features & news school project grows into acclaimed waterpartners international
School project grows into acclaimed WaterPartners International By Chris Perry al n atio n ter In s er uring a trip to n Guatemala in ey, WaterPart ey,
D r n
the 1980s, Gary White A er h
took a side trip to a Heat y oto b oto h slum in Guatemala City. P
“I was shocked at what I saw — sewage in the for Life fundraising dinners in cities across the city of Honduras. He had convinced them it took to fill them, how many people came streets and highly contaminated, commu- United States. The dinners, started by White to spend their own money for travel costs. for water, and how many waited in line. Stu- nity water barrels,” says White, who was an in 1990, laid the foundation for the organi- When I learned of it, I was enormously dents collected these data from early morn- undergraduate at the University of Missouri- zation and earned White the support of his impressed.” ing to late at night in a part of the city where Rolla at the time. Chapel Hill classmates and teachers. White had planned to let Catholic Relief the urban landscape changes quickly to The experience changed his life — and he “In Gary’s first year (at Carolina’s School Services determine the students’ activities in rural. White later analyzed the data, which has changed the lives of others throughout of Public Health), it quickly became ap- the slums of Tegucigalpa. But when Lauria formed the basis for his master’s thesis. the world. parent that he had tremendous leadership heard about the trip, he suggested the stu- White and Smith-Nilson tapped expertise In 1993, while earning a master’s degree at skills,” says Dr. Donald Lauria, professor dents collect data on the rate people arrived at the School to help guide WaterPartners UNC’s School of Public Health, White and of environmental sciences and engineering at public water points called standposts. International. The first advisory board fellow student Marla Smith-Nilson founded at Carolina and White’s academic adviser. Lauria, who studies community water included Lauria and other UNC faculty al
WaterPartners International, a charitable n “During one of the school breaks, Gary led supply and sanitation in developing coun- renowned worldwide for their water exper- organization dedicated to improving water atio a group of graduate students to the capital tries, knew that water flowed from these tise, including environmental sciences and supply and sanitation conditions of people n ter outdoor faucets intermittently and that the engineering professors Drs. Daniel Okun, In living in developing countries. s er users — poor people with no other water Francis DiGiano, Dale Whittington, Philip n Today, WaterPartners International col- An Ethiopian girl (left) pauses for a drink while source — often had to wait hours for the Singer and David Moreau. laborates with local, non-governmental collecting water from a new hand pump in Tigray, water to come on. “Sometimes the water “Our role was to challenge Gary, Marla organizations (NGOs) in Africa, Asia and a region in northern Ethiopia bordering Sudan would come on in the middle of the night, and other students to think about what was and Eritrea. Central America to help water-poor com- and people would jump out of bed to go col- unique about their organization compared munities build cost-effective, sustainable WaterPart Bramley, Rashana and Maizabeen of Vinayakngar, h lect it in buckets,” he says. to other NGOs,” says Lauria. Hyderabad, India (above), are two beneficiaries of a water systems. Lauria recommended the students track Other organizations gave communi-
y Saray WaterPartners International project in their commu- Funded primarily by grants and private nity. Here, they demonstrate how they carried water the kinds of containers people brought to the ties new water systems — often poorly de- oto b oto donations, WaterPartners holds annual Water h P before their community had a water connection. standposts, size of the containers, how long signed — as gifts, preventing the communities
| FALL 2007 carolina public health | features & news school project grows into acclaimed waterpartners international
School project grows into acclaimed WaterPartners International By Chris Perry al n atio n ter In s er uring a trip to n Guatemala in ey, WaterPart ey,
D r n
the 1980s, Gary White A er h
took a side trip to a Heat y oto b oto h slum in Guatemala City. P
“I was shocked at what I saw — sewage in the for Life fundraising dinners in cities across the city of Honduras. He had convinced them it took to fill them, how many people came streets and highly contaminated, commu- United States. The dinners, started by White to spend their own money for travel costs. for water, and how many waited in line. Stu- nity water barrels,” says White, who was an in 1990, laid the foundation for the organi- When I learned of it, I was enormously dents collected these data from early morn- undergraduate at the University of Missouri- zation and earned White the support of his impressed.” ing to late at night in a part of the city where Rolla at the time. Chapel Hill classmates and teachers. White had planned to let Catholic Relief the urban landscape changes quickly to The experience changed his life — and