Sustainable Water Supply: An Overview of Water Supply Systems in some Nigerian Peri-Urban Communities

The aim of this study was to identify various types of water supply systems in Nigerian peri-urban communities, to articulate reasons for their adoption and to assess their sustainability. The study involved intensive literature survey, site visits to water facilities in a number of Abuja, Ilorin and Lagos peri-urban municipalities, historical data collection, and field note from onsite observation and dialogue with the operators. It was discovered that approximately 70% of these water facilities are pumped shallow well water while the rest 30% are borehole water. Furthermore, the water rate charged varies from one facility to another.  The water rate jumps up by 30% - 35% during the dry season. Moreover, clients of the water supply facilities spend 6% - 15% of their monthly family income on water. There is therefore a need for water rate standardization, monitoring and enforcement of policy guidelines of the private water supply facilities. Doing so would lead to improved quality of water supplied, improve public health and ensure sustainability of water supply in those municipalities. Keywords: Community, peri-urban municipality, sustainability, water suppl

Potential social lifecycle impact analysis of bioenergy from household and market wastes in African cities

ArticleBioenergy is touted as a viable source of stable and affordable energy in a number of remote sub-urban centres. This study evaluates the potential social lifecycle impacts of bioenergy production from household wastes and agri-wastes in some African cities. The assessment considered the use of rotten and unsold fruits, vegetables and other related agri-wastes from central open markets in Lagos and Johannesburg as case studies. The 2009 UNEP/SETAC’s social lifecycle assessment (sLCA) guidelines and the associated sLCA methodological sheets are used to evaluate the potential social impacts of bioenergy production from agri-waste on operators/workers, the consumers, the value chain, and the local community. Preliminary results showed that it will provide a lot of benefits such as alternative employment opportunities, improved profits for small businesses, waste minimization, cleaner environment and improved communal health. It will also lead to improvement in energy supply, and alleviation of poverty. However, care has to be taken to protect the bio-digestion facility’s neighbourhood from unpleasant odour, rodents and other organisms that may attempt to feed on the rotting agri-waste. The outcome of this study provides an insight to the necessity for the development of appropriate bioenergy policy/regulation and for the need to take preemptive steps to eliminate/minimize potential negative consequences of bioenergy production on the stakeholders

Community/shared solar power option: a pathway to sustainable rural electrification in Nigeria

Submitted: February 6th, 2021 ; Accepted: June 11th, 2021 ; Published: November 8th, 2021 ; Correspondence: [email protected], [email protected] governments at all levels have been making concerted effort to extend electricity supply to the rural areas. Among the several efforts by various governments are formulation of rural electrification policies, creation of agencies for the administration of rural electrification projects, installation of diesel power generators, and development of public-private partnership strategies in solving rural power supply problems. While significant progress has been made, several rural communities are yet to have access to electricity supply. Rugged terrain and limited financial resources are among the constraints to extension off-grid to the rural areas. However, electricity supply, being one of the drivers of economic development and social wellbeing, is a problem that has to be tackled head-on. The current climate change concern and many other environmental issues of our time necessitate finding a sustainable solution to the problem. Consequently the goal of this study was to examine the potentials of community solar power option as a sustainable rural electrification approach in Nigeria. Other goals included identifying potential hick-ups and solutions to lifecycle management of community solar. Moreover, the study was to determine the suitable configuration for efficient and sustainable community solar power management in Nigeria. The study methodology involved intensive literature survey, historical data collection and case studies on rural electrification in Nigeria as well as examples of community solar projects in Nigeria. Preliminary results revealed that community solar power would be a sustainable approach to rural electrification in Nigeria if a number of conditions are satisfied. Some of the conditions to be satisfied include devolving the management of a community solar system to a participative committee of stakeholders representatives, and incorporating community capacity building in the plan. Other conditions are government, corporate and municipalities’ collaboration in funding such projects from scratch till after one or two years of operation, and incorporation of monitoring and intervention strategies for continuous power supply and further improvement

A linear assignment based conceptual lifecycle assessment method for selecting optimal agri-industrial materials production pathway: A case study on Nigerian yam value chain

