Papers by TOOCHUKWU OGWUELEKA
International Journal of Environmental Science and Technology
Energy nexus, Nov 1, 2021
Abstract This study examines the activities of the informal recycling sector in Abuja, Nigeria. T... more Abstract This study examines the activities of the informal recycling sector in Abuja, Nigeria. This is no formal recycling programme in Abuja. Scavengers carry out waste segregation and identification for recyclable materials. The questionnaires were administered to one thousand, five hundred (1500) scavengers and scrap dealers (stakeholders) to obtain socioeconomic and demographic characteristics. The questionnaires contain age distribution, gender, marital status, education level, working hours, number of stakeholders, citizenship, experience on the job, materials recovered, quantities of recyclables, and income. The majority of the scavengers are between the ages of 21 and 40 years, and they work between 10–12 h. The scavengers are predominantly male. The scavengers sort out recyclables 19.76 kg/c/d. The estimated quantity of recyclables generated in Abuja is 133,688 kg per day (133.688 tons per day). A waste picker earns between N1000 ($2.8) and N1500 ($4.2) per day; itinerant dealers earn between N1500 ($2.8) and N2000 ($5.6) per day, and scrap dealers earn between N10, 000 ($27.77) and N15, 000 ($41.67) per day in Abuja. The activities of stakeholders contribute to the recovery and sorting of secondary waste recyclables. The study highlighted the challenges of scavengers.
The study is on the influencing factors of domestic solid waste management in Abuja targeted at i... more The study is on the influencing factors of domestic solid waste management in Abuja targeted at investigating and studying the factors influencing domestic solid waste management in Abuja, Historically, the amount of wastes generated by human population was insignificant mainly due to the low population densities, coupled with the fact that there was very little exploitation of natural resources. The problem associated with the management of solid waste in most urban cities in Nigeria, like Abuja, does not completely appear to be a problem of absence of legislative framework for solid waste management owing to the fact that at Federal, States, and Local governments levels, there exist some form of sanitation legislations or the other, but some other factors have come to play with the crises experienced in the management of wastes in the Nigerian urban centers. Methodology: The research procedures involve the following: research design, population of the study, sample and sampling techniques, instrumentation, validation of the instrument, administration of the instrument and data analysis techniques. Findings: The result of the study to determine the social factor affecting the management of domestic waste: Location have great effect on waste management, not that everyone should leave in that location, but amenities available in that location should be considered in other locations too. There's is inadequate waste bin located across the location of study. To determine the economic factor affecting the management of domestic waste: The key economic factor affecting waste management is the poor economy of the nation. Poor or bad technological concept lack of facilities, insufficient man power and more affect the waste management. To determine the natural factors affecting household waste management in Abuja: Top on the natural factor that affects solid waste management in Abuja is the wind, topography and flooding. Which made the management of this waste difficult by the waste management companies. Rain have a slight
Iranian Journal of Environmental Health Science & Engineering, 2009
Municipal solid waste management has emerged as one of the greatest challenges facing environment... more Municipal solid waste management has emerged as one of the greatest challenges facing environmental protection agencies in developing countries. This study presents the current solid waste management practices and problems in Nigeria. Solid waste management is characterized by inefficient collection methods, insufficient coverage of the collection system and improper disposal. The waste density ranged from 280 to 370 kg/m 3 and the waste generation rates ranged from 0.44 to 0.66 kg/capita/day. The common constraints faced environmental agencies include lack of institutional arrangement, insufficient financial resources, absence of bylaws and standards, inflexible work schedules, insufficient information on quantity and composition of waste, and inappropriate technology. The study suggested study of institutional, political, social, financial, economic and technical aspects of municipal solid waste management in order to achieve sustainable and effective solid waste management in Nigeria.
Social Science Research Network, Oct 7, 2009
ABSTRACT
Water and Environment Journal, Nov 15, 2012
The plateau lakes of Yunnan are important both ecologically and economically in China. Neverthele... more The plateau lakes of Yunnan are important both ecologically and economically in China. Nevertheless, the human impact on water quality in these lakes has become increasingly highlighted. The water quality of 10 plateau lakes was monitored regularly over the period of 2000 through 2004 for 24 parameters. Multivariate statistical techniques, including cluster analysis (CA), factor analysis (FA), and principal component analysis (PCA), were employed to better interpret information about the water quality and its pollution sources. No obvious data reduction from CA/FA was found because three principal components (PCs) needed 14 variables to explain 85.01% of the total variance. However, three latent factors accounted for pollution mainly from the following sources: agricultural activities, residential activities and anthropogenic-toxic pollution from industrial effluents, or other special activities. Box-whiskers plots were employed to visually interpret the spatiotemporal variations of water quality variables, which were highly correlated with three PCs. Three types of water quality (i.e., low-, medium-, and high-polluted lakes) were determined through CA based on the similarity of water quality variables. Our results may provide helpful information for the authorities to effectively manage the water quality and make sound policies.
