Improving water security for the poor

Image credit: Ian Wallman

Fostering innovation in interdisciplinary public engagement through Fair Water?

The Fair Water? exhibition, hosted at the University of Oxford’s Museum of Natural History from November 2023 to September 2024, is an interesting and successful example of interdisciplinary public engagement. Based on extensive collaboration between REACH researchers and the museum exhibitions team, the exhibition used art, interviews, animations, interactive displays, and specimens from the museum to reveal some of the global barriers to water equality and explore how researchers, communities and policymakers are working together to shape a fair water future.

Across the year, the exhibition received 273,370 visitors, and 4,134 people attended an array of interactive and interdisciplinary events associated with the exhibition. Evaluation by the museum based on visitor surveys suggest that over two thirds of the people engaging with the exhibition emerge convinced of the power of research to influence decisions by government, industry and individuals in the home.

The team behind Fair Water? have been working with museums and international organisations on plans to bring the exhibition to wider public and policy audiences in countries where the research was undertaken – Bangladesh, Kenya and Ethiopia – and more widely. The online version of the exhibition will also remain on the museum website as a lasting resource and legacy of the project.

English

View Fair water? online

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‘Our partnership with REACH recognises science has a critical role in designing and delivering effective policy and improving practice on the ground.’

KELLY ANN NAYLOR, ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR, WATER, SANITATION AND HYGIENE (WASH) SECTION, PROGRAMME DIVISION, UNICEF

'Access to water is a defining challenge for the 21st century. The UK has already helped 43 million people to access clean water, but there is far more to be done.'

UK DEPARTMENT FOR INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT PARLIAMENTARY UNDER SECRETARY OF STATE