Bowling Green, Ky. - A Western Kentucky University environmental health project for China has received $2 million from the U.S. Agency for International Development.

Funding for the “China Environmental Health Project” was obtained with support from U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell. With matching and other funds, the two-year project will total just over $2.5 million.

Dr. Chris Groves, director of the Hoffman Institute and the new project, has been conducting karst and water resource research in China for more than a decade and has been working on the environmental health project since 2002.

“The overall theme of this project is to seek solutions for environmental problems associated with the natural conditions in China,” Dr. Groves said. “Our work will help improve the environmental health of Chinese people.”
Some 80 million people are estimated to live in the southwest China karst region where much of the work will be focused, about 8-10 million of whom live below the Chinese poverty level equivalent to about $85 per year.

“One of WKU’s greatest strengths is the commitment of its researchers and students to improve peoples’ lives,” Sen. McConnell said. “I’m always proud to support WKU as it works toward this goal, and I was pleased to have been able to assist WKU on this project.”

The “China Environmental Health Project” has two main components: a karst water resource project managed by Dr. Groves and an air quality project managed by Dr. Wei-Ping Pan of WKU’s Institute for Combustion Science and Environmental Technology.

WKU also is partnering with Dr. Jennifer Turner, director of the China Environment Forum, which is part of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, D.C., on the project. She will oversee the project’s community outreach and training of Chinese nongovernmental organizations who will work with WKU and Chinese scientists.

The goal is to develop solutions for China’s environmental problems and to train people in China with the technology to solve the problems. “We plan to use the expertise here at WKU and provide opportunities for our undergraduate and graduate students to significantly improve public health in China,” Dr. Groves said.
As part of the project, WKU faculty and students will travel to China to conduct seminars, field work and training. Chinese scholars and students also will visit WKU for training, which will include work in hydrogeology and water resources, Geographic Information Systems, and coal combustion technology to better understand air quality issues.

“We will be working with our Chinese colleagues to solve environmental health problems,” Dr. Groves said, “but an even more important goal is capacity development to increase the technical infrastructure for the work among our colleagues in China so that they are better prepared to carry this work on in the future.”
Geography and Geology Department Head David Keeling noted that “the department has been active internationally for over a decade and this funded project in China will continue to build on the relationships Chris and others have built over the years in East Asia. Our hope is to engage more WKU students and faculty in our China research program and to develop parallel projects that could benefit both Kentuckians and Chinese citizens. China is emerging as the U.S.’s most important trading partner and a powerful force in the global economy, so providing opportunities for WKU students to better understand China is in our best long-term interests.”

More WKU news is available at www.wku.edu. If you’d like to receive WKU news via e-mail, send a message to WKUNews@wku.edu.

For information, contact Chris Groves at (270) 745-5974.

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