Bachelor of Science Honours degree in Water and Sanitation Technology (HWST)
Programme Overview
- The aim of this program is to contribute towards improved environmental quality at regional, national and global scales through teaching, research and by developing appropriate technologies to identify, control, or eliminate sources of pollutants affecting the environment and public health.
- The department will accomplish its mission by:
- Developing curricula that provide appropriate theoretical knowledge and practical skills in environmental science and technology.
- Producing competitive innovative graduates to take up or create opportunities in industry, government departments and the non-governmental organizations including small and medium scale enterprises or own initiatives. The graduates will be equipped with essential technical knowledge and skills for conducting research including: Selecting data collection methods; collecting and analysing air, water and soil samples; analyzing environmental data collected by others; analysing data for correlations to anthropogenic effects; and with skills in advocacy, problem-solving, report writing and presentation.
- Departmental participation in societal development through research and outreach programs
- Collaborating with industry and other relevant stakeholders.
Entry Requirements
Normal Entry
▪ At least five ‘O’ level subjects including English Language, Mathematics and Science plus: Advanced Level passes in any two of the following subjects or their recognized equivalents: Biology, Chemistry, Mathematics and Geography or a relevant National Certificate from an accredited Institution
▪ Articulation as provided by the ZNQF
▪ Recognition criteria for foreign credentials of international students
Special Entry
Special entry would be granted to students who, in the opinion of the Departmental Board, have outstanding passes in a relevant Diploma, subject to such a qualification meeting part of the requirements of the program
CAREER OPPORTUNITIES
On successful completion of the degree program, graduates can be formally employed in the private or public sector. They may also be self – employed. The following career prospects are available to graduates:
- Industry – as designers, research officers, technicians, field and sales officers.
- Government Departments, Parastatals, Local Authorities and Municipalities – as lecturers, technical, extension or research officers, water resource managers, land use planners, laboratory officers, environmental officers, Catchment management officers.
- Agricultural enterprises – as environment specialist or managers, technical and environmental officers and consultants.
- Self-employment – environment analysts, contractors, entrepreneurs, and consultants.
Research and Academia – Graduates can also continue into higher degree programs, which provide a basis for research and academic careers.
Students who excel in this degree program can advance to do Masters and Doctoral studies in Environmental management, water resources management; agricultural water management; water quality management; irrigation; agricultural metrology and climate change and variability, Soil and water conservation, natural resources management and land use planning.
Programme Structure
- In the first year, learners are expected to acquaint themselves with the introductory modules of the degree program. The choice of modules should be done with the guidance of Departmental staff.
- The degree program shall have at least 36 taught modules spread over the 6 teaching semesters.
Module Code Module Narration Credits
Level I
AGRO104 Introduction to Statistics 12
HORT131 Principles of Microbiology 12
WST101 Health & safety issues in laboratories and treatment plants 12
BSE103 Engineering Mathematics 1 12
LWR134 Principles of Hydrology 12
BSE105 Engineering Mechanics 12
WST102 Water Governance & Community Participation 12
Level II
BSE201 Engineering Mathematics 2 12
WST201 Health and Epidemiology 12
WST202 Introduction to Sanitation Systems 12
WST204 Fluid Mechanics 12
WST205 Hydraulics 12
BSE208 Engineering Mathematics 3 12
BSE301 Statistical Methods & Experimental Designs 12
Level III Work-Related Learning
AGPR330 Work-Related Preliminary Report 30
Level III Work-Related Learning
AGPR331 Work-Related Learning Report 45
AGPR332 Employer’s Assessment Report 30
AGPR333 Academic Supervisor’s Report 45
Level IV
WST401 Hydraulic Design 12
WST402 Water Quality Monitoring 12
WST403 Water Tariff Systems 12
LWR414 Hydrogeology 12
WST404 Water treatment technologies 12
WST405 Waste Water Treatment Technologies 12
WST400 Research Project 24
- MODULE SYNOPSES
AGRO104 Introduction to Statistics
This module introduces students to the fundamental concepts involved in using sample data to make inferences about populations. Included are the study of measures of central tendency and dispersion, finite probability, probability distributions, statistical inferences from large and small samples, linear regression, and correlation.
