DUT was awarded the first SARChI (South African Research Chair Initiative) in Development and Optimization of WasteWater Treatment Technology for Developing Economies. The SARChI Research Chair will assist the University in increasing its research capacity and contribute to the Human Resource Capital Development of the country and assist the University in driving its Research Strategy. Professor Thor Axel Stenström is the SARChI Research Chair. During the last 35 years he worked at “the inter-phase” between health and environmental questions, with a focus on Water and Sanitation. He has gained an international reputation in the areas of risk assessment and health-related environmental issues. Included assessments of the barrier functions of water and wastewater processes in large and small-scale treatment, questions related to emergency response and multidisciplinary applied research, where technology and health impact relates to the agricultural as well as social fields. He is acting as an advisor for WHO in Geneva, currently dealing with risk assessment and Sanitation Safety Planning. He was also a Government assigned focal point for The International Protocol on Water and Health, UN/ECE Secretariat. As such he was responsible for the international summary reporting (Regional report on the status of implementation of the Protocol on Water and Health) of national reports between 2010 and 2013. Professor Stenström also served as a technical expert for auditing of Water and Sanitation Projects for the European Court of Auditors.As an applied researcher he has been heading and participating in research projects covering drinking water, wastewater and excreta, surface waters and integrated water, and wastewater management, both in industrialised countries and in developing economies. His work is related to drinking water and sanitation management practices in the combined interventions between diarrheal disease and dengue vector control in Asia and Latin America.