After graduating in 1983 with a BSc in Civil Engineering from Paisley, Colin spent the next 6 years as an engineer in the construction of roads, bridges and tunnels in various parts of Scotland and North Wales. In 1989 he returned to full-time education and studied for an MSc in Water Resources Engineering at The City University, London, graduating with distinction in 1990. Since January 1991 Colin has worked in the NGO sector with Mercy Ships and Youth With A Mission (YWAM). This work focused on the development, implementation, supervision and evaluation of water supply & sanitation programmes in Senegal, The Gambia, Sierra Leone, Guinea, Ghana, Togo, Benin, South Africa and Madagascar.

Currently, Colin continues his involvement with water supply & sanitation in Africa and with YWAM. At the same time he is a part-time research student under the supervision of Prof. Sandy Cairncross. The title of his research is "Determinants of Sustainability in Rural Sanitation".

Colin's research is located in the Dodma Rural District of Tanzania where, in partnership with WaterAid, he has assisted the District Government to conduct a retrospective sanitation assessment. 61,903 households from 111 villages took part in the survey which has helped to identify those villages where sanitation coverage is already sustained in more than 80% of households, as well as those villages where latrines are less well accepted and which are less likely to meet the MDG sanitation target.

The next research phase will seek to identify and test some of the factors which have contributed to a greater level of sustained sanitation coverage