"Cholera, an acute diarrheal disease caused by the bacterium Vibrio cholerae, has reemerged as a global killer. Outbreaks typically occur once a year in Africa and Latin America. But in Bangladesh the epidemics occur twice a year -- in the spring and again in the fall.

"Now, researchers from Tufts University, led by Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering Shafiqul Islam, have proposed a link between cholera and fluctuating water levels in the region's three principal rivers -- the Ganges, Brahmaputra and Meghna..."

Read more>>

From ScienceDaily, November 4, 2009

"Many of Boston's buildings are on shaky ground—literally. That's because many of the city's neighborhoods were created out of fill, culminating in the creation of Back Bay by 1890. To keep the buildings from sinking, wooden pilings were driven deep into mud to support them. Those original wooden pilings still survive, but must be covered by groundwater to keep from rotting..."

WSSS Director Rich Vogel is developing a computer model to help the Boston Groundwater Trust, a city agency, understand and manage this problem.

Read more>>

From Tufts Journal, October 21, 2009

"Jeff Trull is behind the wheel of a massive camper with green curtains and beige carpeting and $140,000 worth of scientific equipment inside. It’s a laboratory on wheels. Each week, he and another Tufts University graduate student, whom he calls his “co-pilot,” drive this RV up and down the streets of Somerville collecting pollution data..."

Jeff Trull and Allison St. Vincent, current WSSS students, were featured on WBUR for their work as part of an air pollution research project that's taking place in this giant RV, which can be seen parked behind Anderson Hall and cruising the streets of Somerville.

Read more>>

From WBUR Morning Edition, October 19, 2009

This past July, the Boston Globe Magazine published an interview with WSSS Faculty Advisor Shafiqul Islam, a professor in the School of Engineering. He talked about the increasing importance that water is playing in social and political issues around the globe.

"We're recognizing that science alone will not solve water problems. But policy operating in a vacuum will not solve the problems either. You need a combination of the two, and we would like to educate our students to understand both..."

Read more (pdf)>>

Visit aquapedia.tufts.edu>>

"A group of hospitalized children in Africa has given public health researchers new clues about the transmission of a microscopic parasite that can kill people with weakened immune systems."

"Now, some pathogenic detective work by Siobhan Mor, V09, the second student to complete a Ph.D. at the Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine, has uncovered a new portal for infection: the parasite can be inhaled..."

Read more>>

WSSS Alumna and current Tufts professor Siobhan Mor was profiled in the Tufts Journal, May 20, 2009

In April of 2009, 13 Tufts students received the Presidential Award for Citizenship and Public Service in recognition of their service and leadership at Tufts. One of the recipients was WSSS student Ashley Colpaart, who is interested in community dietetics and nutrition policy.

"I try to help people realize that community concerns are never out of their control, and that we do have the power to change through policy, advocacy and active living."

Congratulations, Ashley!

Read more>>

From Tufts E-News, May 7, 2009

"Worldwide malaria kills more than a million people a year. Ninety percent of these deaths occur in Africa, mostly among young children. Jonathan Lautze is researching how to curb the transmission of malaria through water resource engineering and management—research he pursued while completing Tufts School of Engineering's first doctoral degree in conjunction with the interdisciplinary Water: Systems, Science, and Society certificate program. By controlling a dam's reservoir water levels, the development of malaria-carrying mosquito larvae can be disrupted..."

Read more>>

From Tufts Engineering E-News, Winter 2008

During a recent Practicum in the Bahamas, WSSS students researched local water issues

"The Bahamas, with its postcard-perfect clear blue Caribbean waters, has a problem that seems almost unimaginable. The country's main tourist draw - its lovely beaches - are virtually unmonitored for environmental contamination. Rainfall gets swept quickly into the coastal waters, along with all the pollutants typical of a growing urban center like the country's capital Nassau, situated on the main Bahamian island of New Providence..."

Read more>>

From Alma Matters Alumni Magazine, Fall 2008

"Water resource management is not just a local problem or a foreign problem. As anyone in the Water: Systems, Science and Society (WSSS) program will tell you, it's an everywhere problem."

"'You don't have to go far to find the issues,' says John Durant, a professor of civil and environmental engineering. 'But if you want to go far, you'll find them there, too.'..."

Read more>>

From Tufts News Profile, February 27, 2006

"When he talks about water, Paul Kirshen doesn't just have passion. He has facts. 'By 2025, over two-thirds of the world's population will live in areas where there's water stress because of increases in population and climate change,' says the Tufts civil and environmental engineering professor. 'Forty percent of the world's crops are produced with irrigation. Two-thirds of the world's withdrawals of water are used for irrigation.'..."

Read more>>

From Tufts News Profile, February 27, 2006