Category: News and Events

UNC Water and Health Conference October 2024

UNC Water and Health Conference October 2024

The full complement of staff and students in Water-WISER travelled to the US (North Carolina) for the annual UNC Water and Health conference.

This leading international conference for the sector also brought together various groups of collaborators integrated with Water-WISER student projects, including the FCDO, KIAT, WHO/JMP/GLAAS projects on climate resilient WASH and WASH Systems Strengthening. Through being involved in development of side events, several Water-WISER students have been interacting with, and influencing, senior staff at organisations such as the World Health Organisation. Interactions included building ‘side events’ i.e. themed workshops involving delegates and collaborators from across the globe.

Side events included:

  • Jamie Myers: Designing sanitation programmes for challenging contexts: Principles, considerations, practical examples and recommendations
  • Claire Grisaffi 1: Regulating Faecal Sludge Emptying and Transport: A participatory case-study based workshop to explore stakeholder perspectives
  • Claire Grisaffi 2: How can low-income countries maximize infrastructure investments in FSM services? Lessons from Bangladesh
  • Spurthi Kolipaka: Transitioning from basic to safely managed water and sanitation services: systemic drivers and implications
Malham Challenge Event 2024

Malham Challenge Event 2024

The Water-WISER Challenge Event for this year took place at Malham in the Yorkshire Dales.  40 students and staff attended the Annual Challenge Event held in the Yorkshire Dales this year. Representatives from Wild Ingleborough/Yorkshire Wildlife Trust gave presentations on site about how the Wild Ingleborough landscape restoration project can alleviate flooding at the headwaters of several important rivers, and at the same time reduce agricultural run-off into rivers. Students explored an underground river in the Selside cave system, building team work and understanding more about the unique hydrology of the area. Other students took part in a parallel art/craft workshop which was beneficial for student mental health and wellbeing, and inclusion.

Water-WISER students contribute to a report on the Jal Jeevan Mission

Water-WISER students contribute to a report on the Jal Jeevan Mission

Jal Jeevan Mission or ‘Water for Life’ mission is a flagship scheme of the Government of India to provide piped water supply to every rural household within premises. Announced by the Prime Minister in August 2019, the mission set out an ambitious target to cover the remaining 161 million households which were lacking piped water supply in their premises by 2024, making it one of the world’s largest piped water supply programmes.

Commemorating the unique journey of Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM), a special report was published by Sankala Foundation, a non-profit organization focused on climate and sustainability, in partnership with United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS) on 20th September 2024 in New Delhi. The report provides insights into the innovative strategies adopted by the mission to successfully provide tap water supply connections to about 120 million households since its roll-out. Additionally, the book also compiled successful case studies offering an exhaustive look at the various building blocks that the mission relied on for this transition to improved services.

The report titled ‘Jal Jeevan Mission – Har Ghar Jal: A study of access to clean tap water to every rural home in India’ offers valuable lessons to other countries in similar settings facing challenges of scaling up regional efforts to a national level program. The report delves into the topics of planning for universal coverage ensuring equity and inclusion and leaving no one behind, identifying priority areas, accessing resources through convergence with other water programmes, finding suitable and affordable technologies for water supply and increased public awareness, building capacities of stakeholders at all levels, ensuring transparency and accountability measures through third party monitoring and annual functionality surveys, and above all use of technology for monitoring service levels and water quality.

Two of the Water-WISER students who have previously worked on this mission under the guidance of the then Mission Director and Additional Secretary, Mr. Bharat Lal now had the opportunity to contribute to the report, this time as researchers and writers. Spurthi Kolipaka is a 3rd year PhD student at the University of Leeds, and Renjitha M.H. is a final-year PhD student at Cranfield University.

Spurthi visited India in April 2024 as part of her PhD’s data collection period and pre-planned with her supervisors to meet and work along with the wider researchers team at Sankala Foundation.

