I've had the pleasure of knowing Stanford's Dr. Jenna Davis, Assistant Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Center Fellow at the Woods Institute for the Environment for a couple of years. We are both involved with the Universities WaSH Initiative. She often does not make our WaSH Initiative concalls. Why? Because she's off doing work where it counts!
She and her students work on work on WaSH issues in developing countries, in particular, the intersection of economic development and environmental protection, with particular emphasis on cost-effective and sustainable water supply and sanitation (W&S) service delivery in developing countries.
And anyone who refers to her research group as the 'Poop Group' must have a strong supply of confidence.
Check out her blog for Poop Group news. And here is an abstract of the group's latest paper:
Water supply services for Africa's urban poor: the role of resale
Valentina Zuin, Leonard Ortolano, Manuel Alvarinho, Kory Russel, Anne Thebo, Odete Muximpua and Jennifer Davis
Journal of Water and Health Vol 9 No 4 pp 773–784 © IWA Publishing 2011 doi:10.2166/wh.2011.031
In sub-Saharan Africa only 35% of the urban population has access to a piped water connection on their premises. The majority of households obtain water from public standpipes or from neighbors who are connected to the municipal network. Water resale is often prohibited, however, because of concerns about affordability and risks to public health. Using data collected from 1,377 households in Maputo, Mozambique, we compare the microbiological quality, as well as the time and money costs of water supply from individual house connections, public standpipes, and water obtained from neighbors. Households with their own water connections have better service across virtually all indicators measured, and express greater satisfaction with their service, as compared with those using other water sources. Households purchasing water from their neighbors pay lower time and money costs per liter of water, on average, as compared with those using standpipes. Resale competes favorably with standpipes along a number of service quality dimensions; however, after controlling for water supply characteristics, households purchasing water from neighbors are significantly less likely to be satisfied with their water service as compared with those using standpipes.
I stumbled across her blog and was imnpressed with all that she and her group do and thought it was worth a shout-out.
Great seeing her at the recent OU WaTER Center Conference.
Good stuff!
"Water and Sanitation is one of the primary drivers of public health. I often refer to it as “Health 101”, which means that once we can secure access to clean water and to adequate sanitation facilities for all people, irrespective of the difference in their living conditions, a huge battle against all kinds of diseases will be won." -- Dr Lee Jong-wook, Director-General, World Health Organization.
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