UNSW students explore clean water solutions with communities in the Solomon Islands

In December 2025, a group of engineering students had the opportunity to conduct fieldwork in the Solomon Islands through the UNSW ChallENG program.

For the three students: Xanthe Rose, Romy Brooks and Maddison Klar; the trip was an opportunity to deliver societal impact via the Humanitarian Engineering program at UNSW. Their project aims to address real-world Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) challenges in collaboration with Pacific Islands governments, working alongside communities to design sustainable solutions to help meet their goals. Specifically, the team is currently working to develop a water filtration system that can be locally sourced and independently maintained by the community using it.

The week-long trip to the Solomon Islands allowed the team to collect valuable data on water quality, the needs of communities and the availability of different materials for the construction of water filtration systems. Accompanied by UNSW research fellow Dr Edoardo Santagata and supported by UNSW academics Dr Bojan Tamburic and A/Prof Andrew Dansie, the students also met with in-country partners, gaining contextual insights critical for the successful design and implementation of the systems.

The team arrived in the Solomon Islands’ capital city of Honiara on the 10th of December where they were met by Dr Jimmy Hilly—a National Professional Officer for Environmental Health and Climate Change with the World Health Organisation. Originally from the Solomon Islands, Dr Hilly began working with the team to provide contextual advice and lend professional expertise while completing his PhD at UNSW in 2023. He continues to provide support for the project since returning to the Solomon Islands from Australia.

The next day, the team was introduced to the Director of Health Services for the Guadalcanal province who extended permission for them to visit and conduct fieldwork within the communities.  Throughout the rest of their stay, the team met with several industry professionals including the Director of the Environmental Health Division, Guadalcanal's Provincial Chief Health Inspector and the Chief Laboratory Officer from the National Public Health Laboratory. They also met with the UNICEF team responsible for rural water, sanitation and hygiene around Guadalcanal.

“These meetings gave us further insight into the official processes and many stakeholders involved in the Solomon Islands RWASH sector,” said student lead Xanthe.

“The team learned that the sector's current focus is on expanding rural water access before resources can be shifted to improving quality. Furthermore, the national water testing laboratory also has limited resources. These insights reinforced the value of external projects, such as ours, in focusing on activities that prioritise water quality improvements.”

Over the following days, the team visited several small villages with rural healthcare facilities. They were accompanied by Dr Hilly and Jemma, an Environmental Health Officer from the Guadalcanal Provincial Health Service. They visited four facilities: Lunga Rural Clinic, Visale Rural Clinic, Alligator Village, and Good Samaritan Provincial Hospital; where they worked closely with the centre nurses to understand the current needs and priorities of each clinic, and how they fulfil their water requirements. The team toured the centres and documented information on the facilities to determine how future designs could best integrate into existing infrastructure.

Within each community, the team also completed water quality testing using a low-cost test kit which the students developed themselves. Through this process, they were able to attain information about the physical and biological contaminants in each water source and storage location.

“In many cases this process occurred on site and directly at the water source, requiring us to hike through the jungle landscape to reach water sources in the surrounding mountains,” said Romy.

"For me, the highlight of the trip was when the Sisters at St. Martin de Porres Rural Health Clinic in Visale used machetes to cut a path through the tall grass to lead us to their water source.

"We were overcome not just by the beautiful landscape but with admiration for the women in these communities who led us to the water source. They completed the hour climb in slides while we struggled in hiking shoes.”

“I was most happy when our group managed to unblock the pipes from the top of the water source, and water started to run again to the houses at the bottom of the mountain."

"I am grateful for the generosity of these women in both the time they dedicated to us and their openness to our many questions. "

In the final days of their visit, the team travelled around Honiara to tour the local hardware stores, solar energy providers, and the National Public Health Laboratory.

“This provided important context into what materials could be locally sourced as well as their costs—critical information to progress to easy access, low cost and locally sourced design,” said Maddison.

"The community visits were amazing, and felt quite surreal after only working on the theoretical side of the project for so long. Everyone was so generous with their time and knowledge, and the experiences were absolutely invaluable in terms of the information we were able collect and the connections we made."

While in the country, the team also had the opportunity to visit Tenaru falls, one of the country’s natural wonders.

Academic supervisor Dr Bojan Tamburic said that the trip was an important first step in designing low-cost, sustainable water management solutions that are fit-for-purpose.

“The team was successful in building relationships with local communities and gaining a clearer understanding of their water security challenges,” said Bojan.

“I’m very proud of the team for their dedication, organisation, and genuine commitment to engineering for good.”