After discussing with her supervisors, Spurthi who penned a significant part of the report, while in India to collect data for her PhD research work in April 2024, engaged with the wider research team at Sankala Foundation. She supported the team by guiding them toward relevant resources and field personnel, sharing her experience of JJM planning and roll-out, helping with chapter structure and brainstorming, as well as editing and refining a few chapters. Renjitha further supported Spurthi by editing and finetuning the few chapters authored by her.

In Spurthi’s words, “I am beyond thrilled to see the published report. This was the result of a lot of hard work especially by the Sankala team researchers who I had the privilege to work with during my field visit. This is probably the only report on JJM out there that truly captures the initial journey of JJM planning and roll-out, the myriad challenges faced by the team and the innovative strategies adopted. JJM stands as a shining example of systems change and the report hopefully offers valuable insights to other practitioners and researchers.”

The report will soon be made available on the Sankala website or those interested can email Spurthi at cnsk@leeds.ac.uk.

Water-WISER at the IRC All Systems Connect Conference 2023

Water-WISER at the IRC All Systems Connect Conference 2023

On 2-5 May the Water-WISER students and staff decamped to The World Forum conference centre in The Hague, Netherlands, for the IRC All Systems Connect 2023 conference.

This annual event is a huge (>700 attendees) meeting forum for WASH experts, policymakers and businesses, with the focus on connecting up silos and holistic thinking.

The All Systems event itself lasted 3 days, and included sessions chaired and developed by Water-WISER CDT students in a formal collaboration. Workshops and ‘sprints’ ranged from climate change solutions to financing WASH projects. Spurthi (pictured) had a high-profile role in the youth ‘sprint’ on climate change and WASH.

President Zhelensky turned up during the conference, with lots of security, meaning the Water-WISER group had to eat breakfast out of a bag that morning!

After the close of the IRC event, the Water-WISER group met at Het Nutshuis (IRC offices) in the city centre for a reflective workshop. J’Anna Lue and Euphresia Luseka, guest speakers, talked on positionality and decolonising research and the event was joined by international researchers from outside Water-WISER.

Photo credits: Robert Tjalondo (Rockin’ Pictures) for IRC

Water-WISER Challenge Event 2023

Water-WISER Challenge Event 2023

This year’s Challenge Event took place at YHA Patterdale in the Lake District 3-6 April.

The stunning scenery was full of interest for the Water-WISER group as staff from the West Cumbria Rivers Trust took the group on a tour of Natural Flood Management (NFM) solutions in the Cocker catchment – descending the west side of Whinlatter Pass. Infrastructure included tree planting, small to giant leaky dams, ponds, and creation of meanders, all to slow water flow down to Cockermouth which was hit by major floods in 2015. The co-benefits for biodiversity are huge. Only one student managed to fall in the river!

The following day, based at Glenridding village hall, was led by Ken Caplan of Partnerships in Practice (Water-WISER Advisory Board), and focused on facilitation – an important skill for Water-WISER students collaborating with stakeholders and communities during fieldwork overseas. Water-WISER students learned how to use the fabric of the room and the format of an event to ensure productive outcomes. A memorable exercise was the ‘Empty Chair’ – a great lesson in figuring out how to devolve leadership in rapidly unfolding complex situations.

A very different activity that afternoon involved getting in the water itself – kayaking and cliff jumping! Hardy students braved the icy water and a 5m high cliff.

The setting in the Youth Hostel meant that formal and informal discussions were easy to hold in common rooms, as well as providing a great base for exploring the local area in the mornings and evenings before and after the structured events.

Photo credits: Ullswater Outdoor Adventures

Water-WISER at LGBT+ event – Loughborough

Water-WISER at LGBT+ event – Loughborough

In November 2022, a series of events was organised by STEM Schools across the University of Loughborough in the week leading up to the International Day of LGBTQIA+ people in STEM. The theme of the week was ‘Educate, Celebrate and Support’, and was aimed at staff and students who identify as LGBT+ or are allies.

