Oruchinga Refugee Settlement Project
Benito Mariñas, SGWI Director, met recently with Ugandan Vice President Edward Ssekandi, regional ministers, local officials, regional/local NGOs, community leaders, and in-country US/international agency representatives to secure land and the full regional stakeholder support for the Sustainable Safe Water & Sanitation project at the UNHCR Oruchinga Refugee settlement and surrounding communities. The regional source waters are contaminated with high concentrations of naturally occurring iron, manganese and fluoride. These challenges are exacerbated by E. coli contamination in and around the water distribution systems. The SGWI is working to develop locally sustainable solutions to provide safe water and improved sanitation while simultaneously developing renewable energy and nutrient recovery resources for the host communities.
Safe Global Water
SGWI taps the power and energy of students and faculty towards global development challenges to create collaborative research experiences, new globally accessible academic courses, international student and faculty exchanges between consortium members, fieldwork in target countries, technical training and short courses, outreach programs to local communities, internship programs hosted by UNESCO-IHE and KAUST WDRC, and capacity building courses and workshops on safe water and sanitation co-organized with UNESCO-Africa and USAID Missions in East Africa, Ethiopia, Kenya and Tanzania.
SGWI News & Features
- Smart Water Disinfection project featuring Aimee Gall, Graduate Student – watch the video!- Sept. 2015
- Engineering Solutions in Africa – Wed., Feb. 25 – cover story in Daily Illini featuring CEE 449 students
- CEE 449 Travel Team departs for Kenya! Fri., Feb. 6 – Visit the CEE 449 Water, Sanitation, and Energy Solutions Blog for their daily experiences:
CEE449 BLOG - Renewable Wastewater for the Developing World – featuring Prof. Jeremy Guest
watch the video! - “The Last Hunger Season: A Year in an African Farm Community on the Brink of Change” – panelist Benito Marinas
Tues., Nov. 12, 2014 at 3:00pm, Spurlock Museum at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. film preview and panel discussion info
SGWI Events
- 5/3/16 CEE449 Final Presentation Seminar 2016 – 12:00-1:30pm, 1518 Hydrosystems Lab
- 4/12/16 Is Water the New Oil? Guest Speaker: Ashraf Hameedi – 2:00-3:30pm, NCSA Auditorium
- 5/5/15 CEE 449 Final Presentation Seminar 2015 – 12-2pm, 1518 Hydrosystems Lab
- 4/11/14 First Annual Illinois Water Day Event
- 4/6/14 Global Water Summit, Paris France Annual Meeting
- 3/20/14 SSGWI/EE&S CEE 595AG Seminar: Vern Snoeyinl- Iron & Manganese Removal
- 3/20/14U.S. Water Partnership Annual Meeting, Washington D.C.
- 03/20/14 U.S. Water Partnership Annual Meeting, Washington D.C.
- 2/4/14 Kenya, Tanzania, & Uganda Project site visits
- 11/15/14 SGWI joins U.S. Water Partnership
- 10/13/13 SGWI/IWA Water Workshop in Nairobi, Kenya
- 9/12/13 SGWI/EE&S CEE 595AG Seminar with Groundwork Opportunities (GO), “Creating a World Beyond Poverty with Clean Water for All”, 1310 Newmark Lab
- 9/6/13 ’13-14 Semiar Series Begins
- 9/6/13 Interdisciplinary Toxicology Program Lecture, “Quantitative Comparative Toxicology of Drinking Water DBPs: Approaches and Mechanisms”, 3526 VMBSB College of Veterinary Medicine