UNBC Environmental Engineering professor Jianbing Li will be leading research efforts to develop an effective, low-cost, portable water-treatment system for remote and rural communities in the province.
“Having reliable access to a safe drinking water supply is essential for the healthy development of rural, regional and remote communities,” said Li.
“Our interdisciplinary research team is working toward discovering a water treatment solution, training graduate students, and developing meaningful partnerships with relevant communities in British Columbia.”
Three interior universities, including UNBC, are looking into issues facing British Columbians who don’t live in larger centres.
Supported by the Interior University Research Coalition’s (IURC) Regional/Rural/Remote Communities (R3C) Collaborative Research Grant, three Interior university research teams will address the complex problems faced by British Columbians who live outside large metropolitan areas.
The funded projects grapple with disparate topics such as aging, water treatment and mental-health resiliency in the face of climate change.
Each of the three teams is receiving $40,000 to complete their projects.
Supported by the Interior University Research Coalition’s (IURC) Regional/Rural/Remote Communities (R3C) Collaborative Research Grant, the funded projects focus on topics like aging, water treatment, and mental-health resiliency in the face of climate change.
TRU associate professor Wendy Hulko, is joined by UBCO’s Kathy Rush and UNBC’s Sarah De Leeuw, who lead an initiative investigating the results of the Interior Health’s repositioning of health-care services for seniors.
In addition, UBCO associate professor Nelly Oelke is heading a project that aims to foster resilience in rural and remote communities by developing a greater understanding of the mental-health impacts of climate-change events.
“Climate-change events can result in extreme physical and psychological trauma for vulnerable populations living in rural and remote communities,” said Oelke.
“PTSD, depression, anxiety, increased substance use, and suicidality are all found to increase during and after problematic flooding, wildfires and drought, which are becoming more and more common in BC and around the world.”
The research takes place in the Similkameen region of BC’s Southern Interior, including Keremeos, Hedley, and Princeton, in addition to Ashcroft in the Thompson-Okanagan region and Burns Lake in Northern BC.