In March 2015, UW-Madison undergraduate Theo Loo was awarded a Wisconsin Idea Undergraduate Fellowship for $4,500.00 to pursue a project on “Waterborne Disease Prevention” in Kumanzimdaka, South Africa. Loo, a Microbiology and Global Health major, designed this project to research and reduce the prevalence of waterborne diseases in Kumanzimdaka village in South Africa by implementing a water security system to protect the village’s water supply. During the summer of 2015, he traveled to the village to test the water source for waterborne pathogens, administer a survey among villagers, conduct water sterilization workshops, and generate a map of the area using ArcGIS. Data collected will be analyzed and a report developed and sent to Indwe Trust, the LAND Project’s South African collaborator, to implement a physical water source protection system. To learn more about Theo’s findings, see our page on Water Security.
The University of Wisconsin-Madison Wisconsin Idea Undergraduate Fellowship team was impressed how this exciting exciting project demonstrates Loo’s commitment to expand the Wisconsin Idea and serve the community around the world.
You can also view a video that Theo put together about Water Security in Mmangweni Village, Eastern Cape, below.
The LAND project 