Water is an essential resource required for various human activities such as drinking, cooking, and other recreational activities. While developed nations have made significant improvement in providing adequate quality water and sanitation devoid of virus contaminations to a significant percentage of the residences, many of the developing countries are still lacking in these regards, leading to many death cases among the vulnerable due to ingestion of virus-contaminated water and other waterborne pathogens. However, the recent global pandemic of COVID-19 seems to have changed the paradigm by reawakening the importance of water quality and sanitation, and focusing more attention on the pervasive effect of the use of virus-contaminated water as it can be a potential driver for the spread of the virus and other waterborne diseases, especially in developing nations that are characterized by low socioeconomic development. Therefore, this review assessed the socioeconomic inequalities related to the usage of virus-contaminated water and other waterborne pathogens in developing countries. The socioeconomic factors attributed to the various waterborne diseases due to the use of virus-contaminated water in many developing countries are poverty, the standard of living, access to health care facilities, age, gender, and level of education. Some mitigation strategies to address the viral contamination of water sources are therefore proposed, while future scope and recommendations on tackling the essential issues related to socioeconomic inequality in developing nations are highlighted.

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An investigation was carried out on wetland (fadama) soil properties affecting optimum soil cultivation. A cone penetrometer and a shear vane apparatus (19 mm) were used to determine the cone index and the torque that cause the soil to shear at different moisture contents. The study shows that the cone index and shear vane of fadama soils increased with depth and decreased with increase in moisture content. High moisture content reduced the soil cohesion. The internal frictional angle of the soil was 37.9 0 . The following values were obtained for soil cohesion 112 kN/m 2 , 62 kN/m 2 , 38 kN/m 2 , 30 kN/m 2 , and 12 kN/m 2 at moisture contents of 0%, 5%, 10%, 15% and 20% respectively. Moisture content between 10% -15% (dry basis) appeared ideal for cultivation of the soil. For this soil the critical moisture content was found to be 23.72%. Moisture content beyond the critical level needs to be drained before cultivation is carried out.