Vulnerability Assessment and Household Preparedness Level to Flood in Ogunpa-Oni Sub River Basin

Flood is a natural event that cause varying degree of losses despite initiatives to mitigate its impact. As the drive to retore normalcy in flood riddle areas increases, concerns about the vulnerability of areas in relation to households’ responses to flood has emerged. This study therefore, identified areas vulnerable to flood; elicit households’ sociodemographic attributes and examine their level of preparedness to flood in Ogunpa and Oni River Basin. A GIS-based approach was adopted along with 121 well-structured questionnaires administered to the respondents. A multi-criteria analysis (that considers slope, rainfall, soil type, DEM and NDVI was adopted), descriptive statistic and binary logistic model was used to achieve the objectives. The results from the vulnerability map revealed varying vulnerability status across Ogunpa and Oni River Basin. In addition, the sociodemographic statistics revealed important variables that influences household decision to prepare for flood. It was also known that factors that drive households to prepare for flood vary across households in Ogunpa and Oni River Basin. The study recommends enlightenment campaign on proper refuse disposal, strengthening of environmental regulatory agency, adoption of participatory approach in the buildup of environmental policy and increasing the level of awareness on the need for insurance policy that covers household against disaster such as flood.

Parasitic Infections among Independent Refuse Disposal Workers in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, Nigeria

Background: A study was carried out to ascertain the prevalence of parasitic infections among independent refuse disposal workers in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, Nigeria, and to ascertain the risk factors that enhance their vulnerability to parasitic infections. Aims: The study was undertaken to determine parasitic infections among independent refuse disposal workers in Port Harcourt, Nigeria. Methods: Urine, stool and blood specimens were collected from 210 male refuse disposal workers. Standard parasitological procedures were employed in sample collection and examinations for the presence of various parasitic organisms. Results: Results showed 86.2% of the subjects were infected with Plasmodium sp, 94.3% were infected with one or more of 9 parasitic species, of which hookworm had the highest prevalence (91.4%). Others included are Ascaris lumbricoides, Trichuris trichiura, Taenia sp, Strongyloides stercoralis, Enterobius vermicularis, Schistosoma mansoni, Entamoeba hystolytica, Girdia lamblia. Schistosoma haematobium was not recovered from the urine specimens. Age group 26-29 years had the highest malaria prevalence of 89.1%, followed by age group 18-21 years (88.4%) while parasitic infection rate was highest among the age group 18-21(97.6%). Refuse disposal workers who reside in Rumuokoro camp had the highest malaria and intestinal parasites followed by Eneka. Poly-parasitism with A. lumbricoides and hookworm recorded the highest prevalence of 58 (27.8%) and fifteen subjects had triple poly-parasitism, with A. lumbricoides, hookworm and T. trichiura. Only 49 of the 210 respondents used one or more of the various personal protective equipment, while 161 used none at all. Conclusion: Intestinal parasitic infection is highly prevalent among the independent refuse disposal workers in Port Harcourt. Inadequate use of personal protective equipment, poor personal hygiene and deplorable living conditions were identified as the major risk factors that enhanced transmission. It is therefore, imperative that the government enforces the use of personal protective equipment, implementation of preventive chemotherapy with health education to reduce morbidity and control transmission among the workers.

Comparing Household Environmental Health Indicators between Oil-bearing and Non-oil-bearing Communities in the Niger Delta Region of Nigeria

