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Revision as of 16:32, 20 October 2021
TEAM BOLIVIA
HUMAN PRACTICES
The Problem & Our Human-Centred Approach
The presence of arsenic(As)in drinking-water is a major concern to human health due to the diseases it could cause, as it is classified group 1 for being carcinogenic for humans. (1,2). According to Ormachea et.al.(2016)(3), the presence of As in water, mainly in groundwater, is due to natural geochemical processes and anthropogenic activities such as mining, which started in the 16th century, and has caused a severe impact on the quality of water and soils around communities, with large discharges of acid into the drainage and high concentrations of metals and metalloids such as Arsenic. Studies in Bolivia assessing this issue have shown that water from shallow wells (up to 30 m), used for human consumption, have As concentrations of 25 times more than the Bolivian standard and the WHO recommendation (10 μg/L).(4) On the other hand, bolivian women showed an elevated exposure to As and an efficient metabolism for it. (5)
As human practices, we wanted to integrate all social actors involved in this problem of access to water quality and sanitation. Therefore we carried out activities related to ethics, sustainability and safety. Our main objective was to learn about the problem of arsenic contamination in our country, to reach the communities where the presence of this metal was evidenced and to propose possible solutions. We were very interested in visiting a rural community so we interviewed professional experts on the subject and reviewed the bibliography, thus evidencing the presence of arsenic in water in several regions of the Bolivian Altiplano and lower valley.We understood the degree and type of contamination, so this made it easier to access and establish contact with them. We received feedback about the problem, guidance in our project, advice for our activities and suggestions based on their experience with communities, always considering aspects that are quite evident in the Bolivian context.
Population in Bolivia has a bad perception about promoting science in Bolivia because of some historical background. It is bad information that provokes a bad perception about science. Technologies and innovations began to be demonized, making the process difficult. In addition, the lack of commitment of many scientists who worked in rural communities caused them to feel used, and disturbedin their culture and beliefs. To regain their trust, investing time and showing results and solutions was important, knowing that this would be a process.
References
1.- Kapaj, S., Peterson, H., Liber, K. & Bhattacharya, P. 2006. Human health effects From Chronic arsenic poisoning – a review. J.Environ.Sci.Health, Part A 41:2399–2428.
2.-Chen, C. J., 2010. Health hazards of arsenic in drinking water. In:Jean, J.S., Bund-schuh, J., Bhattacharya, P. (Eds.). Arsenic in Geosphere and Human Diseases 2010. Taylor & Francis Group, London. pp. 251–253.
3.-Muñoz, M. O., Aróstegui, J. L. G., Bhattacharya, P., Sracek, O., Moreno, M. E. G., Kohfahl, C., & Bundschuh, J. 2016. Geochemistry of naturally occurring arsenic in groundwater and surface-water in the southern part of the Poopó Lake basin, Bolivian Altiplano. Groundwater for Sustainable Development. 2: 104-116.
4.-Ramos, O. E., L. F. Cáceres, M. R. Ormachea Muñoz, P. Bhattacharya, I. Quino, J. Quintanilla, O. Sracek, R. hunvik, J. Bundschuh, and M. . Garc a, “Sources and behavior of arsenic and trace elements in groundwater and surface water in the Poopó ake Basin, Bolivian Altiplano,” Environ. Earth Sci., vol. 66, no. 3, pp. 793–807, Jun. 2012.
5.-Gardon, J., Tirado, N., Broberg, K., Vahter, M., 2016. Arsenic exposure and metabolism among women in Bolivia. Arsenic Research and Global Sustainability. Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK, pp. 392–393.
Designing Our Human Practices Framework
We were able to work on this analysis with the help of experts from different areas (anthropology, sociology and agronomy). At this point, we had to measure priorities and possibilities, giving up for the moment the idea of visiting a rural community due to social, cultural aspects and the time factor. We had in mind that Human Practices is an area linked to a lot of social perspective related to the needs of those affected and our activities were guided to cover these needs, without forgetting that at some point we plan to continue with our project and we will be able to work and dedicate the deserved time to rural communities, extinguishing that skeptical gap in face of synthetic biology.
