4% (12·6–28·4) and DALYs by 16·8% (8·8–25·0), with the greatest percentage increase in metabolic risks (34·7% [27·9–42·8] and 33·3% [25·8–42·0]). INTERPRETATION: The leading risk factors contributing to global cancer burden in 2019 were behavioural, whereas metabolic risk factors saw the largest increases between 2010 and 2019. Reducing exposure to these modifiable risk factors would decrease cancer mortality and DALY rates worldwide, and policies should be tailored appropriately to local cancer risk factor burden