Water and Health Research Centre
WHRC mission
An internationally recognised centre of excellence in interdisciplinary research and teaching. It brings together researchers from across the disciplines to carry out research to address global challenges in water and health.
About WHRC
The Water and Health Research Centre (WHRC) is a cross-disciplinary, collaborative research centre and a partnership between all 6 University faculties - Arts, Engineering, Science, Social Sciences & Law, Medicine and Dentistry and Medical & Veterinary Science. It captures academics with research interests in water and health from across the University. It provides a research focus for over 30 academic staff in 13 different Departments.
The WHRC is organisationally based within the University’s Institute for Advanced Studies (IAS), reflecting the importance placed on the topic and recognising the interdisciplinary and cross-faculty nature of the activity.
Activities
The WHRC is currently undertaking or is planning to contribute to the following cross-disciplinary research and teaching activities:
- Low cost water testing device(s) for use in developing countries (research)
- Integration of low cost tests within water safety plans (research)
- Reporting test results and providing feedback to consumers (research)
- Behavioural and socioeconomic issues underlying use of water tests (research)
- Policy implications and Guidelines for Drinking-Water Quality revisions (research)
- Improving techniques for assessing Millennium Development Goal No. 7 water target progress (research)
- Doctoral studies in Water and Health (training)
- BSc International Health (training)
- MSc Water and Environmental Management (training)
- Water testing technology - conference activities (dissemination)
- WHO International Network to Promote Household Water Treatment and Safe Storage (HWTS).
Current/recent projects
Aquatest research programme
This is an international, multi-disciplinary consortium led by the University of Bristol. The aim is to deliver a water test that can be used widely in developing countries, with a sustainable basis for manufacturing, distributing and marketing the Aquatest device. The first phase of the project was funded by the European Union’s FP6-GLOBAL programme as a preparatory study. The second phase runs for 4 years from October 2007 and is funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
AQUAPOL Project - An EU INCO-DEV research programme project
The objective of the project was to establish a) whether rural water policy takes adequate account of the deterioration in quality between source and point-of-use; and b) to evaluate policy alternatives by assessing the relative cost effectiveness of different types of water-related interventions. It was targeted at the rural poor, the primary beneficiaries of improvements in water policy. It ran for 5 years from October 2001.
History
The University of Bristol has for many years had distinctive strengths in water research with over 30 academic staff in 13 Departments working on water-related topics. Notable clusters of water expertise include groups which concentrate on:
- water hazards (Geographical Sciences, Civil Engineering)
- drinking water quality in developing countries (Engineering Management)
- water governance (Policy Studies, Law)
- water and biogeochemical cycles (Chemistry, Geographical Sciences)
- water and health (Social Medicine)
- aqueous geochemistry and groundwater pollution (Earth Sciences)
- water economics and commodification (Law, Archaeology and Anthropology)
- sediment mechanics (Mathematics, Earth Sciences, Geographical Sciences)
- water and climate change (Earth Sciences and Geographical Sciences)
Bristol academics edit key international water journals, provide advice on water issues to many governmental and international bodies and lead major international water research projects. Two particular existing strengths are the use of novel technologies to solve water-related problems in the developing world and the study of systems of water governance that provide the context in which such solutions are deployed.
This dispersed strength was recognised in November 2006 at a capacity building Water Workshop held at the University’s Institute for Advanced Studies (IAS). A direct outcome of this meeting was the establishment of the Water and Health Research Centre (WHRC).
Structure and organisation
Director
Dr Stephen Gundry (Engineering Management Group, Dept Civil Engineering) is Director of WHRC and chair of the WHRC Management Board.
Other members of the WHRC management board
- Professor David Gordon (Director, Townsend Centre for International Poverty Research)
- Professor Anthony Davis (Professor of Supramolecular Chemistry, School of Chemistry)
- Professor Alan Emond (Head of Centre for Child and Adolescent Health)
- Professor Colin Taylor (Head of Dept of Civil Engineering)
WHRC faculty champions
- Dr Stephen Gundry - Engineering
- Professor Alan Emond - Medicine
- Professor Vala Ragnarsdottir - Science
- Professor David Gordon - Social Science
- eProfessor Bronwen Morgan – Law
WHRC steering group
Membership of the WHRC Steering Group is currently being finalised.
Contact
Dr Stephen Gundry
Tel: (0117) 954 5294 internal 45294
Fax : (0117) 954 5389 internal 45389
email: Stephen.Gundry@bristol.ac.uk
WHRC postal address
Water and Health Research Centre
Institute for Advanced Studies
University of Bristol
The Royal Fort House
Bristol
BS8 1UJ
Links
- Aquatest
- AQUALPOL
- World Health Organization – Water, Sanitation and Health
- WHO/UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme (JMP) for water supply and sanitation
- Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation – Global Development Program
- Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation - Exploring Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene factsheet (pdf 79kb)
- The Aquaya Institute
- UNESCO Water Portal
- UN Water
- DFID Water
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