Within the events series, a group of researchers from the Water-WISER CDT hosted a workshop entitled ‘Safeguarding Queer Identities in Research’. Georgia Hales, Hannah Robinson and Zhe Zhan (CDT-aligned student at Leeds) talked about the relevance of LGBT+ identities within research undertaken across the CDT. They cited examples from their own experience and research and covered topics including inclusive terminology in public health policy relating to gender, how gender affects access to, and use of, water and sanitation services, and collecting data from LGBT+ participants. They also looked at issues of safeguarding for LGBT+ researchers conducting fieldwork.

Sanitation Systems in Unsewered Cities: A Field Study in Rajshahi, Bangladesh

Sanitation Systems in Unsewered Cities: A Field Study in Rajshahi, Bangladesh

My project focused on developing a methodology for spatially representing sanitation systems in unsewered cities in the global south. I have spent three weeks over the months of July and August 2022 doing fieldwork to validate a prototype developed using open-source data for a small area of Rajshahi city in northwest Bangladesh. The sole sanitation system in this city is comprised of individually controlled and maintained onsite septic tanks and pits.

The aim of the fieldwork was to find out how effective the methodology is at mapping faecal matter sources and their movement. The informal usage of the city’s storm drainage network is the way of supernatant fluid movement; in some situations or in certain portions (older part) of the city, faecal solids are also carried out of the city via those drains.

Click the title to read more …

Targeting water, sanitation and hygiene interventions in pastoralist populations in the Afar region of Ethiopia

Targeting water, sanitation and hygiene interventions in pastoralist populations in the Afar region of Ethiopia

This is an article by Lucy Whitley, Cranfield University, United Kingdom, in the Global Water Forum

Around the world, large numbers of people face structural and environmental barriers to accessing safe water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) services. Among these populations at risk are many of the 200 million pastoralists whose lifestyles and extreme environmental settings challenge conventional approaches to WASH. Lucy Whitley and colleagues recently surveyed individuals and households from pastoralist communities in the Afar region in north eastern Ethiopia. They found that that low levels of access to WASH infrastructure are further compounded by risky behaviours related to water containment, storage and transportation. Here she discusses the findings of their survey and how these challenges might be addressed.

Read more here

What do we really know about the impacts of climate change on sanitation

What do we really know about the impacts of climate change on sanitation

This blog post is by Leonie Hyde-Smith, a PhD student on the WaterWiser CDT programme.

Effective sanitation systems are crucial for public and environmental health, particularly in densely populated urban areas. It is widely accepted that the impacts of climate change will stress the effective functioning of urban sanitation systems. But is there sufficient evidence for this claim?

Read more here

Poop! What’s it like to live without a toilet?’

Poop! What’s it like to live without a toilet?’

On Saturday 7th¬†May, Water-WISER students Karl Jones, Hannah Ritchie and Lais Dos Santos took part in the Be Curious festival of science at Leeds. This is an annual event where the University of Leeds opens up to over 1000 members of the public (mainly families with small children) to come and get hands-on with science. It’s an inspiring celebration of public engagement with hundreds of activities on offer.

Visitors to Water-WISER had to hook poo out of a tub of water, while learning all about hand washing and research into water purification. The game was really hard, even for adults! Luckily all the children kept a laser focus on removing all the poo, patiently waiting their turn and with hardly a tantrum in sight!

Kenya fieldwork – monitoring the interaction of sand dams with the sub-surface

Kenya fieldwork – monitoring the interaction of sand dams with the sub-surface

My PhD project is based on sand dams: small, concrete structures constructed across ephemeral streams, behind which sand accumulates, in which water is stored from the rainy season for use in the dry season. I am exploring the causes and impacts of lateral, longitudinal, and vertical losses of the water stored in sand dams to the sub-surface environment.

