Presenting ASTRA-Bangladesh DST at WEDC 37 in Hanoi
This year’s WEDC conference was held in Hanoi (September 15-19). A reviewed paper and presentation on the decision-support tool of ASTRA-Bangladesh was presented at the event.
The latest WEDC conference on water and sanitation was held in Hanoi Vietnam on September 15-19, 2014. The National University of Civil Engineering (NUCE) hosted the event titled ‘Sustainable Water and Sanitation for All in a Fast Changing World’. Over 300 scientists and WASH practitioners gathered to share experiences and results from both research and actual implementation programs.
PRACTICA was represented with two scientific papers. Xavier Gras was co-author to the paper of Fabio Fussi (see image above) about ‘Promotion of manual drilling in Guinea’. The other paper written by members of the ASTRA-Bangladesh consortium (Szanto et al: Decision-support for arsenic- and salt-mitigation in Bangladesh: the ASTRA approach) described the structure and content of the ASTRA decision-support tool. Following the ASTRA presentation, a lively discussion focused primarily on the severity of the arsenic and salinity problem in Bangladesh and how this country tries to tackle these emerging challenges.
The conference offered an efficient platform to find experts with similar activities and discuss progress in specific water and sanitation related subjects. For PRACTICA, some of the highlights from the conference included the renewed interest in Uganda for the dissemination of rope pumps, the widespread application of small-scale piped water schemes in India under the current administration and the new methods presented on the monitoring and management of handpump installations on a regional scale. Although it is not easy to offer highlights, the most impressive presentations may have been on the emergency planning achievements in India, and the gaining of terrain of diverse decision-support tools in both the water and sanitation sectors.
The presented article can be read here.
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