Ayanda Sithebe, a Biotechnology Master’s degree student at the Institute for Water and Wastewater at the Faculty of Applied Sciences will head to the Sᾶo Paulo State Advanced School on Integrated Water Resource Management, next week.

Sithebe has been selected to participate in the International Institute of Ecology, Management and Water Resources competition to take place from the 2 to 15 September 2017. She (Sithebe) submitted a summary of her research thesis titled: “A Comparative Microbiological Assessment of River Basin Sites to Elucidate Facal Impact”. The study focuses on two rivers which are Isipingo and Palmiet River in Durban.

“My study looks at the impact of pollution in the two rivers and how that affects people living in surrounding areas which are mostly informal settlements. The informal settlers around these rivers use the water from the rivers for cooking, sanitation and irrigation,” explained Sithebe.

Her study assesses public health risk associated with exposure of men, women and children to microbial pathogens in polluted surface water during recreational activities, employing the QMRA tool in relation to the risk exposure to pathogenic, E.coli, Campylobacter, Salmonella and Shigella. Furthermore, the study also assesses the risk associated with crop irrigation as well as the consumption of crops irrigated with surface water from the Isipingo river was determined.

Sithebe who entered the competition as one of her assignments that add value to her knowledge is one of the 41 finalists out of the 131 that applied from 34 countries. She was supervised by Professor Thör Axcel Sternström and co-supervised by Professor Faizal Bux and Dr Gulshan Singh. “I entered because I was interested in finding out about other countries and to add more value to my knowledge,” she said.

Sithebe’s work speaks volumes, she has published two papers, co-authored a paper and published a book chapter while submitting another two papers on the same subject.

“I am grateful to my supervisors especially Professor Stenstrom for his delicate leadership in guiding the opportunities he had presented before me. It is because of those opportunities that I am where I am academically, they have contributed to my growth as a young scientist,” said Sithebe.

The programme of the advanced course is fully funded by the Sao Paulo State Research Foundation and will consist of 15 days of lectures, discussions and field trips.

Pictured: Ayanda Sithebe.

Noxolo Memela