Modern-day science is able to provide us with more information on water quality than ever before. Join the Oxford University Museum of Natural History for a panel discussion about the health benefits of sharing water quality information — whether that be with wild swimmers in the UK or rural populations in Asia and Africa.

Having access to information can help people make choices about water use, such as when they need to treat drinking water, or whether or not to swim in a particular stretch of river. Information can also be used to campaign for better policies to help promote water safety and security. But collecting and sharing this data creates challenges as well as opportunities.

In this panel discussion, they’ll be thinking about how water quality information can reduce health risks and campaign for policies and investments to address pollution.

The talk is free but registration is recommended.

About the Panellists:

Dr Saskia Nowicki works on understanding, measuring, and communicating water risks and trade-offs, especially as they relate to environmental health. She applies an interdisciplinary systems-based approach to research, drawing on a background in environmental science with specialisation in water science, policy and management. Her current research focuses on drinking-water safety in rural low-income contexts including the REACH programme observatories in Kenya, Bangladesh and Ethiopia, using mixed-methods to seek insight at multiple levels from the molecular to the institutional.

Kate French completed a Water Science, Policy and Management Masters at the University of Oxford and is now in the midst of a Said Business School MBA. Her combined two-year programme of studies is being undertaken under an Oxford-Pershing Square Scholarship, awarded for her demonstrable potential and commitment to finding scalable and sustainable solutions to world-scale social challenges. Her MSc dissertation focused on ethics in water quality results communication. Prior to taking up her current scholarship she worked on technical and operational aspects of a major USAID-funded programme in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Nancy Gladstone comes from a family of wild swimmers but is always keen to know what she is getting herself into! This has led to various adventures both offline and on, exploring the macroinvertebrate diversity of Herefordshire streams, collecting river water samples from around Oxfordshire for the Oxford Rivers Project, and checking out water quality information on anywhere she travels. She is communications lead for the REACH Water Security programme at the University of Oxford and has developed educational materials on a range of water security issues for schools through the Water Learning Partnership and the Pan African Conservation Education project.

Free