ALICANTE, Spain — “Oh good, you're the washing engineer.” That’s what Monica Ramos, coordinator of UNICEF’s Global WASH Cluster, was told when she showed up at a Bolivian NGO as a Peace Corps volunteer and newly graduated engineering student almost 20 years ago. “Tomorrow, go and design a gravity water system, do some community work, and build some latrines.”
A baptism of fire, this marked Ramos’ entrance into the water, sanitation, and hygiene sector — commonly referred to as WASH — which can include everything from ensuring that people have access to clean water and that they’re using it efficiently, to building toilets and instilling good hygiene practices, and finding innovative solutions to these challenges.
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