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Meet the Keynote Speakers for the 2025ÌýColorado WASH Symposium!Ìý

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Sabrina Rashid Sheonty

Founder, Tetra

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Sabrina Rashid Sheonty is a young water resources engineering professional and water entrepreneur. She completed her bachelor's at the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology and master's at the University of Alberta in Canada in Water Studies. She has worked in various national and international WASH and climate projects in Bangladesh and North America in the last 6 years. She founded Tetra, a water startup aiming to provide innovative solutions to ensure safe drinking water access for underprivileged coastal communities in Bangladesh. She has conducted profound research in water and climate sectors in the last 6 years and published over 20 technical journal and conference papers till now.

Keynote address title:

WASH Challenges and Opportunities in Climate Vulnerable Developing Countries

Keynote address abstract:

Climate change is one of the most pressing global challenges of 21st century in the world,
significantly impacting the water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) sector. The least developed
countries are more vulnerable to climate change impacts. Climate change impacts like rising
temperatures, sea level rise, saltwater intrusion is only going to worsen the condition in the
future. Several countries of Africa like Kenya, Ghana, South Africa are still struggling with the
climate induced challenges like inadequate access to safe drinking water and sanitation.
Another distinct example of climate vulnerable developing country is Bangladesh and
specifically its southwestern coastal belt. Being in a low-lying geography, with proximity to
the Bay of Bengal and subject to salinity intrusion, it is particularly prone to the challenges
posed by climate change. Everyday around 9.5 trillion of treated water is being wasted
throughout the world whereas 43 million people of the climate vulnerable community of the
Southwest Coastal region of Bangladesh is being deprived of safe drinking water due to high
salinity in drinking water. Due to the impacts of climate change and Bangladesh being in a very
crucial position geographically, saltwater intrusion will increase further in future and the severe
salinity zone might rise by 14% in 2050. Moreover, it is observed that in these regions that women
and teenage girls have to walk a long way to collect water from plants and then wait in a long
queue just to fetch water. This journey of collecting water often have stories of harassment for
women in their path to collect water along with several health hazards like back pain for
standing in the long queue. Often it is also seen that due to impacts of climate related hazards,
a certain amount of people relocates from worst affected last mile to the neighboring urban
region and start settling down in the urban slums. It is reported that most of these climate
migrants in the urban slum go through challenges regarding proper sanitation, hygiene and
drinking water. In addition, women and teenage girls suffer more in terms of hygiene issues
particularly during menstruation when maintaining hygiene is a crucial factor. A report also
included that teenage girl in the coastal belt of Bangladesh take pills to pause their menstruation
to escape the pain of using saline water during that time. A significant effort can be made by
youth engagement in addressing the issues regarding the challenges in climate vulnerable
developing countries. Social enterprises can play a vital role in innovation and collaboration
regarding crucial issues in the WASH sector. Climate financing can also be encouraged to fund
climate resilient green ideas to combat the challenges in the water and sanitation sectors. Steps
should be taken to ensure capacity building ensuring gender inclusion in the least developed
countries to empower communities with awareness and skills. Cross border cooperation
through global platforms can facilitate successful WASH models and innovations and leave a
positive impact in the climate vulnerable communities of the developing countries.

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Dr. Matt Bentley

WASH Technical Advisor, USAID Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance

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Dr. Matt Bentley is a Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH) specialist focused on advancing research and practice for field impact in humanitarian and development WASH. He specializes in water quality and emergency WASH interventions appropriate for improving public and environmental health in response to global crises.

Currently Matt works as a WASH Technical Advisor in USAID's Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance, where he contributes to global emergency WASH policy, strategy, and programs. Matt also advises on emergency and resilience WASH programming across East and Central Africa. Matt has work and volunteer experience in WASH programming, technical support, project management, research, refugee resettlement, and international development and relief.

Beyond fieldwork and program support, Matt has worked on research projects focused on developing new methods for identifying and reducing human exposure to toxic organic chemicals in global developing communities, a topic which has been historically neglected in the WASH Sector. He has also taught WASH and environmental engineering coursework at the undergraduate and graduate level.

Matt received his Doctorate in Environmental Engineering for Developing Communities from the ÌÇÐÄVlogÆƽâ°æ, where he studied appropriate water treatment technologies for Low- and Middle-Income Countries (LMICs) and for treatment of domestic drinking water, wastewater, and stormwater, and landfill leachate. When he is not in the field, classroom, or lab, you are most likely to find him rock climbing ÌÇÐÄVlogÆƽâ°æ's Flatirons, backpacking a remote trail, or enjoying a quality cup of coffee.

Keynote address title:

Vulnerable Populations Are Not Your Laboratory

Keynote address abstract:

Global crises such as drought, flooding, and conflict are increasing in frequency and severity,
and humanitarian needs continue to increase year over year. Progress on Water, Sanitation,
and Hygiene is moving in the wrong direction in many countries due to increasing fragility and
humanitarian crises. Displaced populations - including refugees and internally displaced
populations - in particular experience extremely high vulnerability due to limited WASH access
and compounding factors. Addressing these gaps is critical to achieving universal WASH
access, improving public health, and ensuring dignity of vulnerable populations worldwide - and
the way we do so matters.

Fragility, natural disasters, and conflict are increasingly impacting areas thought to be stable,
meaning that traditionally development WASH actors are operating in humanitarian or
humanitarian-adjacent contexts with greater frequency. ‘Humanitarian WASH’ and ‘Development
WASH’ must not be treated as more or less the same. The unique risks and complexities of
fragile and emergency settings require adherence to Humanitarian Principles and a Do No
Harm posture that radically impact the way that WASH programming is designed, conducted,
and monitored. The WASH Sector has often failed to recognize these differences and continues
to get it wrong today.

Vulnerable populations experiencing crises are not to be seen as a laboratory ripe for scientific
exploration to promote the career and achievements of academics or advance a particular
business’ product. Instead, humanitarian programming should be based on the best established
evidence. WASH researchers and practitioners need to be careful about how we approach
fragile settings to Do No Harm and meet the emergency WASH needs of vulnerable populations
with humanity and impartiality.

This keynote will identify some of the critical differences in delivering WASH interventions and
services in development and humanitarian settings, highlighting common pitfalls to avoid from a
humanitarian perspective. As humanitarian WASH needs continue to increase, it is becoming
more important for WASH actors across the Humanitarian, Development, Peace Nexus to
understand the importance of applying humanitarian principles and ethically meeting the WASH
needs of the most vulnerable.