Lifecycle assessment is a robust tool for comprehensive environmental impact assessment of products and processes. It provides users opportunities to identify the hotspots along the lifecycle of a system and thereby enable them to implement improvement opportunities as deemed appropriate. Production of agri-based industrial raw materials could be energy and water intensive. Such endeavour could take a heavy toll on the environment in terms of resource consumption and environmental pollution. The goal of this study was to develop an easy to use and less data intensive conceptual LCA methodology for selecting optimal pathway along a value-chain under two decision scenarios: the optimal techno-environmentally friendly pathway, and optimal sustainability pathway. This proposed Linear Assignment Method integrated LCA is a less data intensive conceptual LCA method that facilitates the selection of an optimal production and processing pathway for agri-industrial materials, minimizes resource consumption and reduction of potential climate change impact of agri-industrial materials value chain. The LCA ISO 14040s aligned conceptual LCA method will be found useful in identifying potential hotspots in a agri-industrial production process lifecycle, in selecting activity options that would result in minimum ecological footprint, and help in removing obstacles in implementing a scoping lifecycle analysis where cost, time and data availability are the impediments

Challenges of Otolaryngologic Referral in a Nigerian Tertiary Hospital

Background: The referral system offers one strategy for making the best use of hospitals and tertiary healthcare services. The aim of this study was to analyze the referral system of patients to the otorhinolaryngologist and to examine the use of in-house referral system in the teaching hospital set up.Methods: This was a retrospective review of all patients referred to the ENT Department between January 2000 and December 2007. Data retrieved from all referral notes included the review of referral letter, demographic, referral status, clinical presentations and examination findings. These data were entered into the SPSS computer software version 11.0 and analysedResults: A total of 1402 cases were analyzed. The patients’ ages ranged from 3weeks to 90yrs, with 70.4% of cases being below 40yrs of age while 25.9% were between 40-64yrs and 3.7% were above 65yrs. The Male to female sex ratio was 1:1. The majority (70.4%) of the patients had at least primary school education. The rest (29.6%) had no formal education. Slight over half (51.5%) of the patients were unemployed. The rest were either civil servants or self employed. Out of the 1402 patients that were referred to the hospital, in-house referral accounted for 74.1%, 7.2% of came from private health facility and 4.3% were self referrals. Out of the 1038 in-house referrals, 42.8% were from GOPD, 5.0% from Staff clinic, 13.3% from surgery, 4.7% from medicine, 3.5% from Obstetrics and Gynaecology, 10% from paediatrics and 10.4% from ophthalmology and 10.3% from ENT staffs such as residents, ENT Nurse Practitioner and ENT supporting staffs such as speech therapist and audiologist.Conclusion: The challenges of referral to the otolaryngologists are enormous thus the need to organize continuous medical education for the family physician, to make patients have confidence in the primary care physician, early referral of patients and to allow the otorhinolaryngologist to focus on the cutting edge issues of the specialt

Neuro-ophthalmic Manifestation Of Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma At Ilorin: A Five Year Review

Patients with Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma (NPC) may present with neuro-ophthalmic symptoms including visual loss. Involvement of the cranial nerves have been found to impact significantly on the individual\'s 5 year survival rate,whichmakes an early diagnosis of this condition of great importance in the management ofNPC. Aretrospective reviewof all patients with clinical and histological diagnosis of NPC over a five year period between 1999 and 2003was carried out. Information retrieved from the records include their age, symptoms and signs with emphases on neuro-ophthalmic at presentation. Data were analysed using SPSS statistical package. Twenty records out of the 23 patients with a diagnosis of NPC seen during this period were available for review.The age rangewas between 20 and 60years, theMeanwas 38.9years, SD11.62. Sixty percent of the patients had neuroophthalmic manifestation with symptoms such as ocular pain, double vision, loss of vision and eye protrusion and signs such as ophthalmoplegia, exposure keratopathy and proptosis in various combinations. Neuro-ophthalmic manifestations were commonly found among patients diagnosed as NPC at Ilorin. A high index of suspicion of NPC whenever a patient presents with neuro-ophthalmic signs and symptomis advocated. Keywords: Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma,Neuro-ophthalmic. Nigerian Journal of Clinical Practice Vol. 11 (4) 2008: pp. 376-37

