Resilient Water and Sanitation Services Research

Image showing Emma Blake Morsi the artist in front of one of her billboards in Bristol entitled "Water and sanitation is a human right" — Artist Emma Blake Morsi in front of one of her billboards in Bristol

Water and sanitation are among the most basic services people require to remain healthy and safe. Yet worldwide, nearly 2.2 billion do not have access to safely managed water, of whom nearly 600 million use unimproved water supplies or surface water. More than two billion people lack access to even basic sanitation with over 670 million people still defecating in the open.

A reservoir scheme in the Himalayan mountains, Nepal — Water storage tank in Ghandruk, Nepal Image credit: Moti Poudel

Our focus is on low and middle income countries and undertaking research to find effective solutions to long-standing problems with services.

We work on three inter-connected themes:

climate change and resilience
securing public health benefits
ensuring access to services for poor people.

Climate change and resilience

We are developing testing indicators to measure resilience, see How tough is WASH.

We are applying methods to assess resilience of water sanitation systems in Asia and Africa see Sanitation and climate: assessing resilience and emissions (SCARE) and Beyond the Networked City.

We are also working to improve our understanding and measurement of greenhouse gases that come from sanitation systems. Building on our understanding of resilience, we are working on methods to undertake Water and Sanitation Vulnerability and Adaptation assessments.