Clean water for all
November 11
Agenda
12:30 PM Panel: Health and WASH
1:30 PM Break + open Zoom room
1:40 PM Presentation: Travis Smith, Sensus
2:00 PM Virtual networking session
3:00 PM Day one closing remarks
10:00 AM Introduction + orientation talk: Rebecca Farnum, Syracuse University London
10:15 AM Keynote: Emma Robbins, DigDeep
11:15 AM Break + open Zoom room
11:20 AM Panel: Decentralized water systems
12:20 PM Break + open Zoom room
KEYNOTE:
“The Navajo Water Project and COVID-19”
Emma Robbins
Director of the Navajo Water Project, Diné artist, activist, and environmentalist
Emma Robbins is a Diné artist, activist, and environmentalist with a passion for empowering Indigenous women. As Director of the Navajo Water Project, part of the DigDeep Right to Water Project, she is working to create infrastructure that brings clean running water to the one in three Navajo families without it. Through her artwork, she strives to raise awareness about the lack of clean water in Native American nations. Robbins is also a 2020 Aspen Institute Healthy Communities Fellow and has been interviewed by news sources such as the BBC, NBC, NPR, Democracy Now! about the COVID-19 crisis.
Presentation: “Water Utility of the Future: Challenges, Uncontrolled Forces, Technology and Possibilities”
Travis Smith
Senior Director, Global Product Marketing at Sensus
Travis Smith is Sr Director of Global Product Marketing for Sensus (parent company Xylem). He is responsible for the strategy, market analysis, and roadmaps for Sensus’ water portfolio. He is a trustee of the AWWA Distribution and Plant Operations Division. Travis holds an engineering degree from North Carolina State University.
DAY 1 PANELS
Decentralized water systems
In an era of growing population, increasing water stress, and aging infrastructure, providing reliable, equitable access to clean water is of paramount importance. In this panel, we showcase decentralization strategies that have been adopted in both rural and urban regions to address this challenge, which includes integrating natural systems, water recycling, fog harvesting, and more. We will highlight the lessons learned from these communities and their distributed systems, as well as explore synergies between models for rural and urban settings.
Panelists:
Paula Kehoe
Director of Water Resources, San Francisco Public Utilities Commission (SFPUC)
Paula Kehoe is the Director of Water Resources with the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission (SFPUC). She spearheaded the landmark legislation allowing for the collection, treatment, and use of alternate water sources for non-potable end uses in buildings and districts within San Francisco, and helped diversify San Francisco’s local water supply portfolio through the development and implementation of conservation, groundwater, and recycled water programs. She serves as the Chair of the National Blue Ribbon Commission for Onsite Non-potable Water Systems.
Gaston Kremer
Field and Impact Manager, World-Transforming Technologies
Gaston Kremer is the Field and Impact Manager of World-Transforming Technologies, a NGO promoting innovation for Social Impact. He is a member of Water+Access Alliance (Aliança Água Mais Acesso) and focal point for innovation in this collective impact initiative aiming to strengthening community water management in Brazil. Since 2017 more than a 100,000 people benefited from the work of 16 partners across 8 states and more than 300 communities in rural areas from the Amazon to the Brazilian semiarid. Gaston has experience with rural development, ethics and governance of technology, climate and sustainable energy finance, inclusive innovation and international cooperation. He is a 92YFord Fellow for “rising stars” in the Brazilian third sector, TEDx Speaker and IDIN Network Member.
Jamila Bargach
Co-founder and Executive Director, Dar Si Hmad
Dr. Jamila Bargach is the co-founder of Dar Si Hmad, which operates the largest functioning fog harvesting project in the world. The system not only delivers potable water to households, but also fosters the independence of women in the community. An anthropologist by training, Jamila has taught at University Mohammed V in Rabat and worked at a number of NGOs in Morocco and overseas. She has also published several articles on adoption practices, unwed mothers, gender and development and the DSH fog-initiative. As an activist and scholar, she has dedicated her life to serving under-resourced communities, creating sustainable initiatives through education and scientific innovation.
Korneel Rabaey
Professor, Department of Biotechnology at Ghent University, CTO of CAPTURE
Prof. Korneel Rabaey is a professor at the Department of Biotechnology at Ghent University, as well as CTO of CAPTURE (www.capture-resources.be). He is also honorary professor at The University of Queensland. He is internationally recognized for his work in the field of resource recovery, particularly through bioelectrochemical processes, to form added value products from wastewater, decentralized treatments, industrial liquid sidestreams, etc. Over the years, he has applied his research understanding to drive technology development, integrating microbial and electrochemical concepts to environmental engineering, and have worked on water treatment and sanitation projects in various countries including Belgium, Australia, and India.
Moderated by:
Barika Poole
Executive Director, SPOUTS
Barika Poole is the executive director of SPOUTS, an NGO that provides access to safe and clean drinking water through the production and distribution of locally-manufactured, affordable and effective ceramic water filters in Uganda. She is a professional engineer with 17 years of experience in civil/environmental engineering and water resources industries, working with both public and private clients, and also in the consulting business and the non-profit sector.
