SweetSense Inc. is partnering with local governments to implant remote satellite sensors in wells throughout drought-stricken African nations. Evan Thomas, Director of the Mortenson Center and  SweetSense CEO, along with research teams, monitor the water supplies of more than a million people in Kenya and Ethiopia using satellite-connected sensors. "I'm confident that we can make a positive difference and leverage the tremendous resources of the University of Colorado for the benefit of our partner communities around the world," Evan says. Learn more about CU Innovation & Technology.

Mortenson Center student Abigail Bradshaw presented on the process evaluation of the integration of household water filters into the community health club program in Rwanda.

Congratulations to Mortenson Center Associate Director and Professor of Sustainable Development, Karl Linden! He was recently awarded the 2019 Dr. Pankaj Parekh Research Innovation Award from the Water Research Foundation  (WRF) at the American Water Works Association Annual Conference. The Dr. Pankaj Parekh Innovation Award honors researchers and research teams who have made significant contributions to advancing the science of water through WRF-sponsored research. 

This Special Issue of Sustainability presents and reviews emerging engineering methods, and how the role of engineers contributing to global poverty reduction and the Sustainable Development Goals is evolving.

Read: 

Toward a New Field of Global Engineering

Evan Thomas

"Global Engineering should be concerned with the unequal and unjust distribution of access to basic services such as water, sanitation, energy, food, transportation and shelter, and place an emphasis on indentifying the drivers, determinants and solutions favoring equitable access," says Thomas.

Factors Influencing Revenue Collection for Preventative Maintenance of Community Water Systems: A Fuzzy-Set Qualitative Comparative Analysis

Liesbet Olaerts, Jeffrey P. Walters, Karl G. Linden, Amy Javernick-Will and Adam Harvey

The findings from this study reveal distinct pathways of conditions that impact payment compliance and reflect the multifaceted nature of water point sustainability and identify the processes needed for successful payment compliance. 

The Mortenson Center is the newest member of The Millennium Water Alliance. We have joined 14 other NGOs and research institutions as part of a permanent alliance to accelerate access to safely managed clean water, sanitation and hygiene education. 

The Mortenson Center congratulates the following students who graduated this summer: 

Mitchell Dutton - M.S. in Structural Engineering

Christopher Joseph - M.S. in Civil Engineering/Civil Systems

Reid Lustig - M.S. in Civil Engineering/Civil Systems

Michael Reinisch - M.S. in Environmental Engineering

Kenneth Wallace - M.S. in Environmental Engineering

Mortenson student Matthew Bentley and MCGE alumnus Joshua Kearns have a new article published in the J ournal of Water, Sanitation & Hygiene for Development  The publication is an open access, systematic review of WaSH literature and presentations, highlighting the importance of considering chemical contaminants in WaSH programming, which have been largely neglected in the WaSH sector. 

An excerpt from the abstract: 

Organic chemicals were addressed in only 2% of [JWASHDEV] articles and fewer than 0.7% of [UNC Water and Health] conference presentations. Geogenic contaminants arsenic and fluoride were only addressed in 2-3% of articles and presentation. The review concludes that a rapid, major effort to address toxic chemicals in WaSH is necessary to meet UN Sustainable Development Goals for universal access to safe and affordable drinking water by 2030. 

Read the article:

Joshua P. Kearns, Matthew J. Bentley, Poorva Mokashi, Jennifer H. Redmon, Keith Levine;  Underrepresented groups in WaSH - the overlooked role of chemical toxicants in water and health