4 news January 4, 2012 - Over the Edge IMPROPER STORAGE CONT AMINATES CLEAN WATER INITIATIVES IN DEVELOPING NATIONS Professor Opio discovers dirty jerry cans contaminate clean water in fhe world’s most impoverished nations HANNA PETERSEN NEWS EDITOR esearch at UNBC conducted by Professor Chris Re: indicates that international efforts to pro- vide reliable sources of clean drinking water are undermined by unsafe storage practices. Clean well water, according preliminary results of the study, becomes nearly two and a half times dirtier after transportation and storage than water drawn from a contaminated well. “People are using clay pots and plastic jerry cans that are so dirty that they would ruin even the cleanest of water,” says Dr. Opio, a professor of Ecosystem Science and Management. “This is a threat to the efforts of many NGOs and charities that dig wells in these countries.” Dr. Opio began examining stored water for E-coli, bacteria, and dioxins in Uganda in July 2011. “Our tests show that clean water from donated wells is ruined due to high rates of E-coli and faecal coliforms found first in the unclean jerry cans that are used for water transpor- tation. The water is tainted even more during storage in unwashed clay pots,” says Dr. Opio. “We’re also going to be testing samples of the water for Bispheno-A (BPA) at UNBC’s labs in the coming months.” BPA commonly found in plastics was declared a toxic chemical by Canada in 2010. Dr. Opio, a UNBC professor since 1995, grew up in Uganda and has since established a charity with fellow UNBC employee Tony Donnovan - the Northern Uganda Development Foundation (NUDF). The foundation was established in 2007, in part to dig wells and provide fresh clean drinking water for Ugandans. To date NUDF has dug 42 wells in Uganda, which provide water to more than 50,000 people. “We know our wells produce good water because we’ ve tested them,” Says Dr. Opio. “However, now we’ve dis- covered that it’s the storage that is ruining the water. This results in terrible disease and parasitism.” Dr. Opio says water with E-coli and faecal coliform can be made safe with boiling. “People have been storing water in clay pots in Africa for thousands of years and - with thorough clean- ing - it’s a good safe method. This research indicates that NGO’s and governments in developing countries need to go further than just building wells. We must also educate people about proper storage and cleaning methods.” The Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI) recently selected Dr. Opio’s research for the Af- rica Initiative Grant. “Dr. Opio presented a cutting edge research proposal. The nexus between water and food security is extremely important, but under-researched,” says Thomas Tieku, Lead Researcher of CIGI’s Africa Initiative and professor of International Relations at the University of Toronto. “The entire Africa Initiative team is proud to be supporting research that we think will shed new insights and shape important debates in different set- tings in Africa in the coming years.” Dr. Opio, however, has been impressing people for a while. In November 2010 he was nominated for CBC’s Champion’s of Change, which celebrated Canada’s top volunteers. He was nominated as one of the top ten vol- unteers in Canada who had “made an invaluable contribu- tion to society, serving our community at home and help- ing our neighbours abroad. CONSUMERS WANT SUSTAINABILITY Study Finds that People Wont Pay for Irresponsibility HANNA PETERSEN NEWS EDITOR ccording to UNBC professors Sungchul Choi and Alex Ng consumers are willing to pay more for both environmentally and economically sustainable products. These findings were published in the December issue of the Journal of Business Ethics. It’s common practice for companies to offer higher priced products that are “green’ or ‘sustainable’ in response to the environmental concerns of con- sumers,” says Dr. Choi. “We found that, not only do consumers respond favorably to products offering environmental sustainability, but also to those perceived to help the local economy. Customers are hesitant to pay even a low price for a product from a company with a poor record of sus- tainability in either respect.” Dr. Ng and Dr. Choi conducted their study by having test subjects shop for floor tiles. Participants were informed that a particular company had a high quality product and either had the best or the worst environmental record in the industry, the best or worst economic sustainability practices, and the highest or lowest price. The results showed that consumers turned out to be averse to buying products when the firm had a poor sustainabil- ity record in either area. “The research shows that when the environmental and economic sus- tainability ratings are low, shoppers evaluate a company unfavorably on both of those dimensions, but when both aspects are high consumers only evaluate the firm’s environmental sustainability as higher than normal,” Says Dr. Choi. “Still, consumers have a greater intention to make a pur- chase if they evaluate a firm as being better in either aspect.” The findings also indicate that consumers are more sensitive to state- ments regarding a companies sustainability faults than they are to take note of a company’s positive sustainability practices. Dr. Choi also adds that firms cannot make amends for their low sustainability profiles by lowering prices. “The research demonstrates the importance of genuinely sustainable practices and indicated that managers must establish policies and processes towards that end. It’s our view that consumers see a social community dimension of sustainability.” Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, Western Economic Diversification, Northern Development Initiative Trust, and UNBC funded the study. The products used in the study marked as sus- tainable were sold by a Prince George based company and were made of a material known as “beetle-crete” which was created at UNBC out of the remains of local trees that had been killed by the mountain pine beetle.