HORT131 Principles of Microbiology
History and development of microbiology; Discuss key concepts in microbiology; Laboratory types and legal requirements; Distinctive characteristics of the major groups of microorganisms including viruses; Procaryotic and eucaryotic cell structures; Nutritional requirements and microbiological media; Cultivation and growth of microorganisms; Physical and chemical control of microorganisms; Components and functions of the different parts of a typical bacterial cell (cell wall, cell membrane, flagella, endospores, etc.); Bacterial toxins; Methods of identification; Classification of major groups of bacteria.
WST101 Health and Safety Issues in laboratories and treatment plants
Working conditions in laboratories, working conditions in water/wastewater treatment plants, health and safety issues associated with gas, chemicals, electricity, radiation sources, personal protective equipment, documentation of laboratory and water/wastewater treatment plants activities, laboratory hazards and risks, risks and hazards associated with water/wastewater treatment plants, hazard identification and risk assessment in water/wastewater treatment plants, technical protection measures
BSE103 Engineering Mathematics I
Calculus in one variable; Limits and continuity of functions; Differentiation, derivatives of single variables, Leibniz’s rule, L’Hospital’s rule; Elementary functions including hyperbolic functions and their inverses. Integration techniques including reduction formulae; Applications-arc-length, area, volumes, moments of inertia, and centroids. Series tests of absolute, uniform and conditional convergence, Plane polar coordinates; Complex numbers Elementary Set Theory, Relations and Inequalities, Mathematical Induction.
LWR134– Principles of Hydrology
The module covers the hydrological cycle; meteorological parameters, their definitions and measurements; rainfall-intensity/duration/frequency relationships; evaporation; infiltration; surface runoff-processes, rainfall/runoff correlations; hydrograph analysis; flood routing surface runoff – processes, rainfall/runoff correlations; hydrograph analysis flood routing. Interception of depression storage. Hydrological statistical analysis.
BSE105 Engineering Mechanics
The module covers General Principles; Force Vectors; Equilibrium of a Particle; Force System resultants; Equilibrium of a Rigid Body; Structural Analysis; Friction; Centre of Gravity and Centroid; Moments of Inertia; and Virtual Work.
WST102 Water Governance & Community Participation
Introduction to peace and political stability, sociopolitical nexus, governance, management and water security, water management mapping, transboundary water management, political, legal and regulatory frameworks, conflict analysis and mapping tools, indigenous conflict resolution
BSE201 Engineering Mathematics II
The module covers Symbolic Logic, Boolean Algebra, Matrix Algebra, Scalar and vector products. Equations of lines and planes. Ordinary Differential Equations; Fourier analysis; Laplace Transforms; Z Transforms.
WST201 Health and Epidemiology
This module deals with Principles and practices of sanitation and hygiene; Sanitation regulations and standards; Safety in my environment, water borne diseases, health and lifestyle, detection of possible pathogens in water, methods for tracing disease pathogens to water sources; Sanitation infrastructure planning; design of on-site sanitation facilities; problems and solutions for sanitation systems; tools for design, building and operating domestic sanitation systems, environmental health basis of working in the water and sanitation, key principles, approaches and technologies for environmental sanitation including decentralized excreta disposal, simplified sewerage and solid waste management, operation and maintenance of sanitation infrastructure, tools for demand creation and management and cost benefit analysis of options.
WST202 Introduction to Sanitation Systems
This module deals with an overview of faecal sludge management which will include sludge production methods, sludge collection, characterization of faecal sludge, operational factors that impact the variability of faecal sludge, sludge treatment objectives, physical-chemical constituents of sludge, sludge treatment mechanisms.
WST204 Fluid Mechanics
The module focuses on basics of fluid mechanics and hydraulics: Static pressure and head, fluid pressure on surfaces, pressure measurement, buoyancy and stability of floating bodies, liquids in relative equilibrium, liquids in motion, fluid friction and viscosity, open channel flow and Mannings formula, pipe flow and Darcy-Weisbach, Hazen Williams, Scobey formulae, flow through orifices and mouthpieces, flow measurement; notches, weirs, propeller flow meters, pitot tubes, constriction flow meters etc.
WST205 Hydraulics
The course serves as a quantitative introduction to the principles of hydraulics, and water resource engineering. The course covers the fundamentals of hydraulics, including properties of water, hydrostatic forces/pressures, fluid statics/dynamics, head losses, and related phenomena in closed conduit flow. Topics to be covered include Energy equation, friction losses, minor losses, types of pipe flow & Reynolds number, series piping, parallel piping, pump’s power, unsteady pipe flow, classification of free-surface flow, Froude number, uniform flow, critical flow, basics of channel design, specific energy, non-uniform rapidly varied flow (hydraulic jump), introduction to non-uniform gradually varied flow.
