Our speaker on 2 February 2011 was Lisa Guppy, a Rotary Ambassadorial scholar being hosted in the next Rotary District to ours. Lisa comes from Western Australia and is studying at UCL in the centre of London for a PhD from the University of Western Australia, and her subject is the measurement of water poverty. Her studies were in South East Asia, and she told us about her visits to Vietnam and Cambodia where she stayed in a number of villages. There are five factors that she takes into account in her work: Use, Capacity, Environment, Resources and Ease of Access. Lisa explained each of these and then examined some 7 different villages with different levels of water poverty. She is still writing up her conclusions, but her analysis of the seven villages made it clear that water poverty is a problem that does not have a simple solution. Providing an ample supply of safe water does not solve the problems, and she demonstrated how it can create additional problems. Lisa is an accomplished public speaker with a most thought provoking talk which prompted many questions. Well done Lisa – and good luck with the thesis!
