Deltap is an international project, planned to run for four years. It started in 2016 and now, after two years, it was time for a mid-term review to assess what has been done so far and discuss about future plans. On October 29thand 30th, all the members of DELTAP gathered in Dhaka, Bangladesh to attend the two days venue.
The first day, the Stakeholders meeting was held at BRAC headquarters: presentations from local partners such as EPRC, Max Foundation, Rajshahi University, Dhaka University, RUET, Mahavir Cancer Institute and Research Center were given. Following those presentation Annemarie Mink from TU Delft presented the work she has been doing on the field as PostDoc and the three subprojects were given some time as well to illustrate their work.
The morning continued with group discussions related to each subproject that sparked new insights and positive feedback from partners.
In the afternoon, at EPRC headquarter, cross disciplinary discussions went on, allowing subproject holders to clarify ideas and align plans for the next phases.
The second day was less crowded but not less interesting; this time only the strict circle of Deltap subprojects, together with the reviewers Jurg Keller and Priyanka Dissanayake, joined professor Kazi Matin at Dhaka University for a more in-depth analysis on the state of the art.
The three subproject and PostDoc work were presented and discussed extensively together with the reviewers that, at the end of the day, gave their first comments on what had been presented.
Feedback highlighted the multidisciplinary integration and connection between the subprojects, which produced a highly engaging and collaborative project overall.
It was largely appreciated the multi-solutions approach to the problem of arsenic in ground water, strengthening the idea of developing different ideas and applications for different purposes; divergent opinions have been a mean to improve common positions and, instead of creating a gap, generate positive discussion within project boundaries.
Another area that the reviewers valued positively, is the increasing power given to the end users and the effort made to empower communities to become part of the solution; their advice is to expand even further the topic, getting on board new local communities and new stakeholders, such as local authorities, policy makers, municipalities and public health organizations.
Overall a very positive two-days meeting in Dhaka, with activities, discussions and planning for the future. Feedback have been enthusiastic, meaning that what has been done so far is on a good track; now it is time to keep on building on existing work and complete the mission for positive impact that DELTAP aims to achieve.