Scientific African, Jul 1, 2020
Surface water contagion resulting from anthropogenic deeds and bad effluent management due to swi... more Surface water contagion resulting from anthropogenic deeds and bad effluent management due to swift urbanization has cause a dramatic deterioration in river water quality and has threatened the aquatic ecosystem health of Nigeria. Thus, treated and untreated river water usage for domestic purposes is uncertain and, accordingly, requires scientific investigation. Research on the quality of surface water resources and hydrochemical interfaces is vital for monitoring and for determining water contaminant sources. Therefore, river samplings were obtained from 5 sampling points, for a total of 25 water samplings from the Usuma River in Abuja, Nigeria, and these samples were examined for physicochemical parameters by means of standard techniques. Additionally, the results acquired were subjected to hydrochemical scrutinizes and the examined water quality variables demonstrated wide discrepancies from one sampling station to another. The result also showed that Conductivity had the highest mean (50.68mg/l), followed by TDS (37.32mg/l) whereas Nitrite had the lowest mean (0.09mg/l). Similarly, Chloride had the highest Standard deviation (12.77mg/l).This was followed by Conductivity (11.82mg/l) while Nitrite had the lowest value of 0.01mg/l. Furthermore, most parameter (Temp, Turbidity, DO, COD, BOD and Total coliform) for every water samples examined surpassed the maximum permissible criterions of the WHO specifications for drinking water quality. The highest point of substantial correlation was found between chloride and DO (r = 0.92, α = 0.05). Four principal components were obtained that accounted for 23.87% drop in dimensionality that defined 76.13% of the total variance signifying the impact of mineral suspension and human-related actions on the hydrochemistry of the region. Two hydrochemical clusters were recognized with noticeably apportioned water quality. Advance analysis divulged that 43.7, 20.2 and 37.1% of the samples were of the (S0 4-Cl-Ca, S0 4-Cl-CO 3 HC0 3-Ca-Mg and Mg-Ca) types, respectively. Multiple pollution effects, anthropogenic activities, the changing ecosystem, and innate features of aquatic ecosystems produce multifaceted data that pose a threat to river water quality in the study locality and this requires serious attention. There is also a need for the schedule monitoring of the Usuma River in Abuja and buffer regions at the riparian zone to enervate the deleterious effects of catchment urbanization.
Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research), Feb 11, 2023
This study investigated the application of an artificial neural network (ANN) to predict the perf... more This study investigated the application of an artificial neural network (ANN) to predict the performance efficiency of the Abuja-based Wupa WWTP, Nigeria using effluent 5-day biochemical oxygen demand (BOD5) as a performance indicator. Daily data of influent BOD5, pH, total dissolved solids, total suspended solids, chemical oxygen demand, total coliform, Escherichia coliform, and fecal coliform; and effluent BOD5 over a period of five years (2013 to 2017) for the Wupa WWTP was utilized for the plant's performance efficiency. The four most reliable multilayer perceptron ANN (MLP-ANN) algorithms namely, Levenberg-Marquardt (LM) backpropagation resilient backpropagation, Quasi-Newton backpropagation, and Fletcher-Reeves conjugate gradient backpropagation were adopted; and the most appropriate model was selected following training, validation and testing by altering the number of neurons and activation functions in both the hidden and output layers. The model efficiency was determined using mean square error (MSE) and correlation coefficient (R 2). The ML algorithm with Logsig-Tansig activation pairing and architecture [8-1270-1] performed the best in terms of convergence time and prediction error, with MSE and R 2 values of 1.522 and 0.922, respectively. Also, it revealed that the selected ANN model predicted the effluent BOD5 with an overall correlation coefficient of 0.962; thus, demonstrating the efficacy of ANN models for accurate prediction of the Wupa WWTP performance. The novelty of this research is in evaluating the efficiency of the plant over the periods and determining the most precise ANN model for Wupa WWTP, Abuja, Nigerians a study which has never been carried out before now.
