"Bentley Professor is at the Forefront of World Water and Sanitation Efforts"

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Bentley Professor is at the Forefront of World Water and Sanitation Efforts George Grattan April 4, 2017

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(Left to right: Isaac Adjaottor, Bentley internship supervisor, Felipe Palacios and Michael Howe, Bentley interns, Chief Nene Narteh Adamo Wussah II, Diane Kellogg, Deryn Zahoruiko, Bentley intern, and district official Emmanuel Abaya meet in a small seaside village near the Volta River estuary in Ghana in June 2014.)

What do Wikipedia, worms, waste and water have in common?

They’re all on Diane Kellogg’s mind these days. Kellogg, an associate professor of management at Bentley University, will soon expand her role as a private sector consultant to a wide array of international government agencies and non-governmental organizations working to improve sanitation and health for people around the world.

The challenge is stark: As Kellogg puts it, “2.4 billion people don’t have access to sanitation, so there’s a lot to do.”

Kellogg’s previous efforts in this sector, with Bentley University support, helped bring education, jobs and new toilets to communities in Ghana. She’s also consulted to help improve sanitation, health and quality of life in Kenya, Uganda and Senegal.

Funded by a three-year, $2.7 million grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to the Stockholm Environmental Institute, Kellogg Consultants (along with Water Aid and Oxfam) is a partner in the grant consortium working on behalf of the Sustainable Sanitation Alliance. The Alliance’s mission is to achieve the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goal #6: water and sanitation for all.

Editing as action That’s where Wikipedia comes in.

One of the early efforts of the grant was to enlist members of the Sustainable Sanitation Alliance and volunteer editors to make the often-technical language on Wikipedia pages about water and sanitation more readable, and therefore more accessible to the general public.

The “Edit-a-thon” took place in the 48 hours before World Water Day on March 22, when more than 25,000 people accessed the “World Water Day” entry on Wikipedia,

up from 14,000 in 2016. Kellogg is recruiting now for another effort to prepare for World Toilet Day on Nov. 19, 2017. Volunteers can continue to get involved via this Wikipedia Meetup page.

Worms and waste Kellogg has also been working on spreading knowledge about vermifiltering, or using earthworms and other natural organisms to safely treat human waste. Her first involvement with worms and waste was through a company she recruited to host Bentley summer interns in Ghana. Biological Filters and Composters developed a “non-sewered” vermifilter toilet to process human waste. Kellogg wrote two grants for the company and has been involved with attempts to scale up and make its technology more affordable.

Showing the impact Kellogg is conducting health-related research before and after toilets are installed to demonstrate that good toilets can reduce the incidence of intestinal worms and diarrhea in children. Children who live in communities dependent on open defecation often suffer from life-threatening diseases that rob them of nutrition and energy.

Bentley’s Health Thought Leadership Network funded the pre-installation phase of Kellogg’s research.

A role for the private sector A key factor in reaching safe water and sanitation for all is bringing business into economic development. Most entities now doing sanitation work in developing countries are governmental agencies and non-governmental and charitable organizations. That’s where Kellogg’s 10 years of experience in economic development in Ghana and 30 years as a management consultant in the private sector come together.

Private companies may be able to provide a more sustainable approach to providing toilets to underserved communities than governments, NGOs or charities, said Kellogg.

“We’re networking with anyone who’s doing quality work on sanitation and water in Africa, India, South and Central America—anywhere,” Kellogg said. “It’s incredibly exciting work bringing these sectors together. I’m getting to know the best and the brightest in sanitation, and all of them are trying to pay attention to the triple bottom line of people, planet and profit.”

Continuing work in Ghana Separate from the Gates Foundation grant, Kellogg’s sanitation consulting work has been supported for the past two years by The Netherlands Enterprise Agency, the Dutch equivalent of USAID. The agency is funding efforts to increase the number of household toilets in Ghana, where there are more people with a mobile phone than a household toilet. For every 100 household toilets sold in a community, the grant installs 25 school toilets.

Kellogg’s efforts in Ghana date back to 2006. Originally, she was interested in showing students the impact of business in the developing world. As other Bentley professors began teaching their spring break courses in Ghana, Kellogg developed an eight-week summer internship program and began spending more time in-country while Bentley students were there. The commitment to sanitation evolved into a second career.

“It was Bentley’s support that got me involved in sustainable economic development,” says Kellogg. “I will always appreciate that.”

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