Launch of TU Delft | Global Drinking Water programme
Access to safe drinking water is a global challenge, particularly affecting the rural poor in developing countries. This urgent problem requires new, smart solutions for the removal of a wide range of contaminants of global concern, such as arsenic, fluoride, pathogens and antibiotic resistant genes.
With the new TU Delft Global Drinking Water programme Dr. Doris van Halem is accelerating the development of new drinking water technologies by stimulating early-stage field research in developing countries. The combination of solid scientific research in the Water Lab of TU Delft and hands-on field research has proven to speed up technology development, as well as local end-user engagement and technology adoption.
The programme is kicking-off with PhD projects in Nicaragua, Bangladesh and rural India. The projects are designed to include BSc and MSc Civil Engineering students of both TU Delft and the target countries to strengthen the project and encourage local capacity building. At present the programme is investing in a mobile water lab – ‘a water lab in a suitcase’ – to overcome the practical hurdles of measuring different water quality parameters in the field.