In 2022, I spent two months in Southeast Kenya in the short dry season (January – March), working on three dams being constructed that season and three mature dams. A lot of my time was spent collecting geophysical data, which we used to image the subsurface up to 25-30m deep, and data to constrain the geophysics, such as topography, water levels, rock depth, and soil profiles.

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Chevin Challenge Event April 2022

Chevin Challenge Event April 2022

This year’s Challenge Event took place at the Chevin Country Park Hotel near Leeds. Postponed from January due to the Omicron covid variant surge in infections, the event was intended to bring everyone together in person for presentations skills training and networking.
The event started on the first evening with a team-building short walk to Surprise View on Otley Chevin – a traditional photo opportunity for CDT groups.

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Award: Mariam Zaqout

Award: Mariam Zaqout

Mariam Zaqout, a CDT-aligned student, won the Water @ Leeds Spring Award, an impressive achievement as this is open to several hundred researchers. She also won ‘Best Paper’ at the 2021 WaterAid Research Awards for the paper Sustainable sanitation jobs: prospects for enhancing the livelihoods of pit-emptiers in Bangladesh (2021), Third World Quarterly.

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SAFAD charity work: Hannah Ritchie and Lucy Whitley

SAFAD charity work: Hannah Ritchie and Lucy Whitley

We have been running (treasurer and president) Cranfield’s international development charity (SAFAD) this year – a charity that aims to relieve poverty by promoting appropriate development, community participation and capacity building. SAFAD sends Cranfield students with technical skills obtained from their MSc degrees to work with local organisations on new and existing projects amongst the WASH, environmental engineering, agricultural and management sectors. The volunteers, in turn, gain practical experience through their work.

Diversity in WASH study

Diversity in WASH study

Professor Barbara Evans (director of the Water-WISER CDT) put Ruth Sylvester Georgia Hales in contact with Kimberly Worsham, founder and director of FLUSH, an American sanitation and hygiene education, advocacy, and consultancy organisation. Kim needed extra help with data collection: demographic data on 1472 global sanitation leaders across 105 organisations. The resulting paper was published in Sage’s Environmental Health insights journal in July 2021 and the work has been presented via poster at the Colorado WASH Symposium in March 2021 and via presentation at the WEDC conference in September 2021.

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IUG Gaza Collaboration

IUG Gaza Collaboration

Across the three universities, several Water-WISER and aligned PhD students formed a working group focused on discussing and dismantling the inequalities that exist between global north and south WASH researchers. Mariam Zaqout, a Palestinian researcher in the final year of her PhD at Leeds and a CDT-aligned student, initiated a meeting between the Islamic University of Gaza wherein students across all four universities were able to introduce themselves and their research topics to one another.

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Challenge Event 2021

Challenge Event 2021

On 22-25 June 2021, students and staff from the Water-WISER CDT gathered at Cranfield University for our first in-person event since the pandemic began.

The ‘Challenge Event’ normally focuses on activities designed to give students skills in problem-solving, team working and networking, in a variety of outdoor settings. The annual event brings together the full cohort of students from each university – Leeds, Loughborough, Cranfield.

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Water-WISER CDT activities during the COVID pandemic

Water-WISER CDT activities during the COVID pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic occurred halfway through the first year of the CDT, so this prevented in-person events and activities from going ahead. However, the network of staff and students has been working effectively online and the following activities took place:

  • Research Skills Week April 2020 – an extensive programme of advanced skills training
  • Summer Skills Workshops 2020 – a bespoke series of workshops developed in response to the COVID lockdown by the CDT academic team
  • Inductions for new students Sept 2020
  • Research Skills Week Jan 2021
  • Summer Skills Workshops 2021

We are hoping to hold our first in-person ‘Challenge Event’ in more than a year, in June 2021, at Cranfield University campus and local area, including team-building problem-solving activities and research presentations. Crossing fingers that it goes ahead!

Theme: Overlay by Kaira