WASH Course. How our graduate students studied in December 2020

How are water supply and sewerage systems arranged? How do they differ for rural and urban communities in Central Asia? ⠀These and many other questions were studied by the graduate students of the Integrated Water Resources Managements program during the WASH course led by Dr. Marina Peter in December 2020.⠀Dr. Marina Pieter is a research associate at the University of Applied Sciences and Arts of Northwestern Switzerland, the School of Life Sciences, the Institute of Environmental Entrepreneurship, and has extensive experience in water, hygiene and sanitation in Europe, Central Asia, Africa and the Middle East. The WASH course covered the following topics:

— drinking water supply from the resource to the consumer;

— sanitation technologies from toilet design to reuse; ⠀

— application of sanitary chain products.

Special attention was paid to communities that are not connected to fully functional centralized systems. Students of the program discussed:

— long-term environmental and financial sustainability;

— connection with public health;

— socio-cultural aspects, behavior and rules.

Below is a review of our student: «The course was very interesting and intense. We learned what sanitation problems exist in the world and how to solve them. We also studied what bacteria pollute water resources and how to deal with them. Under the guidance of the professor, we practically solved the problems of water supply and sanitation in a real area.» If you are interested in learning about the Integrated Water Resources Management program, please send your questions to nri@dku.kz