Rethinking Faecal Sludge Management in Emergency Settings (PDF)

Fiona Zakaria was born in Bandung, Indonesia, a country prone to natural disasters, including tsunami and volcanic eruptions. In addition, Fiona is an Achenese. an ethnic group in Indonesia living in Aceh Province which was torn apart by an over 30-years armed conflict between Indonesian government and a separatist rebel group.

Fiona worked for International Committee of The Red Cross (ICRC) as a field engineer in Water and Habitat division, working to provide humanitarian response (water and sanitation) to conflict affected communities in Aceh. She continued working for emergency water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) programs for UNICEF in Indonesia and Sudan.

Fiona obtained a bachelor degree in civil engineering. She also obtained a master degree in sanitary and environmental engineering from Universiti Putra Malaysia, and another masters degree in water science, policy and management from University of Oxford, United Kingdom.

She started her PhD research in 2012 at IHE-Delft upon granted a scholarship by Sani-UP project, funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Today, Fiona is working as a research fellow in urban sanitation at School of Civil Engineering, University of Leeds, UK.

Her research interests evolves from general WASH, to a more sanitation focus, emergency sanitation, smart sanitation technology, decision support system, urban sanitation, and recently sanitation contribution to climate change.