Read more about our panellists’ backgrounds here.

Responses to selected questions that we did not have time to address during the live Q&A session are listed here.

The recent, devastating floods in eastern Australia have created a substantial, immediate need for engineers with water skills. Find out how to get involved here:

Read more about Engineers without Borders flood recovery and volunteer requirements.

Do you have a skill to offer? Try starting out as a mentor for Engineers without Borders:

What is WASH?

Learn more about UNICEF’s WASH Programme:

See WASH statistics on the World Health Organisation’s WASH page:

Donation and Volunteer Opportunities

For those with the means to do so, we encourage donations to WaterAid.

Water engineers in the US can get involved as mentors for Upwardly Global’s Immigrant & Refugee Professionals Career Service, including a recent initiative aimed at supporting workforce inclusion for Ukrainian refugees:

Read more about the Peace Corps Partnership Program here:

UNICEF marked World Water Day 2022 with a video addressing MENA’s water crisis and how to fix it:

How can flood modellers help?

While this webinar focussed on WASH projects, many of our webinar attendees have a flood modelling background and have expressed a desire to help.

Flood modelling can only be accurate as the underlying LiDAR or survey details. In many low-income countries, no level of surface water modelling skills will be able to produce valid data, because there is insufficient terrain and bathymetric data available, limiting confidence in the results of any analysis. Also, in many cases, topographic data that has been acquired is held privately and not available for public use without substantial payments.

In many cases, the best return on investment for flood modelling would involve the capture or provision of accurate terrain data. Visit https://dronesforearth.org/ and the UNICEF supported African Drone and Data Academy to get involved in providing drone technology to areas in need.

How can Surface Water Solutions help?

For our part, we are offering free hydraulic modelling advisory services for low income countries. If you are a water modeller or practicing/retired water engineer with flood modelling skills and would like to get involved in a supporting advisory or mentoring role, please send an e-mail to aid@surfacewater.biz.

We currently have more requests for support than we can accommodate, so we have to be selective in the projects we assist with. To help meet the demand, we welcome input from those with the means and skills to contribute. We’ll provide respondents with access to the projects for which assistance is needed.

[NOTE: Advice offered through this programme is strictly limited to software, analysis approach, methodologies, principles, background theory, and related conceptual material. Any advice involving project implementation, such as levee heights, spillway capacity, dam design, and related engineering guidance can only be provided with appropriate contractual and insurance details in place under agreed terms and conditions.]