he “In Gary’s first year (at Carolina’s School Services determine the students’ activities in rural. White later analyzed the data, which has changed the lives of others throughout of Public Health), it quickly became ap- the slums of Tegucigalpa. But when Lauria formed the basis for his master’s thesis. the world. parent that he had tremendous leadership heard about the trip, he suggested the stu- White and Smith-Nilson tapped expertise In 1993, while earning a master’s degree at skills,” says Dr. Donald Lauria, professor dents collect data on the rate people arrived at the School to help guide WaterPartners UNC’s School of Public Health, White and of environmental sciences and engineering at public water points called standposts. International. The first advisory board fellow student Marla Smith-Nilson founded at Carolina and White’s academic adviser. Lauria, who studies community water included Lauria and other UNC faculty al
WaterPartners International, a charitable n “During one of the school breaks, Gary led supply and sanitation in developing coun- renowned worldwide for their water exper- organization dedicated to improving water atio a group of graduate students to the capital tries, knew that water flowed from these tise, including environmental sciences and supply and sanitation conditions of people n ter outdoor faucets intermittently and that the engineering professors Drs. Daniel Okun, In living in developing countries. s er users — poor people with no other water Francis DiGiano, Dale Whittington, Philip n Today, WaterPartners International col- An Ethiopian girl (left) pauses for a drink while source — often had to wait hours for the Singer and David Moreau. laborates with local, non-governmental collecting water from a new hand pump in Tigray, water to come on. “Sometimes the water “Our role was to challenge Gary, Marla organizations (NGOs) in Africa, Asia and a region in northern Ethiopia bordering Sudan would come on in the middle of the night, and other students to think about what was and Eritrea. Central America to help water-poor com- and people would jump out of bed to go col- unique about their organization compared munities build cost-effective, sustainable WaterPart Bramley, Rashana and Maizabeen of Vinayakngar, h lect it in buckets,” he says. to other NGOs,” says Lauria. Hyderabad, India (above), are two beneficiaries of a water systems. Lauria recommended the students track Other organizations gave communi-
y Saray WaterPartners International project in their commu- Funded primarily by grants and private nity. Here, they demonstrate how they carried water the kinds of containers people brought to the ties new water systems — often poorly de- oto b oto donations, WaterPartners holds annual Water h P before their community had a water connection. standposts, size of the containers, how long signed — as gifts, preventing the communities
| FALL 2007 carolina public health | features & news for world bank’s briscoe, study of water is vital, moving al
from becoming self-sufficient. “Many parts of n finance. There is always another angle from
the world are littered with hundreds of thou- atio which to look at the topic.”
sands of water systems that don’t work,” Lauria n ter Briscoe was principal author of the World In says. “What needs to be done is to help local s Bank’s 2003 water strategy, which reversed er n For World communities become more self-sufficient.” a Bank trend toward withdrawing from WaterPartners helps communities im- large water projects. It can be found on- prove their own water resources by locating line at http://siteresources.worldbank.org/ el, WaterPart el, and certifying partner organizations in ck INTINFNETWORK/Resources/water.pdf. e Bank’s Briscoe, developing countries — mostly NGOs — that “Developing countries need infrastructure manage water projects with community- aela M or they can’t grow and people can’t rise out of ch i
member involvement. Partner organizations M y poverty,” he says. “The Bank is now investing mobilize the community, organizing local a lot in large water infrastructure. They are
oto b oto Study of water h water committees that oversee the construc- P working to ensure that the poor can get ben- tion and ongoing maintenance of water efits and the environment is protected.” projects. Few organizations — about one in is vital, moving He has advice for students now studying twenty that apply — meet WaterPartners’ for careers in water management. high standards for certification. “For this generation of students, who “One of WaterPartners International’s By Linda Kastleman will be leaders of the next, the issues around keys to success is that water supply decisions water, economic development and public are driven at the community level, from the health will be vitally important for the fore- bottom up instead of top down,” says Jen- seeable future. Everywhere you look, there nifer Platt, a former School of Public Health here is going to be no more water,” says are floods, droughts, pollution. Conflicts classmate of White’s, who’s now director of Dr. John Briscoe, stating the inevitable. are growing — between cities and farms, operations for WaterPartners. “T between consumption and conservation, Community residents perform much of “We have to be