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| | Faculty of Science holds Colloquium |    | | | 
The 16th Colloquium of the Faculty of Science, dedicated to the 60th Anniversary of the University of Ghana, has taken place in the Great Hall.
The two-day colloquium, under the theme, "The Management of our Environment for the Sustainability of our Livelihoods", provided a platform for senior members of the Faculty to share information on research activities, as well as developmental issues within the Faculty, the University, and the country as a whole.
The Vice-Chancellor, Prof. C. N. B. Tagoe, in an address before formally opening the Colloquium, said unless humans learnt to live more “sustainably” with less impact on the environment, the prospects for future generations would be bleak. He reminded participants of a request by His Excellency President John Agyekum Kufuor, to set up an Institute of Environmental and Sanitation Sciences in the University. The Vice-Chancellor was hopeful that the deliberations would provide the input to meet that challenge.
The Dean of the Faculty, Prof. Frederick K. Rodrigues, in a welcome address, commended a former Dean, Prof. Mumuni Dakubu, for initiating the Faculty Colloquium ten years ago, in 1988. He noted that proceedings from colloquia held over the years had been crystallized into the Journal of the Faculty of Science.
He said the extent to which humans have polluted the environment, and the resultant threat to human lives and national economies, was the reason for the choice of the present theme. Dean Rodrigues described the graduate programme in Environmental Science, set up by the University in 1998 to train local and foreign scientists and hosted by the Faculty of Science, as a "crusade to provide graduate education in the causes, effects and control of environmental problems.” He hoped deliberations at the colloquium would plug some of the holes in the knowledge of the environment.
Speaking on the topic, "Managing the by-products of our living: the University should take the lead", Prof. Dakubu in a plenary presentation, emphasized the need to understand the magnitude of environmental degradation, in order to devise appropriate strategies against it.
The former Dean of the School of Public Health, Prof. Isabella A. Quakyi, gave a presentation on "Improving Sanitation: The Most Cost-Effective Public Health Interventions" She said sanitation was the most cost-effective method of ensuring public health. Prof. Quakyi called for households, especially women and children, to be made the centre of all environmental sanitation programmes.
An engineer at Zoom Lion Company Ltd, Mr. Nathaniel Armah, who spoke on "Waste Management in Accra: Challenges and Prospects", said Accra was in difficulty of finding landfill sites for waste disposal. He warned that waste collection would grind to a halt if a site was not found within the next few months.
The main business of the colloquium saw the presentation of scientific papers on a wide variety of topics, which scanned Environment and Health, Biology, Nutrition and Food Sciences, as well as Physical, Earth, Chemical and Computer Sciences.
Of particular interest to participants was "A Case Study on the Microbiological Safety of Foods Served in the Ghana School Feeding Program (GSFP), in the Ga East district of Accra". The study assessed the microbiological safety of foods served under the GSFP, using 6 of the 18 beneficiary schools in the Ga East district. The study found out that the hygienic conditions under which the foods were prepared and served were not satisfactory, and that the hands of the food servers were possible sources of food contamination. The study therefore recommended improvements in the hygienic handling of foods in the schools to prevent contamination and possible food poisoning.
A significant component of the Colloquium was the State of the Faculty Report, which was presented by the Dean, Prof. Rodrigues. He outlined the Faculty's objectives for the future, which include popularizing the study of science throughout the country by the conduct of outreach programmes mainly in the Senior High Schools.
On the Faculty’s benefactors, Prof. Rodrigues commended Kasapreko Company Ltd. for recently making a donation of a bus to the Faculty, and to Ecobank Ghana Ltd. which donated GH¢10,000 towards the purchase of a bus.
Some Senior Members and other Staff of the Faculty were honoured at the Colloquim. The immediate past Dean of the Faculty, Prof. G. T. Odamtten, and a retired Principal Technician, Mr. J. Y. Amponsah were among those honoured. | | | | Date Published: 17/11/2008 | | | |   |
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