Engineers of the near future will have plenty of simple solutions at their disposal to help solve environmental and health problems related to poor sanitation in developing countries, according to a visiting lecturer who will speak here today.
A senior advisor in sustainable development and environmental health with the World Health Organization/Pan American Health Organization in Guyana, Adrianus (Ton) Vlugman will address the university’s chapter of Engineers Without Borders today. He’ll discuss such technical concepts as sanitation, wastewater and solid waste management – including recycling and management of wastes from health care facilities in the Caribbean – in order to help describe what truly constitutes sustainable development.
“For many of the issues in the Caribbean, the technical solutions are readily and easily available, but too often it depends on the socio-economic conditions of the country,” Vlugman said during a phone interview Guyana. “A major challenge is that environmental issues are not part of the developmental regulatory and planning processes. For many people they’re very vague concepts and they’re virtually non-existent in some countries.”
One of Vlugman’s roles is to advocate for the implementation of new regulations into the planning processes in developing countries so that proper sanitation measures can be included to prevent the spread of disease through water and sewage systems. He’s been involved in many projects dealing with varying aspects of environmental health in the Caribbean and South America including groundwater quality monitoring programs, operational status of wastewater treatment plants, recreational water quality, solid waste management including recycling initiatives, management of waste from health care facilities, negative impacts from small scale gold mining and community health projects for indigenous people.
“Health is an integral part of development, not the result of it,” he said.
Vlugman said programs like Engineers Without Borders provide students with the chance to see how measures can be implemented in very diverse regions, as well as the challenges they’ll face.
“It’s an excellent opportunity for them to be exposed to regions where technical solutions can be applied, but those solutions are only a small part of a very complex problem,” he said.
Vlugman’s presentation will be an interactive one and students will be encouraged to participate. The event will take place today at 2:30 p.m. in the Ambassador Auditorium at the CAW Student Centre.