The UNC Water & Health Conference is now underway in Chapel Hill.
We hope you can join us for this special side event, “Scaling Up Safe Water: Disinfection at the Point of Collection” at the UNC Water & Health Conference on Thursday, October 13. Chris Dunston, senior program officer of the Safe Water Strategic Initiative will be on a panel with partners from Aquatabs, Stanford University, and Safe Water Network discussing efforts to scale up safe water access in developing countries.
Despite considerable progress in expanding access to “improved” water sources over the past several decades, it is estimated that roughly one billion people still receive water that does not meet international standards for safety. The two dominant models for water treatment— centralized water treatment and household or point-of-use— can be effective in some contexts, but each faces challenges in scaling up access to safe water in developing countries. This session will present an alternative paradigm for water treatment in low-income areas, termed “point-of-collection” (POC) disinfection. Panelists will present experience with POC implementation in several developing countries, and discuss the conditions under which it is most likely to be effective and sustainable.
If you’re attending the conference this year, please join us and our partners this Thursday morning from 8:30am to 10:00am in the Mountain Laurel Room for this important discussion. More information can be found here.