Nigerian Journal of Technology, 2009
Botswana Journal of Technology, 2006
Iranian Journal of Environmental Health Science & Engineering, 2009
Municipal solid waste management has emerged as one of the greatest challenges facing environment... more Municipal solid waste management has emerged as one of the greatest challenges facing environmental protection agencies in developing countries. This study presents the current solid waste management practices and problems in Nigeria. Solid waste management is characterized by inefficient collection methods, insufficient coverage of the collection system and improper disposal. The waste density ranged from 280 to 370 kg/m 3 and the waste generation rates ranged from 0.44 to 0.66 kg/capita/day. The common constraints faced environmental agencies include lack of institutional arrangement, insufficient financial resources, absence of bylaws and standards, inflexible work schedules, insufficient information on quantity and composition of waste, and inappropriate technology. The study suggested study of institutional, political, social, financial, economic and technical aspects of municipal solid waste management in order to achieve sustainable and effective solid waste management in Nig...
Energy Nexus, 2021
Abstract This study examines the activities of the informal recycling sector in Abuja, Nigeria. T... more Abstract This study examines the activities of the informal recycling sector in Abuja, Nigeria. This is no formal recycling programme in Abuja. Scavengers carry out waste segregation and identification for recyclable materials. The questionnaires were administered to one thousand, five hundred (1500) scavengers and scrap dealers (stakeholders) to obtain socioeconomic and demographic characteristics. The questionnaires contain age distribution, gender, marital status, education level, working hours, number of stakeholders, citizenship, experience on the job, materials recovered, quantities of recyclables, and income. The majority of the scavengers are between the ages of 21 and 40 years, and they work between 10–12 h. The scavengers are predominantly male. The scavengers sort out recyclables 19.76 kg/c/d. The estimated quantity of recyclables generated in Abuja is 133,688 kg per day (133.688 tons per day). A waste picker earns between N1000 ($2.8) and N1500 ($4.2) per day; itinerant dealers earn between N1500 ($2.8) and N2000 ($5.6) per day, and scrap dealers earn between N10, 000 ($27.77) and N15, 000 ($41.67) per day in Abuja. The activities of stakeholders contribute to the recovery and sorting of secondary waste recyclables. The study highlighted the challenges of scavengers.
Scientific African, 2020
Surface water contagion resulting from anthropogenic deeds and bad effluent management due to swi... more Surface water contagion resulting from anthropogenic deeds and bad effluent management due to swift urbanization has cause a dramatic deterioration in river water quality and has threatened the aquatic ecosystem health of Nigeria. Thus, treated and untreated river water usage for domestic purposes is uncertain and, accordingly, requires scientific investigation. Research on the quality of surface water resources and hydrochemical interfaces is vital for monitoring and for determining water contaminant sources. Therefore, river samplings were obtained from 5 sampling points, for a total of 25 water samplings from the Usuma River in Abuja, Nigeria, and these samples were examined for physicochemical parameters by means of standard techniques. Additionally, the results acquired were subjected to hydrochemical scrutinizes and the examined water quality variables demonstrated wide discrepancies from one sampling station to another. The result also showed that Conductivity had the highest mean (50.68mg/l), followed by TDS (37.32mg/l) whereas Nitrite had the lowest mean (0.09mg/l). Similarly, Chloride had the highest Standard deviation (12.77mg/l).This was followed by Conductivity (11.82mg/l) while Nitrite had the lowest value of 0.01mg/l. Furthermore, most parameter (Temp, Turbidity, DO, COD, BOD and Total coliform) for every water samples examined surpassed the maximum permissible criterions of the WHO specifications for drinking water quality. The highest point of substantial correlation was found between chloride and DO (r = 0.92, α = 0.05). Four principal components were obtained that accounted for 23.87% drop in dimensionality that defined 76.13% of the total variance signifying the impact of mineral suspension and human-related actions on the hydrochemistry of the region. Two hydrochemical clusters were recognized with noticeably apportioned water quality. Advance analysis divulged that 43.7, 20.2 and 37.1% of the samples were of the (S0 4-Cl-Ca, S0 4-Cl-CO 3 HC0 3-Ca-Mg and Mg-Ca) types, respectively. Multiple pollution effects, anthropogenic activities, the changing ecosystem, and innate features of aquatic ecosystems produce multifaceted data that pose a threat to river water quality in the study locality and this requires serious attention. There is also a need for the schedule monitoring of the Usuma River in Abuja and buffer regions at the riparian zone to enervate the deleterious effects of catchment urbanization.
