My thoughts on the first National Conference on Desalination

by André

Last week (25/04/2017) the Belgium Technical Cooperation and the National Directorate of Water Supply and Sanitation (DNAAS) organized the first national conference on desalination in Mozambique. The high-profile event took place at DNAAS, in Maputo, and was led by the National Director, Mr. Nilton Trindade. The morning was devoted to offer a general view of the situation regarding water resources in Mozambique, with desalination being presented as a potential solution; whereas in the afternoon four different companies pitched their technological offers for desalination and gave examples of previous projects throughout the world. I am now taking this opportunity to share some thoughts about the conference in general and about desalination in particular. Continue reading

Participation at World Water Day 2017 in Maputo

by Adriano, Celma and Noor

This year’s World Water Day theme was “Wastewater: Promoting its Reuse, for Sustainable Development”. In Mozambique the day was celebrated with several activities organized by the National Directorate of Water Supply and Sanitation (DNAAS, in Portuguese). Among them, it involved speech at educational institutions such as schools and Universities and at the main ceremony day on 22 March 2017. Continue reading

Cholera outbreak in Maputo: the impact of insufficient sanitation services and limited access to drinking water

by André

By now you might have read that there’s an ongoing cholera outbreak in Maputo and in a couple other cities and regions in Mozambique – four in total. Continue reading

Technology for life: PhD honoris causa for Manuel Alvarinho

by André

We often hear that researchers are detached from reality and trapped in ivory towers. Well, to prove all this wrong, this year to celebrate its 175th anniversary, during the Dies Natalis, TU Delft granted a PhD honoris causa to Manuel Alvarinho of CRA for his groundbreaking work in the water and sanitation sector in Mozambique and we could not be happier. Continue reading

Results of the household survey – a comic strip

by Lena

In the past few months we were quite busy finalizing the technical report discussing the household survey that we did together with WSP at the end of 2014 and beginning of 2015. I wrote about it here and here and you can now grab a copy of the final report here. By the way, this work was the basis our WEDC paper and for my MSc thesis – very productive! Continue reading

My third (and last) post

by Nessia

1. Looking Back
The time passed so quickly until I realized that six months had passed since I flew back to Delft. It was hard to say goodbye to everyone in Maputo who had been with me from March until May but it was even harder noticing that some goodbyes were left unspoken since I could not say it directly for a last time. However, the next phase of my thesis project was waiting for me: the design of the wastewater treatment plant. Continue reading

Defenses

by André

In the last few months we had three MSc defenses: Iana went first, the 19th of September, followed by Jay-el on the 23rd. More recently (30th of November) was the time for Nessia‘s MSc defense. They all did really well and you can grab a copy of the theses here.

Then, on the 24th of November both Celma and Noor defended their research proposals, with Adriano doing the same on the 29th. The three of them got a GO.

Congratulations everybody!

Conference AQUASHARE 2016

by André

I participated in the first edition of AQUASHARE, in 2016, and it was of my objectives for this year to participate in the second edition as speaker. Thus, a couple of months ago I approached Manuel Alvarinho, President of CRA and one of the organizers of AQUASHARE 2016. Alvarinho then told me then that sponsoring the conference would give us the possibility of having a two-hour workshop on the last day and present to and discuss our project with the water and sanitation sector in Mozambique. This was only possible with the financial support of TU Delft’s program Delft | Global Initiative. Thank you so much. Continue reading

QMRA summer course

by Celma

During the period of 22 July to 01 August this year I attended a summer course at Michigan State University (MSU) about Quantitative Microbial Risk Assessment. This course was an important experience that provided tools and knowledge to implement AMRA into my PhD research. It also served as a network platform within QMRA researchers community group. Throughout that week I attended lectures and learned how to develop case studies. The course was very intense but I was still able to get around East Lansing visiting the MSU Campus and the University Museum.

Celma
Celma at MSU.

It’s always great to return to Mozambique

by André

I just return from another full month in Mozambique and I am now taking the time to share my thoughts about what happened. Continue reading