It’s not a glamorous job working with toilets. But having access to clean water, sanitation and good hygiene is lifesaving stuff, and thankfully for us it’s Kathryn Harries’ dream job.

A highly experienced water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) engineer and humanitarian leader, Kathryn worked for Sydney Water Corporation for a decade before transitioning to the international humanitarian sector.

Since then, for nearly 20 years, Kathryn has devoted her life to helping provide clean water and sanitation for people affected by humanitarian disasters around the world.

In this episode, Sally chats with Kathryn about the power of her life-saving work, the moment she realised she wanted to become a WASH engineer, her work in academia with the Centre for Humanitarian Leadership at Deakin University, and what she loves about being an associate trainer with RedR Australia.

As part of her PhD, Kathryn developed a guide called the Field Team Impact Kit, which aims to help technical teams in humanitarian and development organisations to be more effective, sustainable and locally led.

You can learn more about Kathryn’s Field Team Impact Kit here.

You can find out more about RedR Australia’s training courses here.

Read the transcript here.

Host: Sally Cunningham

Producer, engineer and composer: Jill Farrar

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