BSE208 Engineering Mathematics 111
The module covers: Introduction to numerical methods for solving problems in mathematics, science and finance; Computer arithmetic and rounding errors; Numerical methods for root- finding; Polynomial interpolation and splines; Solution for linear algebraic equations; Numerical integration and differentiation; Numerical integration of ODE’s; Euler and second order; Runge-Kutta methods.
BSE301 Statistical Methods and Experimental Design
Data collection: populations and random sampling; Introduction to experimental designs, data analysis and interpretation; Statistical methods related to variances; Statistical methods related to comparison of means; Experimental designs (Including biological and engineering experiments) and layout (randomized complete block designs, split plots, factorial, Latin squares); Analysis of variance for one factor, two-factor experiments and multi-factor experiments; Multiple comparisons of means; Partitioning of the sum of squares, transformations; Analysis of covariance; Repeated measures analysis; Regression, Correlation Multi-variate regression; Tests for the goodness of fit and independence; and Data entry, analysis and interpretation using statistical packages (e.g. MINITAB, GENSTAT, SAS R, MATLAB, SPSS) for all designs: Regression and Correlation.
Industrial Attachment (Work-Related Learning)
Work-Related Learning Report; Employer’s Assessment Report; Academic Supervisor’s Report
WST401 Hydraulic design
The module is structured to equip learners with the requisite knowledge and skills in designing hydraulic structures and conveyance systems
Structural design aspects of hydraulic structures, hydraulic design of energy dissipation structures, spillways, surge tanks, gates and valves, dam and reservoir hydraulics, hydraulic design of irrigation structures, design of sanitation structures, hydraulic design of sewers and storm water drains, design of water/wastewater treatment plants
WST402 Water Quality Monitoring
Aquatic Chemistry, microbiology, standards, engineering and environmental problems, testing techniques and equipment sampling methodology; Laboratory procedures; processes for waste water; oxygen demand tests – biological oxygen demand, chemical oxygen demand; specific oxygen uptake rate; solids tests – total and volatile suspended solids; process control calculations; chlorination and de-chlorination; faecal coliform bacteria; ultra violet disinfection systems
WST403 Water Tariff Systems
Economic principles in water supply and management, water tariff regimes, types of tariffs, problems of water pricing, water charges, subsidies, water security financing mechanisms and models
LWR414 Hydrogeology
The module covers: fundamentals of subsurface flow and transport, emphasizing the role of groundwater in the hydrological cycle, the relation of groundwater flow to geologic structure, and the management of contaminated groundwater; groundwater in the hydrological cycle and recharge calculation; aquifers; Surface water groundwater connectivity; Groundwater resource evaluation.
WST404 Water Treatment Technology
Water treatment technologies for farm and rural water supply, Operation and maintenance of water treatment plants; coagulation; flocculation; sedimentation; filtration; disinfection processes; drinking water regulations; control of taste and odours; daily operation procedures; chemical use and handling, records and reports; plant maintenance
WST405 Waste Water Treatment Technology
Characterization of effluent; calculation of BOD and reaction rate coefficients; parameters used in urban waste water description; sewerage systems (types of sewers, estimation of flow in sewers, waste water treatment design flow rates); waste water treatment (physical, chemical and biological operations, layout of waste water treatment plants); preliminary treatment units (designing of screening units, comminutors, grit removal, classification of settling behaviours, the ideal settling tank); design of
sedimentation tanks, loading rate methods; biological treatment (process microbiology and kinetics of microbial processes, aerobic biological treatment processes, anaerobic biological treatment processes, anoxic processes; fixed film reactors; suspended culture treatment systems
WST400 Research Project
Students are expected to undertake independent studies in any branch of Water Sanitation Technology, and summarize results in a dissertation. The dissertation is examined in the final year, but preparation starts during the fourth year by developing suitable topics and a preliminary literature search. During the final year, the student devotes 90 hours to data collection and/or experimentation, data analyses and dissertation write-up, for submission before the start of formal final University examinations, and may be required to appear for an oral examination.