Therefore we continued with the research and finally made our decision. One of the papers that helped us to know more about the arsenic problem was the "Water Chemistry of Arsenic Naturally Produced in Underground Water in Cochabamba - Bolivia”. In this work, 18 water samples from wells were studied, which had supplied water to 11 urban communities in the lower valley of Cochabamba. Arsenic concentrations ranged from values below the detection limit, 3 μg/L, to a maximum of 581.7 μg/L. Up to 55.6% of the wells studied presented As concentrations above the maximum allowable value. A peri-urban community with the presence of arsenic turns out to be more accessible to us. After analyzing the situation, we decided to elaborate a survey and interview local authorities from 5 different communities to know their opinion about the presence of arsenic in their water sources and to have their approval regarding the survey. At the same time, we provided information on biotechnology and synthetic biology to know their position on these topics.
We know that genetic engineering falls within the limits of the bioethical dilemmas. The precautionary principle generates panic in a population that is poorly informed and easily manipulated. Critical thinking was our best tool and dialogue with institutions was the ultimate strategy. Winning the recognition of iGEM will allow the Bolivia team to establish a precedent in Bolivia and show that we can impact our country and change the historical course.
Our Human Practices Journey
The dynamics between the public perception and the attempt to introduce and explain our project within the problem caused by the presence of arsenic or contamination were a real challenge. This is why we decided to contact different experts in areas such as: economics, sociology and engineering. We had these interviews in virtual meetings from March to August. This helped us to understand and decide which approach was the most appropriate to focus on, in order to succeed with our project.
Virtual meetings with some professionals
Maria del Carmen Ledo, PhD.
Doctor Ledo, an economist specialized in water with a focus on social issues, was interviwed to know about her experience with watter and society. Her socioeconomic work on the water plan in Cochabamba city, showed that lead is an abortive factor in the population of the region. It was argued that, given the scarcity of water supply, people have been adopting their own measures for it. She described the vulnerability of the inhabitants of this city reflected in terms of life expectancy in some other areas. In terms of cost, these are variable from region to region. Thus, even the money allocated for the abductions would be insufficient to meet the high needs of Cochabamba.
Maria nise que
Doctor Tirado is a biochemist that worked with 10 rural communities affected by high concentrations of arsenic (samples she collected) in the Altiplano region of Bolivia. Considering what doctor Ledo mentioned about the water problems in Cochabamba, we decided to achieve this interview. She told us about her work with arsenic and it’s genotoxicity. She told us the importance of being able to dialogue with the members of the rural community and helped us to note that the work is both integrative and anthropological. Aspects that should be considered are: knowing the culture, age, percentage of inhabitants, interest on the part of the women in the community and being aware that they may also have deeper social needs.
Miguel Angel Peñafiel, B. Sc.
Mister Peñafiel is an agronomist who worked in rural communities whose main income came from gold mining. After doctor Tirados’s experience, we decided to learn more about visiting rural communities, so we had an interview with him. He gave us some advice like strategies we should have taken to approach the neighbors of the rural communities, since he saw that these people had already been offered other projects but unfortunately, for them, these projects only showed the problem without solutions. This is why he suggested that we needed to have given a solution beside our project. Finally he mentioned we needed to talk first with the ones in charge of the rural community, use simple words and try to speak the language they did.
Mauricio Ormachea, PhD.
Dr. Ormachea is a specialist in arsenic geochemistry. When we met to talk about arsenic in Bolivia, we managed to understand that different parameters had to be taken into account in order to develop our biosensor. He talked about how to measure the degree of impact on rural and peri-urban communities affected by the presence of arsenic, as well as the pros and cons involved in detecting heavy metals in drinking water, since water as such, not only comes with the presence of heavy metals, but also with organic matter and other elements. This made us reflect that we should focus on visiting the most populated communities and look for an adequate solution.
Scientific society of students in archaeological and anthropological research.
Our next step was to interview students of anthropology and archaeology. As we were determined to visit rural communities, a manual of how to visit one was about to be carried out with their help, to develop valuable information for future participation in iGEM. However, they warned us that these people shouldn’t be treated like study objects since they would have been the protagonists of the project. They also mentioned that the team must have lived the cultural experience of a community and only 2 months was not ideal for a study in the social area. This is why, we realized that visiting a rural community would have been really difficult and laborious to be done successfully.
