Dr David Galibourg

My PhD research examined the adoption of safe practices in irrigated agri-food systems using microbially contaminated irrigation water, in line with WHO guidelines. I focused on how psychosocial and institutional factors influence stakeholders’ capability, opportunity, and motivation to adopt safe practices, drawing on behavioural frameworks (COM-B, RANAS), participatory modelling (Companion Modelling), and qualitative and mixed methods to analyse system dynamics and their implications for hygiene, food safety, and public health.

Current research activity

• EPSRC Transition to Growth Fellowship

Recently completed research projects

• 2020–2025: Barriers to adopting good hygiene and food safety practices in the urban irrigated vegetable value chain, Accra, Ghana. EPSRC funded PhD thesis
• 2020: Water and nutrient recovery to improve food security in low-income urban areas, Brazil: System dynamics modelling of greywater, rainwater harvesting, and source-separated urine for community gardens. MSc thesis
• 2019–2020: Effects of mulch density on soil water balance and crop yield of grain sorghum in South African smallholder rainfed agriculture. MSc project
• 2019: Using remote sensing to inform a local-scale early warning system for agro-meteorological trends, uMngeni Resilience Project, South Africa. MSc internship

• Galibourg, D., Gough, K. V., Scott, R. E., & Slekiene, J. (2025). Street-food vendors and food safety: Behavioural predictors of safe vegetable washing in Accra, Ghana (p. 2025.11.10.25339755). medRxiv. https://doi.org/10.1101/2025.11.10.25339755
• Galibourg, D., Scott, R. E., Gough, K. V., & Amoah, P. (2025). Institutional barriers to food safety: The irrigated vegetable value chain in Accra, Ghana. PLOS Water, 4(11), e0000378. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pwat.0000378
• Galibourg, D., Amankwaa, E. F., Gough, K. V., & Scott, R. (2024). Informal irrigated vegetable value chains in urban Ghana: Potential to improve food safety through changing stakeholder practices. International Development Planning Review, 1–24. https://doi.org/10.3828/idpr.2024.17
• Galibourg, D., Scott, R. E., Gough, K. V., Drechsel, P., & Evans, B. E. (2024). Effectiveness of behaviour change interventions to reduce the risk of faecal contamination in urban irrigated vegetable value chains – applying the COM-B behavioural framework. Journal of Water, Sanitation and Hygiene for Development, 14(8), 654–669. https://doi.org/10.2166/washdev.2024.014
• Drechsel, P.; Qadir, M.; Galibourg, D. The WHO Guidelines for Safe Wastewater Use in Agriculture: A Review of Implementation Challenges and Possible Solutions in the Global South. Water 2022, 14, 864. https:// doi.org/10.3390/w14060864

I built on this experience by completing an MSc in Water & Agriculture (AgroParisTech Montpellier, France) in 2018. It enabled me to explore the reuse of wastewater for irrigation. During this period, I completed two internships: the first at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, where I explored remote sensing products to feed a famine early warning system and improve the resilience and food security of vulnerable communities in rural South Africa; the second at INRAE, France, where I used system dynamics modelling to analyse water and nutrient flows to evaluate the productive potential of recycling urine, greywater, and organic wastes in Brazilian community agri-food systems.

My PhD research (2020-2025) focused on safe practices in irrigated agri-food systems experiencing de facto reuse of microbially contaminated water. This contamination occurs when sub-optimal sanitation systems discharge inadequately treated wastewater into streams and drainage channels that farmers use for irrigation. Pathogens are then transferred to the vegetables and present public health risks to both workers and consumers.

In line with WHO's multi-barrier approach, my work examines the social and institutional factors that prevent stakeholders from adopting safe practices, and organisations in national and local government and the private sector from developing effective supporting strategies. This research bridges technical and social perspectives, integrating behavioural and institutional analysis with engineering and water system realities.

Professional affiliations

• International Water Association (IWA)

Key collaborators

My research and enterprise activities are conducted with a range of academic and stakeholder partners, in the UK, France and Africa including:

• the International Water Management Institute (IWMI)
• the University of Ghana
• the University of KwaZulu Natal (South Africa)
• the National Research Institute for Agriculture, Food and Environment (INRAE, France)