ir. MT (Matthijs) Wessels
Docent, PromovendusAs a lecturer and researcher, I enjoy working together with both scholars and practitioners to support and promote sustainable development. I have a background in irrigation and water management, and specialised in use interactions along the urban-rural water chain (from sanitary planning to water reuse in agriculture). After working as a project manager in the field of water supply and water quality, I returned to Wageningen University as a lecturer. I am currently involved in teaching BSc and MSc courses, supervising thesis students and coaching group work. All teaching activities evolve around topics of water reuse, urban-rural water interactions and the friction between modern ideals and actual practices of water reuse in agriculture. In 2019, I started as a PhD candidate on a research project with Ardhi University (School of Environmental Sciences and Technology) and Wageningen University (Water Resources Management group and Environmental Policy group). The PhD project contributes to creating an enabling environment that stimulates safe and productive agriculture by understanding how sociotechnical configurations of water reuse in small-scale urban agriculture establish and change. With a case study in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, I study how practices of irrigated urban agriculture emerge and evolve under the ever-changing circumstances of urbanisation.