About the Event
Through the Sustainable Development Goal 6, the world committed to achieving universal access to safe water. However, water quality continues to pose significant challenges throughout the developing world and there are estimates that at least 1.8 billion people drink water from a source contaminated by faeces, although it is likely the true figure is even higher. This talk will examine the unresolved issues around water quality – our failure to prevent microbial contamination and the continued exposure of millions of people to arsenic and fluoride in water – and what actions we need to take. It will also examine some of emerging water quality threats, in particular lead and the environmental drivers of antibiotic resistance, and what future research is needed.

About the Speaker
Guy Howard is water and sanitation professional with 30 years experience of working in low- and middle-income countries. He is currently the Global Research Chair in Infrastructure and Environmental Resilience in the Civil Engineering Department at the University of Bristol, where is also sits on the Board of the Bristol Poverty Institute and is a member of the Cabot Institute. Prior to joining Bristol, he spent 16 years at DFID in a variety of policy roles, including the Team Leader of the WASH policy team for 6 years, the water resources policy lead and establishing the Government of Bangladesh arsenic policy support unit. His current research interests include improving public health gains from better WASH design, the climate resilience of WASH services for poor communities and the challenges facing high mountain communities.