Health and Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH)
According to UNICEF, 663 million people are without access to clean drinking water, and 2.4 billion people lack access to improved sanitation. Providing sustainable management of water, sanitation, and hygiene has important ramifications for improving health, equity, access to education, and more. For many with adequate sanitation, the COVID-19 pandemic has prompted a greater awareness of access to adequate sanitation. But for many others who lack access, the pandemic only exacerbates existing health threats that they may face. This panel will investigate the role of WASH systems in community health, with an emphasis on identifying the historic obstacles to equitable access and solutions for the future.
Panelists:
Patrick Moriarty
CEO, IRC
Dr. Patrick Moriarty is a strong champion and recognised global advocate for a systems approach to the Water, Sanitation and Hygiene [WASH] crisis. He is an authority on sustainability, local water governance and applying systems thinking to the wicked problems of providing safe water and safely managed sanitation to people. He is passionate about providing leadership to the global WASH community; ensuring that IRC contributes to igniting and supporting sector wide change that creates the strong national and local WASH systems that deliver improved services to all. He builds teams and networks that challenge the status quo in WASH, inspiring people to work effectively to purpose: bringing water and sanitation services to everyone, everywhere that last forever. As a senior Leader, respected voice, writer and blogger with more than 25 years of global experience in water, sanitation and hygiene, Patrick inspires and empowers partnerships to effective collective action. He has a wide and deep knowledge of the use of research, learning and evidence to drive change in policy and practice. He provides high-level strategic advice and support to a broad range of governments, the private sector, organisations, and networks. Currently, Patrick is the Chair of the steering committee of water and sanitation’s global partnership, Sanitation and Water for All.
Caroline Delaire
Deputy Director for Technology and Innovation, The Aquaya Institute
Dr. Caroline Delaire is the Deputy Director for Technology and Innovation at the Aquaya Institute, a non-profit research and consulting organization committed to increasing safe, equitable, and sustainable access to water and sanitation globally. Caroline’s work focuses on analyzing policies and approaches for water safety management and sanitation, with projects currently ongoing in Kenya, Ghana, and Uganda. Her work also includes applications of data science to water and sanitation as well as technology evaluations. Previously, her PhD research focused on developing low-cost technologies to remove contaminants from groundwater and a study of behavioral determinants of safe water consumption in arsenic-affected areas of West Bengal, India.
Daniel Oporto
Regional Director for Latin America, Water for People
Daniel Oporto is an international development expert with over twenty years of experience designing, executing, monitoring, and evaluating projects related to reducing poverty and private sector development. Daniel’s experience at both consulting firms and NGOs/nonprofits has focused on market-based mechanisms in water and sanitation, sustainable and climate-smart agriculture, public-private partnerships (PPP), linking smallholders and farmers to markets, value chain and market systems development and BoP markets. Daniel has worked with multicultural project teams across the globe, with clients and employers from the private sector, multilateral and bilateral institutions, aid agencies, NGOs/nonprofits, microfinance institutions, social entrepreneurs, and business associations. Currently Daniel serves as the Regional Manager For Latin America at Water For People, covering Bolivia, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Peru.
Daniele Lantagne
Associate Professor in Civil and Environmental Engineering, Tufts University
Dr. Lantange is an Associate Professor in Civil and Environmental Engineering at Tufts University. She is a public health engineer (MIT BS 1996, MIT M.Eng. 2001, PE 2003) who received her Ph.D in 2011 from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. She began working in water, sanitation, and hygiene to reduce the burden of infectious disease while earning her Master's degree, and continued working in this field teaching in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at MIT until she joined the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in 2003. She completed her post-doctoral work at Harvard's Center for International Development from 2010-2012, and joined Tufts University as a Professor in 2012. Over the past twenty years, she provided technical assistance or conducted research in more than 50 countries in Africa, Asia, and Central/South America in both development and emergency contexts. She has published over 70 papers on water supply, water treatment, hygiene and sanitation in low-income and emergency contexts. Her main research interest is how to reduce the burden of infectious diseases by investigating and evaluating the effectiveness of water and sanitation interventions. She runs an active group completing laboratory, field, and policy research and currently supervises three post-doctoral scholars, four PhD students, and undergraduate researchers with funding from agency, government, NGO, foundation, and private sources.
Moderated by:
Janetrix Hellen Amuguni
Associate Professor, Department of Infectious Disease and Global Health, Tufts University
Dr. Hellen Amuguni an Associate Professor in the Department of Infectious Disease and Global Health at the Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine, Tufts University with technical expertise in infectious disease, One Health, animal models for infectious disease vaccinology, epidemiology and gender analysis. She works at the cutting edge of the One Health initiative, which combines a multidisciplinary approach and human, animal and environmental health knowledge for monitoring and prevention of current and emerging diseases Currently she is doing a study that examines the sex and gender-based differences, risks, impacts and consequences of COVID-19.