scholarly journals Spatial and Temporal Trends of SARS-CoV-2 RNA from Wastewater Treatment Plants over 6 Weeks in Cape Town, South Africa

2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (22) ◽  
pp. 12085
Author(s):  
Renée Street ◽  
Angela Mathee ◽  
Noluxabiso Mangwana ◽  
Stephanie Dias ◽  
Jyoti Rajan Sharma ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Wastewater Treatment ◽  
Early Warning ◽  
Early Warning System ◽  
Wastewater Treatment Plants ◽  
Cape Town ◽  
Warning System ◽  
Western Cape ◽  
Western Cape Province ◽  
The City

Recent scientific trends have revealed that the collection and analysis of data on the occurrence and fate of SARS-CoV-2 in wastewater may serve as an early warning system for COVID-19. In South Africa, the first COVID-19 epicenter emerged in the Western Cape Province. The City of Cape Town, located in the Western Cape Province, has approximately 4 million inhabitants. This study reports on the monitoring of SARS-CoV-2 RNA in the wastewater of the City of Cape Town’s wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) during the peak of the epidemic. During this period, the highest overall median viral RNA signal was observed in week 1 (9200 RNA copies/mL) and declined to 127 copies/mL in week 6. The overall decrease in the amount of detected viral SARS-CoV-2 RNA over the 6-week study period was associated with a declining number of newly identified COVID-19 cases in the city. The SARS-CoV-2 early warning system has now been established to detect future waves of COVID-19.

Opposition Growth in Dominant Party Systems: Coalitions in South Africa

2013 ◽  
Vol 49 (2) ◽  
pp. 290-312 ◽  
Author(s):  
Danielle Langfield
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Party System ◽  
Cape Town ◽  
Party Systems ◽  
Western Cape ◽  
Western Cape Province ◽  
Dominant Party ◽  
Party Strategies ◽  
Party Elites ◽  
Dominant Parties

What is responsible for the decline of democratically dominant parties and the corresponding growth of competitive party systems? This article argues that, despite a ruling party's dominance, opposition forces can gain by winning important subnational offices and then creating a governance record that they can use to win new supporters. It focuses on South Africa as a paradigmatic dominant party system, tracing the increased competitiveness of elections in Cape Town and the surrounding Western Cape province between 1999 and 2010. These events show how party strategies may evolve, reflecting how party elites can learn from forming coalitions.

scholarly journals Wastewater-based Epidemiology – Possible Approach for the Prevalence Prediction of SARS-CoV-2 in the Population

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nada Krivonakova ◽  
Andrea Soltysova ◽  
Michal Tamas ◽  
Zdenko Takac ◽  
Ján Krahulec ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Early Warning ◽  
Wastewater Treatment Plants ◽  
Time Lag ◽  
Warning System ◽  
Capital City ◽  
Statistical Dependence ◽  
Local Site ◽  
Viral Particles ◽  
The City ◽  
Death Cases

Abstract COVID-19 pandemic caused by β-coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 emerges to intensive scientific research and monitoring of wastewaters because of their possible important role in identifying and early warning of a spread of the virus in the community. In our study, we investigated the prevalence of the COVID-19 disease in the population of the capital city of Slovakia, Bratislava, based on wastewater monitoring from September 2020 until March 2021. Samples were analyzed from two major wastewater treatment plants of the city with reaching nearly 0.6 million monitored inhabitants. Obtained results from the wastewater analysis suggest significant statistical dependence. High correlations between the number of viral particles in wastewater and the number of reported positive nasopharyngeal RT-qPCR tests of infected individuals with a time lag of 2 weeks / 12 days (R2 = 83.78% / R2 = 52.65%) as well as with a reported number of death cases with a time lag of 4 weeks / 27 days (R2 = 83.21% / R2 = 61.89%) was observed. The obtained results and subsequent mathematical modeling will serve in the future as an early warning system for the occurrence of a local site of infection and, at the same time, predict the load on the health system up to two weeks in advance.

scholarly journals Hotels contingency assessment in Padang city against coastal hazard

2018 ◽  
Vol 229 ◽  
pp. 02015
Author(s):  
Giani Ananda ◽  
Taufika Ophiyandri ◽  
Abdul Hakam
Keyword(s):  
Early Warning ◽  
Early Warning System ◽  
Warning System ◽  
Coastal Hazard ◽  
Public Buildings ◽  
Research Results ◽  
Qualitative And Quantitative ◽  
Analytic Methods ◽  
Evacuation Route ◽  
The City

Padang city has a variety of regions including coastal. The city of Padang is very vulnerable to coastal disaster (Coastal Hazard). In response to these statements, it is necessary to optimize the Multi-Hazard Early Warning System (MHEWS) for contingencies against coastal hazard referring to the four major components of MHEWS according to UNISDR. Hotels are kind of many public buildings that may be used as shelters. The purpose of this study is to assess the hotel contingencies in Padang city against coastal hazard. To achieve the goal, some near the beach hotels have been selected as the object of research. The selected hotels are five of four-star hotels, one of one-star hotel, and three for two-star hotels. The research results are processed by qualitative and quantitative analytic methods. The assessment then concludes that contingency afford is effected by the level hotel star. The important things that need to be planned for the hotel contingency against the coastal hazard are the evacuation route map and the signs of evacuation direction in the easy place to find.

