Maryhelen Shuman-Groh

The Dominica Water and Sewerage Company, DOWASCO, is headquartered in Roseau.  It is government run.  There are a few water bottling companies and a number of households in the high peaks that are not on the DOWASCO system but, otherwise, potable water is supplied by DOWASCO.  There is only one waste water treatment plant and that is also part of DOWASCO.  It serves the greater Roseau area.

DOWASCO High Street Head Office

The Water Testing Laboratory and Waste Water Treatment Facility is located on the north bank of the Roseau River in the area known as Goodwill.  Continue reading DOWASCO June 7

Maria Booker

This week has been relatively busy in terms of academic advancements. I had been working with Dr. Alsharif in defining and redefining my proposal, so it was finally a relief to begin working on my research results and discussion. I ascertained in an earlier post that the malaria numbers needed better refining, but wasn’t allowed to refine them by doing a survey of the population, because I needed IRB approval, which I didn’t have time for. After discussion with Dr. Alsharif, we decided that I could get estimates from the reporting hospitals, so last Friday involved me navigating Accra to speak with biostatistics officers from four different clinics and hospitals. This was not an easy task, and I got the run around on more than one occasion.

Continue reading Accra, Ghana – Day 37 (06/21/11)

Rain, Rain, Go Away???

Joy Ingram

It’s still raining here…. Continue reading Sydney, Australia – Week 3 Down Under (6/5/11 – 6/11/11)

Maryhelen Shuman-Groh

The following morning and everything is looking a lot brighter!

Continue reading More on Manicou

Maryhelen Shuman-Groh

On those rare days I am not working at DOWASCO, I have been trying to get around the island to see how things are done in different towns and businesses.  I happened upon the Manicou River Resort in my web searches prior to arrival and was very interested in their efforts to be low-impact and sustainable. Continue reading Manicou River Resort – Part I

Maryhelen Shuman-Groh

I feel a lot like this truck making its way through the capital city of Roseau (pronounced row-zo).  There are four guys on top of the truck to hold up the electrical wires in order for the truck to pass.  I took this photo after I’d climbed off the mini-bus for my third of my series of cancelled/delayed/rescheduled meetings.  After sitting in the office for an hour and being asked to return yet again, I went to the main road to catch a minibus back and found that the truck had barely moved another block.  It rains a LOT in Dominica, you see, and it wouldn’t be a very good thing for the guys to be handling huge electrical wires so the truck just stopped allowing barely enough room for vehicles to squeeze by …

BIG Truck moving through Roseau

Continue reading Making Some Headway – 7 June

Well, I made it safely into San Salvador, El Salvador. My first week was spent meeting the people I will be working with at the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) and the Ministry of Health. I did not get to spend too much time with them because I came down with the dreaded travelers stomach. I spent two days glued to the toilet in my hotel. But I am back on my feet now just in time to revise my project proposal once again!. I will be started my field work next week and have been warned that the latrines have not been very well maintained. Do not worry all I will be posting pictures so you all can enjoy the thrills of studying sanitation in rural areas.
The hotel I am staying in is quite quaint. Tropical setting, trees all around. Free breakfast which today included plantains and black beans and rice. Who eats black beans and rice for breakfast?? I stuck with the traditional omelet and fruit. I think the staff is perplexed that I do not drink coffee. They keep coming up to me and offering me coffee two or three times during breakfast. I will have to learn Spanish for I do not drink coffee and post it on my chest. Seriously, the El Salvador people are very nice, trying their hardest to speak English as I try my hardest to have them understand my limited Spanish. Somehow communication happens.
Next week I am sure to have something exciting to blog about unlike this week which was pretty mundane, illness and all.
Patty

Shannee Green

Sorry for the brief intermission in postings, things are finally picking up and I realize each day how special Singapore is, in terms of sustainability.  Well I scheduled two tours for next week, one for the NEWater Visiter Centre and the other is at the Marina Barrage Reservoir. Each of these water supply systems tie into my research of Singapore’ Four National Water Supply Strategies. I decided to change my research from Urban Water Supply Systems in the Sino-Singapore Ec0-City to The Implementation Singapore’s Four National Water Supply Strategies in the Sino-SIngapore Eco-City. I found myself all over the place in my initial proposal. Now that my mind is settled I can truly focus on data collection.

Lion King Show " Before the Show Started"

Since I have been in Singapore I realized that there are limited billboards and trees are planted purposely for there greenery all over the city. I also went to the Lion King Production this week. It was really amazing.

I have been really focusing on my research and data collection, so next week I will have tons to tell since I go on my tours and I just received an email that I will do site visits to many of the PUB reservoirs and Sewage facilities next week.

Maria Booker

Things in Accra are beginning to wrap up, I think. I received the reported cases of malaria that I was hoping for, but I have yet to make sense of it. The information comes with some serious limitations. There is no demographic reporting in the country, each clinic reports its malaria cases regardless of where the patients are from. I think it’s relatively easy to assume that most of the people who are sick will visit the clinic closest to them to receive treatment, but that may not always be the case. There is one clinic in particular that was opened as a clinic for police, military, and security personnel and their descendants. The clinic changed shortly after opening to accept members of the public as patients, but there is no report that separates civilians from state employees, since I am only interested in the people that actually live in the community. Another thing is that some communities don’t have clinics, so the clinic caters to two or three populations, which will not help me prove my point that community members in one area have higher malaria cases!

Continue reading Accra, Ghana – Day 30 (06/14/11)