The Political Economy of Digitalization and Climate Change Response in Nigeria

Climate change is having serious impacts on the sustainability of the world. Growing scientific exactitude on causes and effects of climate change makes humanity’s response to it an urgent and critical need. Nigeria like many countries around the world is facing difficult times owing to the new environmental realities produced by the menace. Responding to climate change requires humanity’s best social, political, scientific, and technological efforts. To achieve this, this paper notes that digitalization can be a veritable climate change response tool in Nigeria. Dwelling on Schumpeter’s theory of innovation and the political economy approach, the paper argues that digitalization holds positives for Nigeria’s hitherto unimpressive climate change response but may not be practicable due to the social, economic and political contradictions that are producing unfavourable outcomes within the Nigerian state. This situation explains why mitigation and adaption efforts have not produced satisfactory results, a situation that puts citizens’ wellbeing in harm’s way in critical areas such as agriculture, housing, healthcare, and energy among others. The paper concludes that digitalization would make mitigation and adaptation wholesome and enhance the adequacy of climate change policies and programmes towards sustainable development in Nigeria. It then comes up with policy suggestions that can help mainstream digitalization as a tool for climate change response in the country

Anthropometry Survey of Nigerian Occupational Bus Drivers to Facilitate Sustainable Design of Driver’s Workplace

Driving is a highly demanding and responsible job in which both the driver and passengers are exposed to several occupational risks.However, poor design of driver’s workplace is a major risk factor responsible for the uncomfortable conditions which operators of this highly technological system are exposed to especially when engaged in long distance driving. This study aimed at developing anthropometric model for business bus drivers in Nigerian which will facilitate sustainable design of driver’s workplace. A sample size of 161 drivers were randomly selected among strata of operators of buses in selected motor parks in the study area for the ergonomic study. Twelve anthropometric data were collected and analysed to obtain their 5th,50th and 95th percentiles with which the anthropometric model were developed. Anthropometric model developed from 1932 data points was presented in forms of table showing measurement of sitting driver’s body parts in his workspace indicating design for average as well as extremities of 5th and 95th percentiles. The model represents a database from which designers, manufacturers of equipment, machine, automobiles and household goods can obtain relevant body measurement of the population under study in relation relevant to specific product feature and for development of sustainable workspace design

A sustainable approach to boosting liquid biofuels production from second generation biomass resources in West Africa

West African region has abundant second generation biomass resources consisting of agricultural residues, forest resources; municipal solid wastes; and animal wastes that could be harnessed to produce liquid biofuels. A number of countries in the region have developed energy policies to foster bioenergy production. Despite the national intent expressed in various countries’ bioenergy policies, development of bioenergy facilities and liquid biofuels production from cellulosic sources in the region are essentially at the research and development stage. This study, through comprehensive reviews of various bioenergy policies, news reports, related journal articles and development reports, examined the reasons for the delay in the development of biorefineries in the region. The study then articulated feasible solutions to address the challenges. Among the discovered causes of the delay are over-dependence on fossil fuels and defective energy policy implementation manifesting in the form of lack of continuity. Other issues include poor private sector’s involvement and inadequate incentives necessary for private investors’ participation. This study concludes that boosting liquid biofuels production in West Africa would require public-private collaboration that is built from bottom-up. Successful bioenergy facilities’ development in the region would need to be community level scaled rather than being mega projects, and it would need to involve participation of communities as collaborators. In addition, to ensure sustainable production, it would be necessary to incorporate public enlightenment, and grant tax incentives to investors. Moreover, it would need to include a sustainable technology training package that would empower local engineers and technicians to not only develop bioenergy facilities that are suitable for the locality but also to maintain and improve them. Furthermore, Continuity and consistency in policy implementation and financing prioritization are essential to boosting liquid biofuel production in the West African region and to enable West African region to occupy its rightful place in the global bioeconomy