Hazard assessment of landslide-prone areas on highly weathered dunite rock in Bello Oriente, Medellín, Colombia (Project Inform@Risk)

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tamara Breuninger ◽  
Moritz Gamperl ◽  
Kurosch Thuro
Keyword(s):  
Early Warning ◽  
Early Warning System ◽  
Warning System ◽  
Informal Settlements ◽  
The North ◽  
The Andes ◽  
North Eastern ◽  
Landslide Early Warning ◽  
Steep Slopes ◽  
The City

<p>The project Inform@Risk, a collaboration of German and Colombian Universities and Institutes funded by the German government, aims to install a landslide early warning system in the informal settlements in Medellín, Colombia. In the recent past the city has suffered from multiple landslides, some of them with up to 500 casualties. The informal settlements in the steep slopes at the city borders grow rapidly, which destabilizes the ground and complicates the installation and operation of an early warning system. Therefore, key goal of the project is to include the community in the process of the development of the early warning system.</p><p>Medellín is embedded in the Aburrá Valley in the Cordillera Central of the Andes. The region around the city consists of different triassic and cretaceous metamorphic rocks and magmatic batholites and plutonites. Especially the north-eastern slope is prone to landslides, as it is very steep and made up of a deep cover of soil over highly weathered dunite rock.</p><p>During the first field trip, carried out in August 2019, former landslide areas were located, and ERT-measurements were conducted at the study site Bello Oriente in the northeast of Medellín. After a first evaluation of the findings, the soil cover seems to be over 50 m high in the middle of the slope, which indicates a deep-seated landslide, that might have been moving downhill very slowly for thousands of years. The more dangerous landslides however, which are much faster, are the shallow ones on the surface. These landslides can appear on top of each other and are distributed across the whole study area but are most concentrated between and above the last houses of the barrio. During a second field campaign in 2020, the ERT-profiles will be calibrated and complemented by drillings and the hazard map will be completed accordingly.</p>

scholarly journals SARS-CoV-2: fate in water environments and sewage surveillance as an early warning system

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Deepak Panchal ◽  
Purusottam Tripathy ◽  
Om Prakash ◽  
Abhishek Sharma ◽  
Sukdeb Pal
Keyword(s):  
Wastewater Treatment ◽  
Early Warning ◽  
Disease Surveillance ◽  
Early Warning System ◽  
Warning System ◽  
Quality Criteria ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Coliform Bacteria ◽  
Surveillance Systems ◽  
Water Quality Criteria

Abstract Coronavirus disease has emerged as one of the greatest threats to human well-being. Currently, the whole world is fighting against this pandemic that transmit either through exposure to virus laden respiratory or water droplets or by touching the virus contaminated surfaces. The viral load in feces of an infected patient varies according to the severity of the disease. Subsequent detection of viral genome (SARS-COV-2) in human feces and sewage systems is an emerging concern for public health. This also dictates to reinforce the existing sewage/wastewater treatment facilities. Rapid monitoring is the key to prevent and control the current mass transmission. Wastewater-Based Epidemiology (WBE) is a potential epidemiology tool that can act as a complementary approach for current infectious disease surveillance systems and an early warning system for disease outbreaks. In a developing country like India, inadequate wastewater treatment systems, low-operational facility and relaxed surface water quality criteria even in terms of fecal coliform bacteria are the major challenges for WBE. Herein, we review the occurrence, transmission, survival of SARS-CoV-2, disinfection and potential of sewage surveillance as an early warning system for COVID-19 spread. We also discuss the challenges of open-defecation practices affecting sewage-surveillance in real-time in densely populated developing countries like India.

scholarly journals Centinela: an early warning system for the water quality of the Cauca River

2014 ◽  
Vol 16 (6) ◽  
pp. 1409-1424 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carlos Vélez ◽  
Leonardo Alfonso ◽  
Arlex Sánchez ◽  
Alberto Galvis ◽  
Gilberto Sepúlveda
Keyword(s):  
Water Pollution ◽  
Water Quality ◽  
Early Warning ◽  
Early Warning System ◽  
Treatment Plant ◽  
Warning System ◽  
Water Source ◽  
Early Warning Systems ◽  
Drinking Water Source ◽  
The City

The Cauca River is the drinking water source for 1.3 million inhabitants of the city of Cali, Colombia. Although the river discharge is sufficient to handle the water demand of the city all year long, significant water pollution events cause frequent disruption to the Puerto Mallarino Treatment Plant (PMTP) and the water supply service, with substantial social and economic impacts on the city. The sources of pollution include wastewater discharges upstream of the PMTP and important sediment transport from the upstream sub-catchments during heavy rainfall events. Both situations can lead to a closure of the PMTP when the presence of a pollution plume at its intake is evident. This paper presents the design and prototype of a water quality early warning system to anticipate the peaks of pollution in the river, in order to assist the operators in taking timely informed decisions about the operation of the treatment plant. As the published experiences of early warning systems for similar water pollution problems are very limited, the approach to solve the problem using hydroinformatics technologies is worth documenting for utility companies with a similar problem.

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