better at managing what we have.” between states, and even between nations. the labor to implement their water solutions, These challenges are exacerbated by climate while WaterPartners provides engineering Briscoe, World grams focused upon water resources, irriga- change. Malthus was wrong about many knowledge and assistance for sound tech- Bank country di- tion, hydropower, and water and sanitation. things, but mostly right when it comes to nical designs. The organization provides rector for Brazil and He has been the Bank’s country director for water.” (Thomas Robert Malthus, 1766-1834, oversight for each project by monitoring one of the world’s Brazil since 2005. an English political economist and demog- and evaluating the financial and program leading water ex- “Water is not a global issue,” Briscoe rapher, predicted that human population accounting of its partners, ensuring a more perts, has spent says. “It’s a collection of local issues. There effective use of donor funds. his career helping are a host of water problems — drought, “The irony for many people in develop- people around the flood, scarcity, quality issues. Despite the “Water is not a global ing countries is that safe water may be close Felipe, Ganuario and Jose, members of the water committee in Gualcea, Honduras, check on the water distribution globe better man- variation, we need to think of water in an by but inaccessible, forcing them to spend line that runs from the tank to the community of Gualcea. age their finite wa- integrated manner. We need to make sure issue. It’s a collection Dr. John Briscoe hours each day walking to collect water ter resources. there is broad involvement by all the stake- from contaminated sources,” says White. improve quality of life and transform entire In 2002, White received the School’s Har- A native of South Africa and graduate of holders and that there is an efficient use of local issues.” He recalled a neighborhood in Ethiopia communities,” he adds. riet Hylton Barr Distinguished Alumnus Harvard University, Briscoe was professor of of limited capital. These are the common where “women were walking six hours a WaterPartners has experienced tremen- Award, presented to one outstanding alum- water resources at the UNC School of Public elements, but they manifest themselves would increase at a faster rate than food sup- day to get water — filthy water — when clean dous growth in the past two years. “When I nus each year by the UNC School of Public Health from 1981 to 1986. In April 2007, he differently in different natural and sociopo- ply, thus causing severe shortages.) water was available a few meters below their started in 2005, we had three full-time staff Health Alumni Association. presented the School’s annual Foard Lecture litical environments.” “I would say to students, no matter what feet. They simply lacked the knowledge and members; now, we have 20,” says Platt. “Gary has such a gigantic heart,” says on water and human well-being. Briscoe began his water career as a civil your course of study in economic develop- capital needed to drill a well and install a Platt, who earned her master’s degree in Lauria. “It’s hard to find that level of com- He has worked with government water engineering student at the University of ment, public policy, environment, engineer- hand pump.” environmental management and policy in passion almost any place in the world.” management agencies in South Africa and Cape Town, South Africa. ing or public health, UNC can offer you a White says that in addition to supplying the Department of Environmental Sciences For more information about WaterPart- Mozambique and with the International “What I liked about the study of water wide-ranging, interdisciplinary exploration communities with life-saving, clean water, and Engineering, now has two WaterPart- ners International, visit their Web site at Center for Diarrheal Diseases Research in was that it was vital, moving,” he says. “It of these important issues. UNC is strong on the organization’s efforts reduce the large ners offices outside of the United States — in www.water.org. Smith-Nilson now leads Bangladesh. Associated with the World Bank dealt with society. For a person who likes to its own, but its proximity to and collabora- amounts of time people — mostly women India and Kenya. Staff members provide Water 1st International, an organization she since 1986, he has held numerous positions do different things in his life, it’s a perfect tions with Duke University and North Caro- and girls— spend each day collecting water. front-line monitoring and on-the-ground founded in 2005. More information about in research, operations and policy. In 1996, choice — since in a career having to do with lina State University allow the opportunity “This saved time can be used to produce support for water projects in their part of Water 1st International can be found at he became senior water adviser at the Bank, water, one has to know natural science, the for a world-class education and exposure to income or attend school, activities that can the world. www.water1st.org. n managing its more than $50 billion in pro- environment, history, culture, economics, every aspect of dealing with water issues.” n
| FALL 2007 carolina public health |