Environmental Monitoring and Assessment, 2020
This study evaluated the efficiency of microalgae activated sludge (MAAS) for wastewater treatmen... more This study evaluated the efficiency of microalgae activated sludge (MAAS) for wastewater treatment by investigating the influence of hydraulic retention time (HRT) on MAAS using batch regime pilot scale photobioreactors at Wupa Wastewater Treatment Plant. The outcome of the study showed that MAAS has a comparably high wastewater treatment performance in comparison with the current Wupa Wastewater Treatment Plant (WWTPA) activated sludge (AS) method and is capable of treating wastewater to the defined Nigerian effluent standards. It was further revealed that treatment performance for most parameters were optimal from HRT 3 (6-day hydraulic retention time). Precisely, total nitrogen (TN), total phosphorus (TP), and BOD 5 had highest removal efficiency at HRT 3 with average total removal of 81.36%, 91.77% and 87.04% respectively. Correspondingly, the average percentage DO increment peaked at HRT 3 with a value of 269.7%. In addition, there was a general deterioration of SVI with increasing HRT, particularly after HRT 2 (4-day HRT). Notably, SVI 30 was significantly good at HRT 1 and HRT 2 with SVI values of 48.6 ml/g and 105.52 ml/g; however, from HRT 3 down to HRT 9 , the SVI 30 became remarkably increases greater than that of HRT 1 and HRT 2 , with values ranging from 685.61 to 1832.46 ml/g, which indicates a badly bulking sludge. The MAAS system is recommended as an attractive alternative to the conventional AS wastewater treatment in Nigeria and by extension West African subregion.
Acta Polytechnica Hungarica, 2014
Data mining is a set of computer-assisted techniques designed to automatically mine large volumes... more Data mining is a set of computer-assisted techniques designed to automatically mine large volumes of integrated data for new, hidden or unexpected information, or patterns. Two artificial neural networks (ANN) models were developed for prediction of Cryptosporidium oocysts and Giardia cysts respectively using multiple water quality parameters as input. These neural models were feed forward networks, trained by back propagation algorithm. Eight water quality parameters were used to predict Cryptosporidium peak concentration and seven parameters were used to model Giardia concentration in Kano River, Nigeria. The ANN models correctly predicted oocysts and cysts concentration with accuracy of 90% and 92% respectively. The neural network model gave excellent results.
Environmental Monitoring and Assessment, 2015
Multivariate statistical techniques, such as cluster analysis (CA) and principal component analys... more Multivariate statistical techniques, such as cluster analysis (CA) and principal component analysis/factor analysis (PCA/FA), were used to investigate the temporal and spatial variations and to interpret large and complex water quality data sets collected from the Kaduna River. Kaduna River is the main tributary of Niger River in Nigeria and represents the common situation of most natural rivers including spatial patterns of pollutants. The water samples were collected monthly for 5 years (2008-2012) from eight sampling stations located along the river. In all samples, 17 parameters of water quality were determined: total dissolved solids (TDS), pH, Thard, dissolved oxygen (DO), 5-day biochemical oxygen demand (BOD5), chemical oxygen demand (COD), NH4-N, Cl, SO4, Ca, Mg, total coliform (TColi), turbidity, electrical conductivity (EC), HCO3 (-), NO3 (-), and temperature (T). Hierarchical CA grouped 12 months into two seasons (dry and wet seasons) and classified eight sampling stations into two groups (low- and high-pollution regions) based on seasonal differences and different levels of pollution, respectively. PCA/FA for each group formed by CA helped to identify spatiotemporal dynamics of water quality in Kaduna River. CA illustrated that water quality progressively deteriorated from headwater to downstream areas. The results of PCA/FA determined that 78.7 % of the total variance in low pollution region was explained by five factor, that is, natural and organic, mineral, microbial, organic, and nutrient, and 87.6 % of total variance in high pollution region was explained by six factors, that is, microbial, organic, mineral, natural, nutrient, and organic. Varifactors obtained from FA indicated that the parameters responsible for water quality variations are resulted from agricultural runoff, natural pollution, domestic, municipal, and industrial wastewater. Mann-Whitney U test results revealed that TDS, pH, DO, T, EC, TColi, turbidity, total hardness (THard), Mg, Ca, NO3 (-), COD, and BOD were identified as significant variables affecting temporal variation in river water, and TDS, EC, and TColi were identified as significant variables affecting spatial variation. In addition, box-whisker plots facilitated and supported multivariate analysis results. This study illustrates the usefulness of multivariate statistical techniques for classification and processing of large and complex data sets of water quality parameters, identification of latent pollution factors/sources and their spatial-temporal variations, and determination of the corresponding significant parameters in river water quality.
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Papers by TOOCHUKWU OGWUELEKA