UPB - AGUATUYA
Taking into account all the points the anthropology students talked about and reviewing the documents again, we realized that we could redirect our proposal. So we contacted the Bolivian Public University (UPB) and the Bolivian organization AGUATUYA. We met with four professionals: Ramiro Escalera, PhD., Renato Montoya, BEng., Ivette Echeverria, BEng. and Oliver Saavedra, BEng. UPB, they have been investigating arsenic, its detection and remediation, since 2011. So they told us more about the previous sampling campaign and updated the well data. The update was done in a sampling campaign in 2019 where they added new wells from nearby urban communities. To detect arsenic, they used the hydride generation method combined with the atomic absorption spectrophotometry method. AGUATUYA performs water quality monitoring and control in the wastewater treatment plants. To know the quality of the water obtained from these plants, they used fish as indicators. However, the heavy metals in water do not undergo any transformation in terms of biological treatment. The treatment plants play an important role as water can be used for irrigation.
CASA
A very important center also mentioned in the papers and in the meeting with UPB, is the Water and Environmental Sanitation Center (CASA), which works with water analysis and environmental sanitation. Three professionals from this center were present: Ana Maria Romero, PhD., Carla Oporto, PhD. and Mercedes Iriarte, PhD. CASA specializes in the analysis of different metals due to their toxicity and mainly in waters of mineralized areas or with mining activity in the highlands of Bolivia. According to their experience, in Cochabamba there is no evidence of heavy metal concentrations exceeding the levels generally permitted in drinking water or wastewater. However, an in-depth study of arsenic concentrations in wells has not been carried out, so there isn't a routine detection of arsenic in water. They mentioned the atomic absorption technique and Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry technique as arsenic detection methods. In describing this situation to us, the doctors recommended that we contact Ramiro Escalera. Finally, they told us a bit about their experience with well sampling, offering us help on taking the samples correctly so that our concentration determination results were reliable when validating our project.
Álvaro Mercado, MEng.
Mercado is a civil engineer who has carried out research in environmental engineering and chemistry. After receiving all the information from CASA, we wanted to get deeper into the environmental problem of heavy metals in general. He considered that arsenic contamination is quite relevant, since it comes from two sources, industrial pollution (mining activity) and soil removal in which case this metal comes naturally. The most affected regions in our country are the Bolivian highlands, due to the intense mining activity that is developed, as well as regions where there are several industrial fields as in the case of the city of Cochabamba.
Ramiro Escalera, PhD.
Doctor Escalera is specialized in the development of drinking water and domestic and industrial wastewater treatment. With the recommendation of CASA and after reviewing background information on the presence of arsenic in Bolivia, we came across the project "Detection and removal of natural arsenic in disadvantaged areas with groundwater supply (Bolivia)". This work proposes the method of Arsenic Removal by Solar Oxidation (RAOS). We discuss the current methods used for arsenic detection, and what our project would imply in terms of economic and social impact. We also had access to urban community well locations and concentrations to validate and compare our project with others.
Sarita Rocha, BSW.
Miss Rocha is a social worker and community development counselor. As we received the information we needed to visit and interact with the urban communities, we required guidance on the correct way to visit them. She told us that in order to develop the questionnaires we should make a diagnosis which consists of: measuring the level of schooling, knowing the needs of the population, the health systems (checking health background), what their behavior is like among others. With these, we could define how to reach the community, so we should ask ourselves what kind of population sample we would like to target. In order to have a better approach, we were recommended to be collaborative, cordial, inclusive and democratic.
Another recommendation was that we should keep in mind that we are mediators and counselors, not bosses, that is why listening to the opinion of others is the best way. The questionnaire would be developed from the contextualization of the urban community following a sequence and being qualitative. Once the surveyswere done, we should try to get them interested in our project and connect with them, the way we thought was to hold a workshop to introduce synthetic biology and our project, however, because of the pandemic we looked for new alternatives that were dynamic and participatory. This is how we fulfilled our objectives and the social commitment while working with urban communities.