This event is part of the Oxford Water Network Michaelmas Seminar series.
Date & time: 29 October 2020 | 5-6PM GMT
Safe water, sanitation and hygiene are essential to safeguard health and save lives in low-income countries. The last several decades have seen many innovations in the development of low-cost and efficacious safe water technologies, most of which have been household-level treatments. In general, low-income households have not adopted such technologies at scale.
In this talk Prof. Ray argues that public health researchers (including herself) have had too simplistic an understanding of poverty. They have not rooted their work in insights into the lived experience of poverty, with its uncertainties, stresses from constant scarcity, and attendant fears. Such insights are central to understanding why technologies for safe water remain unused by so many households who could benefit from them. Rather than improved versions of household-scale delivery models, transformative investments in safe water “for all” require utility-scale services. Until then, research should focus only on interim safe water options that are on the pathway towards the utility model.
*Please note that registration for this online event will close at 17:00 GMT the day before the event. You must register to attend.
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