Background: Household environmental health indicators have contributed to the quality of life of the populace in regions of the world where they have been made available. This study compared the indicators of household environmental health between oil-bearing and non-oil-bearing communities located in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria. Methods: An analytical, cross-sectional household survey was carried out among 601 households in six oil-bearing and non-oil-bearing selected communities located within the Niger Delta region of Nigeria. Multistage sampling was employed, and an interviewer-administered questionnaire used to elicit data on the household environmental health indicators in the communities. The scores across the six indicator domains were summed and categorized into acceptable and unacceptable status. Results: Water sources in both oil-bearing 230 (76.4%) and non-oil-bearing communities 177 (59.0%) were sanitary. Sanitary sewage 250 (83.1%) and sullage disposal 210 (69.8%) was practiced by most households in oil-bearing areas. The minority of respondents in both oil-bearing 26 (8.6%) and non-oil-bearing 41 (13.7%) communities practiced sanitary refuse disposal. Households in oil-bearing communities had twelve times greater odds of having a satisfactory environmental health status compared to households in non-oil-bearing communities (Adjusted O.R: 11.70, 95% C.I: 7.75-17.65). Conclusion: Households in oil-bearing communities fared better in all household environmental health indicators. There is a need to address the economic and social determinants of health among households in the Niger Delta to improve household environmental health indicators.

Colluvial deposition of anthropogenic soils at the Ripley site, Ripley, New York

The Ripley site is a Late Woodland through Historic period Iroquoian site located on a bluff overlooking the southern shore of Lake Erie in Western New York in the town of Ripley. Numerous authors have mentioned the presence of a midden along the eastern slope of the site, where prehistoric inhabitants cast refuse down the slope toward Young’s Run. The primary focus of this research is to examine the soils along the eastern slope to determine the origins of those deposits. This research will further reconstruct the depositional processes along the backslope, footslope, and toeslope of the eastern bluff, as well as determine if cultural refuse disposal from the prehistoric occupation of the Ripley site occurred along the eastern slope.

Justifying the parameters of dredging in various types of stopes and massive productive strata

Introduction. Due to a wide variety of placer dredging conditions, traditional methods of dredging parameters calculation do not always take into account all aspects of productive strata mining. It is first of all true for deep placers operation and mining with side cuts. Research aim is to improve the methods of calculating dredging parameters and the capacity of pilesupported bucket chain dredgers. Methodology. Existing methods of calculating dredging parameters and dredgers capacity do not take into account the applied mining method, stope type, and upper stope cave-in conditions. The indicated factors greatly influence the parameters of productive strata excavation and washery refuse disposal. Taking these ISSN 0536-1028 «Известия вузов. Горный журнал», № 3, 2020 13 factors into account makes it possible to forecast the indicators of the pile-support dredgers more accurately. Results. Investigation of some aspects of dredging trenches and side cuts has made it possible to establish the dependence of dredger maneuvering angle in pit face and capacity on cutting depth when mining massive productive strata; spoil dumps parameters dependence on the type of stoping; the interrelation between the daily capacity and the width of the front bank under various vertical distribution of rock. The indicated dependences allow to determine dredging parameters and indicators for particular conditions. Summary. The proposed approach, which calculates dredging parameters when using side cuts and when mining deep placers with non-uniform thickness of sands, makes it possible to calculate the chips size, buckets filling ratio and sand fragmentation ratio in a more substantiated way; it makes it possible to more effectively manage the process of sand mining, thus increasing the capacity of dredges.

Investigation of Market Women’s Environmental Knowledge, Attitude and Behaviour in Nigerian City of Ibadan

This study assessed the environmental knowledge, attitude and behaviour among market women in the Nigerian city of Ibadan, Oyo State. A quantitative research design was adopted and 403 market women were randomly selected from different markets in Ibadan. Questionnaire items adapted from Fah and Sirisena (2014) and Abdullahi and Tuna (2014) were pilot-tested among female artisans in Ibadan. Data collected from the study were analyzed using frequency counts, simple percentages, ANOVA, and regression analysis. Results of the analysis revealed that market women have good knowledge about erosion, water pollution, amongst others but lack knowledge in the area of soil degradation. Market women also have pro-environmental attitude based on their responses and they exhibit environmentally responsible behaviours in the area of tree planting, refuse disposal etc. but display irresponsible environmental behaviour by not switching off electricity gadgets when not in use. The findings also showed that there is a significant effect of environmental knowledge on environmental attitude, environmental attitude on environmental behaviour and the joint effects of environmental knowledge and attitude on environmental behaviour among market women.