Lent Term Talks:
Alison Parker is the Academic Fellow in International Water and Sanitation at Cranfield University. Her research is in all aspects of water and sanitation in developing countries, and she also directs an MSc course in Community Water and Sanitation. The talk will be followed by formal at Newnham College, please contact msh49 asap if you would like to come to formal with the speaker afterwards. It is a great opportunity to ask more questions.
To deliver improved water and sanitation to Africa, new technologies have been developed and introduced. But are these technologies successful? Do people like using them? Can people afford them? Do governments support them? Does the mechanism of their introduction affect the ultimate success? Alison will try to answer some of these questions and explain how she and others are working to try and improve the process of technology introduction. She will also explain how some of these technologies and the systems that surround them might be impacted by climate change.
Perpetual Aid... Will it ever end?
An Engineer's Toolkit for the Developing World
Monday 13th February, 2 – 4pm
Lecture Theatre 2, Engineering Department
Hosted by The Centre for Sustainable Development (University of Cambridge, Engineering Department), Royal Academy of Engineering, ICE and EWB.
This educational seminar will be to reflect on the role of engineers in development work.This will be demonstrated through the use of a toolkit developed during Professor Paul Jowitt's year as President of the Institution of Civil Engineers, UK. The seminar will be delivered by Charles Ainger, (Visiting Professor of Engineering at the Centre for Sustainable Development) and two of Paul's apprentices who helped develop the toolkit. This is a great chance for anyone interested in engineering work in the developing world to learn more about the right engagements through the use of a toolkit.
About toolkit:
Economic and technical progress over the past 200 years did not anticipate that human activities would lead to impacts on a global scale that could threaten the environment and humanity’s place in it. It is now becoming clear that the earth is no longer able to withstand and rebound from human activity. It has limits. We now know differently – and we must respond accordingly, to determine the actions required to achieve agreed social and environmental objectives. A more systems view of the world is needed and solutions at a systems level need to be developed to address the following two issues of truly global proportions:
1. Engineering the world away from an environmental crisis caused in part by previous generations in terms of greenhouse gas emissions and profligate resource use
2. Providing the infrastructure platform for an increasingly urbanised world and lifting a large proportion of the world’s growing population out of poverty
Sustainable infrastructure i.e. the services and facilities necessary for an economy to function, need to be planned, procured, constructed, maintained and disposed of in a manner which is consistent with the principles of global sustainable development and which contribute to the attainment of the United Nations Millennium Development Goals (UN MDGs).
This engineer’s toolkit for international development maps out responses to the challenges faced in international development. It poses searching questions and suggests appropriate actions across a range of issues which fall within the infrastructure delivery cycle.
Civil engineers have an advocacy role to play in informing the public of the unintended consequences of unsustainable development in all its forms, influencing government to do the right things and in advancing the political will for change.
More information can be found on the toolkit at www.ice.org/patoolkit
TBC
Cambridge Water and Sanitation Training Series 2011-12
Do you want to get stuck in to an international-development organisation?
Do you want to learn to manage and run a series of collaborative events?
Learn by doing! We are looking for people who are keen to help organise this year's Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) training series. It'll comprise of five one-day courses on different aspects of this vital element of human development. Commitment is whatever you have time for, you'll gain valuable experience, learn lots about public health engineering in a development context.
Contact Seb (Seb.Palmer(a)ewb-uk.org) if you have any questions or would like to express an interest in helping out.
