A grant for mollusks

Zhytomyr – The growing shortage of drinking water around the world has caused a boom in the development of innovative technologies for its purification. No wonder, since we take our drinking water from natural reserves — the same ones where we eventually dump our waste. In countries which are conventionally referred to as civilized, such studies are seen as being of the highest priority, with particular attention paid to ecological methods.

Luckily, Ukraine still has many talented biologists. The other day Olena Uvaieva, Ph.D. in Biology, associate professor at the department of ecology and nature management, Ivan Franko Zhytomyr State University (ZhSU), got word that she had been awarded a presidential grant. The designated purpose of the grant was to study the use of freshwater mollusks for the purification of fresh water.

The young scholar (who in her interview with The Day emphasized that since her school bench she had been a pupil of the renowned biologist Ahnesa Stadnichenko, Ph.D., professor of the ZhSU) related that the mollusks, so common in our rivers and ponds, are quite effective for the purification of water from various organic and nonorganic substances and other admixtures. Thus an idea arose to use them in so-called bio-ponds.

A series of experiments will be held at water treatment facilities of the water network system in Zhytomyr, where such ponds for biological treatment of domestic wastewater already exist to purify sewage and eventually discharge it into the River Teteriv.

Uvaieva did not even try to conceal her joy at the award (she got the grant at her third attempt) and hoped that the money would help purchase equipment, notably a state-of-the-art spectrophotometer for the identification of concentrations of harmful substances. This will enable her to get a better idea of the practical aspects of the use of mollusks (for reasons of their high productivity, viviparous varieties were chosen), since they can be useful only under certain conditions, which are not necessarily comfortable, yet still sufficient for survival.

Uvaieva says that all science requires equipment and chemicals to carry out experiments. Consequently, it requires money. As a rule, finance at universities is scant, so many researchers (herself included) have to make purchases with their own money, and hunt for grants. Meanwhile, in a developed country similar experiments would have long been given the green light.

By the way, the sum of the grant is 60,000 hryvnias. Some of our state officials can afford to pay this much for a couple of dinners at a posh restaurant or a prestigious club, whereas anniversary celebrations can be ten times as expensive. The paradox of the Ukrainian approach to science is that upon receiving a state grant, a researcher has to pay an income tax and other contributions, totaling up to one-fifth or even a quarter of the allotted sum. Why wonder then that young talents are leaving Ukraine? Uvaieva already got some hints during her last trip to Moscow.