Tari Bowling – Achieving the Sustainable Development Goals and implementing WASH programs in Laos

Tari Bowling is an Integrated Water Management practitioner and PhD student with 15 years’ experience encompassing the fields of WASH and nutrition, Community Led Total Sanitation, participatory community development, environmental management, and water resource management with a focus on project integration. Tari has over seven years’ experience in Laos, in remote areas, working with development organisations and private industry on project proposals and development in WASH and nutrition. Tari also has nine years’ experience working at state and local government levels in Australia in the fields of large scale and rural/urban catchment management. She is currently undertaking a Doctor of Philosophy at the University of Queensland measuring impacts of integrated WASH and nutrition projects in the Asia Pacific region in light of Sustainable Development Goal 6 - Water and Sanitation. Her focal areas are on social behaviour change communication and institutional change to achieve long term health outcomes through integrated WASH and nutrition programmes. In this interview, we discuss SDGs and their implementation, her experience working in Lao, and opportunities for making progress to achieve SDG 6.