UDS student designs technology for cleaning polluted water bodies

 A PhD Student at the University for Development Studies (UDS) has designed a modified ceramic water filter capable of filtering polluted water bodies’ of arsenic and mercury chemicals to ensure clean water for the population.

Miss Lydia Dziedzorm Senanu, a PhD Student with the West Africa Centre for Water, Irrigation and Sustainable Agriculture Programme at the UDS, who designed the technology, said “This is something new. We are using local materials like clay, shea nut and groundnut shells, and millet hulls. The shea nut and groundnut shells and millet hulls are ground and sieved to an acceptable size. After that, they are charred in the furnace and later mixed with the clay to do the pot.”  

She said “Clay by itself cannot filter water. So, we are using these agricultural wastes to act as a sieving point where when we mix it with the clay, it can create pores and membrane, and when the water passes through it, it will be able to remove all these chemicals.”

She added that “The pot is clay. So, it is easily breakable. However, we have shown people how to maintain and use them in a way that they cannot be broken easily.”

She said her research was driven by efforts towards increasing access to clean water resources for the population in the northern part of the country, whose sources of water had been polluted as a result of illegal mining activities.

Ms Senanu presented her work at the First Annual Graduate School Conference organised in Tamale by the Graduate School of UDS in collaboration with the Graduate Students Association of Ghana (GRASAG).

The two-day conference, which ended in Tamale on Thursday, was for post-graduate students of UDS to share their brilliant research output, celebrate and promote academic excellence by creating the platform to showcase outstanding post-graduate research engagingly.

Over 200 post-graduate students of UDS participated in the conference where a number of them presented their groundbreaking research works.

Professor Gabriel Ayum Teye, Vice-Chancellor of UDS said the conference would complement the annual Harmattan School, which provided the unique platform and opportunity for staff and students to disseminate significant findings of their research works.

Professor Teye said the event also fed into the University’s commitment to capacity building and professional development opportunities for students as well as helping graduate students to publish their research works.
     He, therefore, encouraged the Editorial Board of UDS to have a special edition for the papers presented at the conference to ensure that students published their research works.

Professor Elias Sowley, Vice-Chancellor of Dr Hilla Limann Technical University, who is a former Dean of the Graduate School, UDS, advised graduate students to take criticisms of their research works in good fate and improve on their works to address the needs of society.

Professor Sowley also advised them to aim at solving real-life problems through research, avoid shortcuts, disseminate their research findings, as well as join associations in their areas of discipline to gain access to further opportunities.  

Professor Francis Amaglo, Dean of Graduate School, UDS expressed gratitude to the Alumni Society of UDS, GRASAG, and Management of UDS for their support towards the organisation of the conference, which had come to stay.

A representative of GRASAG, UDS Chapter, expressed appreciation to stakeholders for their efforts to organise the conference.