Tuesday 10th December on TEAMS register for meeting link
"A global outlook on water and sanitation research"
Dr Alison Parker, Cranfield University
Behind the headline figures about how many people lack access to water and sanitation around the world is an intricate story of poor financing, weak institutions, limited water resources and 2 billion mothers who just want their children to be safe and healthy. Technology and infrastructure have a role to play but how can they best be implemented in these complex situations and what is the role for university research? In this talk Alison will draw on two case studies from her own research: sand dams, a methods of water harvesting wisely used in the rural drylands of Kenya, and container based sanitation, an easy-to-service toilet design that has the potential to solve some of the challenges of sanitation in dense informal settlements.
Short bio
Reader in International Water and Sanitation, Centre for Water, Environment and Development at Cranfield University.
Dr Parker completed a four year Masters degree at the University of Oxford in Earth Sciences.This was followed by a PhD at the University of Leeds studying the hydrogeology of the chalk aquifer of East Yorkshire. Dr Parker started as a Research Fellow at Cranfield University in January 2009 and was progressed to Senior Lecturer by October 2019.
Areas of expertise include in water harvesting as a nature-based solution, sand dams, faecal sludge management, container based sanitation, the circular economy for sanitation, gender and menstrual health
Committed to Equity Diversity and Inclusion and the decolonization agenda.
Research contributing to policy change in city councils in Cape Town, Lima, Nairobi and Hyderabad