Water quality and species monitoring, efficient water use and data-led solutions

The country is faced with a myriad of developmental challenges in the energy, water, transport and agriculture sectors. Only 26.5 per cent of the Nigerian population has access to improved drinking water and sanitation facilities (UNICEF, 2021). The use of contaminated drinking water, poor sanitary conditions and flooding result in increased vulnerability to water-borne diseases, such as the recent outbreak of cholera in some parts of the country. This situation has been further exacerbated by the covid-19 pandemic and the requirement for frequent hand washing. Nigeria’s economic potential is also constrained by many structural issues, including inadequate water infrastructure. Indeed, the pace of electricity infrastructure development in the county is very slow and power supply remains highly inadequate (CSEA, 2021), resulting in a very high unemployment rate in the country, as many industries have either closed down or relocated production lines to neighbouring countries.

Also, dam-related flooding, experienced downstream of dams, has become a major problem (Olajuyigbe et al., 2012) that could be attributed to inefficient use of water stored in dam reservoirs (Magbagbeola, O. A., 2015) and has been further aggravated by climate change. Although the government, at the Federal and State levels, has continued to put in place policies and plans in the water sector, there has not been an effective integration of the policies and plans as a result of overlapping and conflicting roles of Departments, Agencies and Ministries.

This paper, therefore, seeks to draw attention to the yawning gap in the usage of the dams for the purposes for which they were built and to advocate an effective integrated water resources management as an adaptive mechanism to promote SDG 6 in Nigeria. The study further reveals the over-looked investment opportunities and untapped resources in Nigeria’s water sector. Exploring these will promote the achievement of the SDGs, thereby ensuring the fulfillment of the SDG slogan “leaving no one behind”, especially in Nigeria’s critical water sector.

Source: Eyeoyibo, F. 2021. Adaptive & Resilient Design of Water Infrastructure: Water Quality, Flooding and Drought: A Case for Efficient Use of Water Stored in Dams in Nigeria. Water quality and species monitoring, efficient water use and data-led solutions. Clean Water & Ecosystem Restoration. AIWW 2021. 

Currently, however, there is not enough knowledge on the composition of the recirculated organic matter fractions and how these fractions affect the microbial composition, including plant pathogens and its interactions with the plant. Since these factors affect crop health, yield and safety, enhanced knowledge on the mechanisms for interaction will help improve crop performance as well as food safety.

Furthermore, it can direct applied treatments to selectively remove any problematic organic matter fractions. A study on rapid water quality parameters with water from horticulture showed that the addition of specific fractions of organic matter to the nutrient solution of substrate-grown tomatoes resulted in a more resilient microbial community in the rhizosphere. Microbial growth parameters (heterotrophic plate count (HPC) and ATP-analysis) indicated an increase in microbial activity in drain water compared to the nutrient solution. This work highlighted thatHPC provides a solid parameter to monitor water quality from feeding source to water treatment, but generating results with these method takes three days. In contrast, ATP measurements or flow cytometry provide similar insights within minutes.For effective and efficient assessment of crop performance and food safety, there is a need for rapid screening methods to gain insights in horticulture water quality.Using next-generation sequencing (NGS) we could find significant effects on the bacterial composition in the rhizosphere after addition of plant-pathogenic Fusarium oxysporum.

These findings highlight the potential to steer rhizosphere microbiology to maintain a healthy and safe cultivation system, but detailed information on the effects of specific fractions of organic matter is currently lacking.Overall, we conclude that water reuse has a great potential for a circular horticultural system, but that rapid and effective insights into the effects of recirculation water are crucial to guarantee crop performance in a closed irrigation system.Future research aims at developing rapid screening methods for microbiology and organic matter to be able to manage crop performance parameters for improved crop health and yield.

Source: Zandt, M. 2021. Novel insights and technologies for monitoring and improving water quality in a recirculating greenhouse system. Water quality and species monitoring, efficient water use and data-led solutions. Clean Water & Ecosystem Restoration. AIWW 2021.