{"81011":{"#nid":"81011","#data":{"type":"news","title":"Tech Civil Engineers Advise Angola on Environment","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EGeorgia Tech student Marcus Millard knew that Angola wouldn\u0027t be anything like a vacation resort. But like many from wealthy nations, he had little idea how few of the comforts he had come to expect are available in a developing country.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EFor instance, when Millard, two graduate students and School of Civil and Environmental Engineering Chair Joseph Hughes flew into Luanda, Angola\u0027s capital city and home to about 4. 5 million people, they expected to be able to buy a drink or a newspaper.\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0022I was expecting a city that ran a little more like a city - something that looked like Mexico City,\u0022 Millard said. \u0022If we wanted, I thought we could leave the area we were staying in and walk down to the corner and buy something. But there were no stores.\u0022\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003ETheir first view of the city was an eye-opener for the students, the first of many they\u0027d experience on their two-week visit to advise the Angolan government on environmental issues. Hughes and the students met with officials from the government\u0027s Ministry of the Environment to discuss the country\u0027s infrastructure and environmental challenges.\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EAngola has had only a few years to begin its recovery from more than 30 years of war - war that drove nearly half of its population out of dangerous rural areas and into the capital city of Luanda.\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0022There was a terrible displacement, followed by incredibly rapid growth in the city. Just about any societal problem you can imagine began to manifest itself there,\u0022 Hughes said.\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EMost of the country, including Luanda, is without basic infrastructure such as water distribution and waste and water treatment.\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EIn one instance, the group saw residents bathing and drinking from water thick with trash and waste from one of Luanda\u0027s bays.\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0022There is all sorts of stuff floating in the bay. It looks like there\u0027s no plant life anywhere and there are even wrecked ships,\u0022 said Millard, who is president of the Georgia Tech chapter of Engineering Students Without Borders, an organization that encourages engineering students to use their knowledge to improve lives in developing international communities.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EBut now that the war is over, the country is hoping to speed its development. The country is an exporter of diamonds, minerals, coffee, fish and most importantly, oil. In fact, Angola is one of the top importers of oil to the United States.\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EBut without clean water, safe dwellings and waste disposal, it will be difficult for the Angolans to address many of the country\u0027s quality of life and education challenges, Hughes said. And that\u0027s where the group\u0027s mission comes in.\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EOne part of the trip involved working with Angolan engineers on oil field waste treatment and other waste treatment issues in Luanda. For instance, the group toured a refinery in Luanda, and Millard worked with a local company to give advice on how the country could improve its waste treatment methods, especially waste from oil production.\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EThe government was also very interested in the impact oil production might be having on the county\u0027s environment, in particular mangrove trees that line its coast. \u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EMiles of mangrove trees have died in recent years along the coast. The mangrove trees are especially key to local fish that breed among them and the Angolans who rely on the fish for food.\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EWith financial support from the Georgia Tech Research Institute, Hughes, along with undergraduate students and faculty Kevin Caravati, of the Georgia Tech Research Institute; and Paul Beaty, of the Georgia Tech GIS Center, studied satellite images of the mangrove trees from Tech and later the trees themselves in an attempt to discern what environmental factors might be causing the trees to die. \n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EWhile there were quite a few documented oil spills off Angola\u0027s coast, Hughes and his students concluded that oil was likely not the reason for the loss of habitat. Because the trees thrive in fairly delicate conditions, the deterioration was more likely caused by a combination of environmental factors, Hughes said.\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EThe group\u0027s work also included teaching the Angolans improved methods for treating wastes.\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EThe Angolan government has asked Hughes to come back in November to teach some courses to officials that work with environmental and infrastructure issues. He hopes to bring another group of students, possibly undergraduates, in the future if the country\u0027s political situation allows.\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EThe trip provided an important lesson for students about the role they can play as engineers in the world community.\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0022I think all the students had experiences that will influence them both professionally and personally. They see the potential for what they can do as an engineer working in developing countries,\u0022 Hughes said.\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":null,"format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"The chair of Tech\u0027s School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Joseph Hughes, and three students spent 2 weeks in Angola earlier this summer working with the country\u0027s Minister of the Environment and other officials and businesses to advise them on several environmental projects, many dealing with waste created by oil production in the country and other water-related environmental problems.","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":"","uid":"27304","created_gmt":"2004-07-09 00:00:00","changed_gmt":"2016-10-08 03:01:58","author":"Matthew Nagel","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","dateline":{"date":"2004-07-09T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2004-07-09T00:00:00-04:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"81021":{"id":"81021","type":"image","title":"A street in Angola","body":null,"created":"1449178079","gmt_created":"2015-12-03 21:27:59","changed":"1475894696","gmt_changed":"2016-10-08 02:44:56"},"81031":{"id":"81031","type":"image","title":"Dr. Joseph Hughes collects a water sample","body":null,"created":"1449178079","gmt_created":"2015-12-03 21:27:59","changed":"1475894696","gmt_changed":"2016-10-08 02:44:56"},"81041":{"id":"81041","type":"image","title":"Dead mangrove trees in Angola","body":null,"created":"1449178079","gmt_created":"2015-12-03 21:27:59","changed":"1475894696","gmt_changed":"2016-10-08 02:44:56"}},"media_ids":["81021","81031","81041"],"groups":[{"id":"1214","name":"News Room"}],"categories":[],"keywords":[],"core_research_areas":[],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cstrong\u003ELisa Grovenstein\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003ECommunications \u0026amp; Marketing\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/www.gatech.edu\/contact\/index.html?id=lgrovenste3\u0022\u003EContact Lisa Grovenstein\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003E404-894-8835\u003C\/strong\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"email":["lisa.grovenstein@comm.gatech.edu"],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}