Firdu Zawide was, until his retirement, an international civil servant for over 23 years. With great pride he served the World Health Organization in Sierra Leone, Zimbabwe, Congo/Brazzaville, Geneva and South Africa in the capacity, latterly, of Environmental Health Adviser, African Region. He travelled throughout the continent, supporting the 46 African Member States of the WHO in their struggle to improve the health of their people by providing effective environmental health services. Zawide was born and grew up in Ethiopia. He studied Building Engineering at the Addis Ababa University and Public Health Engineering at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne in England. Later he was awarded WHO fellowship to study environmental aspect of river basin development in the United States of America, Puerto Rico and Egypt. He also holds MSc. degree in Environmental Management from the Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine, University of London. He is a long time Member of the Chartered Institute of Water and Environmental Management and most recently Member of the Chartered Scientist in England. He is also a member of the International Society for Environmental Epidemiology (ISEE} in the United States. Following retirement from WHO service he is actively engaged in promoting research in Environmental Health and has published several articles in peer reviewed international journals in the area of water, sanitation, hygiene (WASH) and food safety. He lives in the United States.