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Dr. Kebreab Ghebremichael’s Interview on the Sustainable Living show on the 88.5 WMNF Radio Station
On October 10, Dr. Kebreab Ghebremichael, PCGS Associate Professor, appeared on the Sustainable Living show hosted by Kenny Coogan, a PCGS alumnus, and Anni Ellis from the 88.5 WMNF radio station. Sustainable Living holds conversations with local experts on topics around sustainability: alternative energy, organic gardening, farming, and more, in order to create a balanced and enduring impact on the world.
As a distinguished guest, Dr. Ghebremichael shared various valuable insights connected to SDG 6: Clean water and sanitation. According to Dr. Ghebremichael, the current state of water and wastewater at both local and global levels is concerning. We have finite and limited freshwater resources, while the demand for clean water has been increasing due to the rapidly growing population and economy. Furthermore, our water use practices are wasteful, leading to the approximately 40% freshwater deficit: about 800 million people are living in areas facing water scarcity, and 1.2 billion people lack access to safe and clean drinking water.
The detrimental impact of the lack of usable water and sanitation stresses the urgency of immediate action. Dr. Ghebremichael was working with middle and high school students in association with the research he conducted at USF. The purposes were two-fold: i) to provide the students with opportunities to conduct authentic science research as part of their school curriculum, and ii) to expose and sensitize the young generations about the global and local water and sanitation issues and to raise interest in contributing towards sustainable management of the scarce water resources. Additionally, he was working on global research projects regarding the development of appropriate long-term technology to enhance access to safe drinking water and sanitation services. One of them considered the implementation of biosand filtration in water purification, which can remove 80-90% of suspended solids, 90% of bacteria, and up to 99% of giardia and crypto in water as reported by Dr. Ghebremichael. Biosand filtration is an effective and low-cost technology that works by gravity (energy-free) and is commonly used at the household level to provide safe drinking water. It is making an important contribution towards achieving one of the SDG 6 goals related to providing safe and clean drinking water
Learn more about the WMNF Sustainable Living show here.
You can listen to Dr. Ghebremichael's interview by choosing the Oct 10 show on the WMNF website.
Learn more about Dr. Kebreab Ghebremichael here.