Dr. Tom Shahady, a University of Lynchburg environmental science professor, was on several radio stations in the Northeast last week talking about water quality in Costa Rica.
His work was featured on “The Academic Minute,” a daily program that highlights the research of college and university professors. The show airs on WAMC, a public radio network that serves seven states from New Jersey to New Hampshire.
Shahady’s segment discussed his efforts to create a way for communities in Costa Rica to measure the water quality in their rivers and streams. The method empowers the communities to monitor their water.
“Water is life,” Shahady says in the recorded segment. “People across the globe are in a struggle between use of land, our economic engine, basic biological needs and maintaining clean water. How do communities participate to maintain their own water health?
“Research I am conducting looks at just that — bringing communities into science.”
You can read and listen to his segment here.
Shahady got involved with water quality research in Costa Rica several years ago when concerned citizens there reached out to him and asked for help to show how an agricultural project would impact their drinking water. His students have analyzed water in rivers there to help create the measurement methods for communities and keep an eye on ongoing issues.
