Higher education institutions in Ireland and Uganda are partnering to support doctoral studies by eight PhD researchers who will be funded for three years from January next to conduct research in the two countries aimed at building knowledge of how best to provide a sustainable supply of safe water in developing countries.

Dundalk Institute of Technology leads a consortium of Irish higher education institutions including Trinity College Dublin, Dublin Institute of Technology, NUI Maynooth, Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland and Dublin City University that have partnered with Makerere University in the Ugandan capital Kampala to deliver ‘Water is Life – Amazzi Bulamu’.

The programme is funded by Irish Aid and the Higher Education Authority (HEA) under the Programme of Strategic Cooperation between Irish Aid and Higher Education and Research Institutes 2007-2011.

At Dundalk Institute of Technology (DkIT) where two of the PhD researchers will be based during the Irish stage of their work and from where the wider programme is being led, the research will examine the sourcing and distribution of sustainable groundwater supplies for rural water supply and sustainable pump technologies.

Dr Suzanne Linnane who directs the National Centre for Freshwater Studies at DkIT said that the collaboration with Makerere University will allow the PhD researchers to spend half of their time over the next three years conducting fieldwork in Uganda.

“These are excellent opportunities for eight researchers to pursue their doctorates in a unique intercontinental regime that will see them split their supervised activity between Ireland and Uganda through to 2012. Their research will be of very considerable and measurable value at a time when water was never a more pressing issue.”

Dr Linnane said the eight PhD researchers to work under ‘Water is Life – Amazzi Bulamu’ will be drawn from a range of disciplines including engineering, science, geography and sociology. “The research projects under this programme cover various strands and that is reflected in the academic and professional backgrounds that candidates will come from. For instance, the two projects based at DkIT will appeal to those from an engineering background while, for example, there is an opportunity at Dublin City University to research water management with a focus on the social and health impacts it has on women and children.

“Water management against the backdrop of climate change will be the focus for research at NUI Maynooth and rainwater harvesting and storage will be examined by a PhD researcher at Dublin Institute of Technology. The central theme for the research at Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland will be around the solar disinfection of drinking water. The gender politics around water resources will be examined at NUI Maynooth while a further project at Dublin City University will consider the role of conflict and local governance in water management.”

Speaking more generally, Dr Linnane said water supply is an issue of ever-increasing global importance. “Human demand for water has increased six-fold in the last 50 years and it is estimated that a billion people do not have enough clean water to drink while at least two billion cannot rely on ample water to drink, clean and eat. The Walker Institute for Climate Change at Reading University calculate the number of people living in water basins exposed to water stress will rise from 1.4 billion to 2.9-3.3 billion by 2025.