Gordon Niboyenyel Dakuu

• Land use and food security
• Environmental and climate change
• Health and sanitation
• Growth, inequality and poverty
• Sustainable use of natural resources
• Theories of Development
• Environmental Impact Analysis
• Urbanisation
• Agriculture, land use, climate change
• Health

• Burkina Faso
• Ghana
• Uganda
• Nepal

I am an enthusiastic and ambitious social science researcher with over 8 years’ experience in environment climate change and health impacts, environmental equity, and development planning policy and practice in international and intercultural comparisons. I am experienced in research and analysis, project development and management, communication, and teaching.

Climate Change Variability and the Ecology of Waterborne Diseases in the Black Volta Basin: Pathways to Health Systems Resilience in Ghana

Climate change has become a potential threat to human health in the past half century. The risk associated with waterborne diseases due to changes in climatic patterns is increasing all over the world. This study will review available literature on the increase and potential impact of waterborne diseases on human health, particularly those resulting from changing in climatic conditions in Ghana. The discussion will further explore the increasing exposure to pathogens associated mainly with temperature rise and floods resulting from intense rainfall events. Developing countries, including Ghana, are more vulnerable to threats of climate change and climate variability, which add to waterborne disease risks due to poor sanitation and sewerage systems, inappropriate water management, lack of health-care facilities, and social and environmental factors. Among bacterial pathogens, E. coli, Salmonella, Shigella, Cryptosporidium, and Campylobacter are the main causative agents of waterborne diseases such as diarrhoea, hepatitis, cholera, typhoid, malaria, salmonellosis, dysentery, schistosomiasis, and giardiasis, all of which are becoming more frequent. In addition to disease outbreaks, climate changes are expected to increase the challenges of water availability and exposure to unsafe water. Future projections of climate based on current rates of change predict increased variations in rainfall patterns and rising sea levels, which will lead to an exponential increase in pathogen concentration in water bodies. As disease outbreaks become more frequent, the impact on health is clear and health systems will be under serious threat. The study will propose policy options and actions to reduce future health threats from outbreaks of waterborne diseases through the development and integration of mitigation and adaptation measures into national policies, including health, water infrastructure development that assures potable water quality control, improved medical intervention, and the development of process-based models for risk reduction, improved early warning systems, detection, mitigation and recovery.