Aude Lemme, a PhD researcher with the SPRINGS project, is developing a model to better understand how diarrhoeal pathogens move through rivers and streams. Her recent trip to Ghana gave her a closer look at the realities on the ground, shaping a model that’s not just based on theory, but grounded in how water systems actually function, and the complex challenges communities face in managing them.
What is your PhD research about in a nutshell?
I'm modelling how four diarrhoeal pathogens move and degrade in the streams of our case study areas. That means developing acode that calculates how quickly a pathogen dies under certain environmental conditions, mainly temperature and solar radiation, and how far it can be carried by a river from its original emission point.
The goal is to create a map showing pathogen concentrations in the water system at different times of year: during the dry season, rainy season, after a flood, etc.
You recently did fieldwork in Ghana. What were the highlights?
Meeting stakeholders on the ground was fundamental. It gave me a much broader understanding of the local context than I could get from a desk or dataset. I also travelled with my PhD and Postdoc colleagues, and hearing their questions during the site visits helped expand my own perspective.
What kind of data were you gathering?
I was mostly collecting coordinates of potential pathogen emission points and documenting how the water systems work.That included understanding irrigation canal operations, how water is used locally, and how the drainage systems are connected to the lagoons and theVolta River. I was constantly taking notes, but the amount of information shared during interviews was incredible, almost too fast to write down.
Can you share an insight you gained about the water infrastructure during your visit?
I found interesting how the drainage system is disconnected from the irrigation system and how the use of creeks and lagoons was optimised to drain the excess water during the rainy season so as to avoid as much as possible damages to the farmlands.
What’s next for you in this research?
I’m working on developing a preliminary pathogen concentration map that will be shared with other working groups in the SPRINGS project.They’ll use it in their agent-based model, which is the next milestone in our collaborative work.