The Itchi-Agu Project

The Itchi-Agu outreach and engagement activities were held from December 01, 2022 to July 31, 2023. Located in Igbo-Eze South LGA of Enugu State, Nigeria, Itchi-Agu is about 11 km from University of Nigeria, Nsukka. In this rural community that depends entirely on streams and springs, as high as 75.3% of the 110 households (previously surveyed) practice open defecation and that about 91.4% of this population do not treat their water to make it safe for drinking. The project included:

1. Implemented an innovative outreach and engagement model at Itchi-Agu, a rural community in Enugu State, Nigeria. The health humanities outreach initiative for safe water and sanitation deployed evidence-based microbiology and drama to mobilize, train and support community dwellers to test and treat their water to have it safe for drinking (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=228EGaBo4fI; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9_ZM34W1UJY; https://www.un.org/en/academic-impact/ensuring-safe-drinking-water-university-nigeria-engages-community).
2. QMRA Africa workshop for PG student and faculty members in Africa, and QMRA Africa (https://www.unn.edu.ng/call-for-applications-quantitative-microbial-risk-assessment-workshop-qmra-africa/) was a cross disciplinary, 2-day training programme that aimed at improving knowledge and developing capacity for addressing public health issues.
3. Establishment of annual International Conference on Water in Africa and workshop on Water testing in Rural Environments for Disease Control (ICWA), that has resulted in a topical collection in the Springer Nature journal, Discover Water (https://link.springer.com/collections/cieifajgef). Started in 2022, the ICWA has been held for three consecutive years.

Supported by:

1. 2020 Alliance for African Partnership (AAP) Transforming Institutions Strategic Funding (Exploratory Grant). Co-PIs: Drs Jade Mitchell and Prof. Julie Libarkin of Michigan State University and, Prof. Cheikh B. Gaye of University of Cheikh Anta Diop, Senegal). Project: Water Accessibility, Training Enhancement and Research in Africa Network: The WATER Africa Network. $20.000.00; Nov 01, 2020 — Oct 31, 2021
2. 2022 Applied Microbiology International (AMI) Outreach and engagement Grant. Project: Tackling Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Challenges and Transforming University Rural Host-Communities through Health Humanities Outreach (H₂O) initiative £4,000.00; Nov 01, 2022 — Jul 31, 2023.