Projects
West Africa Science Service Centre on Climate Change and Adopted Land use (WASCAL)
WASCAL is a large-scale research-focused programme funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research designed to develop effective adaptation and mitigation measures to climate change. Its overall objective is to enhance the resilience of human and environmental systems to climate change and increased climate variability. This initiative seeks to give support to West African universities to synergise their efforts on a regional basis and maximise their capabilities to improve the training in land use, climate change and geosciences for better overall results and increased benefit to West Africa. The programme ultimately aims at strengthening the research, educational and policy capacity and competency of West-African countries to deal with issues of climate change through adapted land use on a scientific basis in partnership with German institutions.
Prof. S. N. Odai, Project Director
Scientists Networked for Outcomes from Water and Sanitation (SNOWS)
African SNOWS Consortium established in August 2009 by a 5-year grant from the Wellcome Trust aims to build African capacity for interdisciplinary research in Water Supply, Sanitation and Environmental Health, bringing together universities from across the continent, with research active universities in the North. The primary focus of the consortium is to build capacity in research that leads to improved Public Health. This consortium links nine universities from 7 countries (6 African Universities from countries and 3 European Universities from 2 countries) under the name Scientists Networked for Outcomes from Water and Sanitation, SNOWS.
The project is hosted at the Civil Engineering Department, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) in Ghana under the directorship of Prof Samuel Nii Odai. Member institutions are: Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (Ghana), Egerton University (Kenya), London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (UK), Mbarara University of Science and Technology, (Uganda), Tshwane University of Technology (South Africa), University of Copenhagen (Denmark), University of East Anglia (UK), University of Gezira (Sudan), University of Venda, (South Africa). The consortium seeks to provide internally excellent Africa-based research that will enable all African children to realise their maximum potential through sustainable water supply, sanitation and hygiene delivery.
Prof. S. N. Odai, Project Director
Within the last year, the following activities have been undertaken.
SNOWS KNUST, Egerton, and MUST together with the Centre for Science and Health Communication, Ghana have jointly received a grant of £29,989 towards Public engagement between scientists and Journalists. This award will seek to educate scientists on how to communicate their research output to the media and also how journalists can in turn communicate research findings in a coherent manner.
Africa Centres of Excellence (ACE)
African Centres of Excellence Project at KNUST, Kumasi, is to establish a Regional Water and Environmental Sanitation Centre, Kumasi (RWESCK) is hosted by the Department of Civil Engineering and seeks to offer post graduate training and research programmes for the public and private sectors in the West African Region. The project is supported by national, regional and international partners and KNUST Departments of Mathematics, Planning and Theoretical and Applied Biology. This four-year project officially starts from June 2014 with a funding of US$ 8,Million by the World Bank under the African Centres of Excellence Project. The main aim of the Centre is to achieve excellence through training and research of international standards in water, environmental sanitation and environment to create the needed critical mass of human resources and knowledge for influencing and directing national and regional policies.
Prof. S. N. Odai, Project Director
The Activities of the Centre Include the Following;
- Establish a secretariat for the Regional Water and Environmental Sanitation Centre, Kumasi (RWESCK)
- Develop new post graduate programmes in collaboration with National, Regional and International partners
- Develop and build capacity for research and innovative technology development in collaboration with National, Regional and International partners
- Build industry and academic partnerships for outreach through students/faculty exchange, networking, conferences and workshops to bridge the gap between academic and industry to solve developmental challenges
- Position the Centre of excellence to be financially sustainable beyond the project duration.
The Centre will train over 40 PhDs, 120 MScs and 650 Short Courses participants within the four years.
Sanitation For Urban Poor Project (SaniUP)
Smart Sanitation is a collaboration with UNESCO-IHE to start a project titled Stimulating Local Innovation on Sanitation for the Urban Poor in sub-Saharan Africa and South-East Asia (Smart Sanitation) over a five (5) year period. This project is funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) to the tune of US$385,000 Overall, the project aims to:
- Increase the number of sanitation professionals in developing countries.
- Provide adequate research education and training for the new generation of “all-round” sanitary engineers.
- Make (Post-Graduate) education in sanitation engineering more accessible to individuals from developing countries.
- Further strengthen the pro-poor sanitation component at the academic institutions involved.
These outputs shall be achieved through specially packaged research programme involving faculty members and the enrollment and successful graduation of Three (3) PhDs and Fifteen (15)MSc students. Through an internationally competitive process the three PhD students have already been selected.
Dr. K. B. Nyarko, Project Leader.
Sanitation Knowledge Management Initiative.(SKMI)
The project focus is on:
Community Led Total Sanitation (CLTS) effectiveness, sustainability and cost studies, the main objective of this study is to measure the cost and effectiveness of implementing CLTS and to determine the cost-benefit.
Impact of WASH in school activities
Assessment of Latrine Technologies
This project is funded by UNICEF with an amount of Four Hundred thousand Ghana Cedis (GHS 400,000).
Dr. K. B. Nyarko, Project Leader
WASHcost Sierra-Leone
The project seeks to use the life-cycle cost approach to determine the cost of providing sustainable water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) services in Sierra Leone for sector planning, implementation and monitoring of sustainable WASH service delivery.
This project is funded with an amount of One Hundred and ninety-nine thousand pounds (£ 199,000).
Dr. K. B. Nyarko, Project Leader
GRAND CHALLENGE
The purpose of the project is to research on improving rural water service delivery using mobile phone technology for a period of 12 months from September 2012 to September 2013.The project is funded by Grand Challenge Canada to the tune of One Hundred and thirteen thousand Canadian dollars (CAD $ 113,000).
Dr. K. B. Nyarko, Project Leader
The Project Objectives include:
- The establishment of clear financial mechanisms, such as pooled funding or insurance to address capital maintenance in the study area
- The establishment of network of spare parts dealers easily with their mobile phone device.