Dr Konstantina (Tina) Velkushanova is an Environmental Engineer and an expert in WASH and Sanitary Engineering with 15+ years of professional experience. She holds a PhD degree in Civil and Environmental Engineering from the University of Southampton, UK. Tina has been with the Pollution Research Group in Durban, South Africa since 2012 and has been actively involved in a number of research projects in the field of water and sanitation in developing countries, particularly focused on non-sewered sanitation, improved faecal sludge management and the development and evaluation of innovative sanitation technologies. These projects are conducted in collaboration with local and international partnering organisations such as the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Water Research Commission in South Africa and eThekwini Water and Sanitation.
Tina is currently managing a Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation funded grant – development of a book called “Methods for faecal sludge analysis” aiming at developing a standardised approach to faecal sludge analysis worldwide with partners from EAWAG, Switzerland, IHE-Delft – the Netherlands and AIT – Thailand. She has been actively involved in different other programmes, activities and initiatives in that support the global development agenda of the FSM and NSS sector of these sectors, such as: FSM Alliance: Executive committee member, FSM6 Conference chair; Non-sewered Sanitation Specialist Group of IWA: Deputy Chair July 2018- August 2019; Technical committee expert of ISO standards for Non-sewered sanitation, water and sanitation: ISO CD/31800; ISO 30500; ISO24521; Project Grants and Capacity building (FSM MOOC and MSc in Sanitation). UKZN Wonder Woman in Science 2019.
