Courtesy of Goulburn River High Country Rail Trails, Australia
“There is a water crisis today. But the crisis is not about having too little water to satisfy our needs. It is a crisis of managing water so badly that billions of people – and the environment – suffer badly.” (An excerpt from the World Water Vision report published by the World Water Council)
No wonder that of all the sub-disciplines of civil engineering, water engineering is perhaps among the most intricate and vast fields of study, dealing with a natural resource that has the most direct and crucial impact on the quality of human life.
In an attempt at laying greater emphasis on the subject, Quebec’s Université Laval introduced a Bachelor of Water Engineering program four years ago. The Canadian province’s first group of seven water engineers recently graduated from the university, with five more students set to graduate in December this year.
How It All Started
In May 2000, the water supply for the town of Walkertown in Ontario became contaminated with a life threatening strain of Escherichia coli bacteria, causing the deaths of seven inhabitants, with 2,500 more people falling ill within a week. Environmental engineers at Université Laval were spurred on by this tragedy to create a specialized undergraduate degree program in water engineering.
How is it Different Than Conventional Undergraduate Programs in Civil Engineering?
Traditionally, the responsibilities of producing safe drinking water, managing treatment of wastewater and contaminated water, and managing water resources optimally have been shouldered by civil or mechanical engineers with graduate degrees in environmental engineering, water resources management, or water engineering. However, water engineering is but one of the several sub-disciplines of civil engineering. Civil engineers worldwide have always been in demand in the infrastructure and housing sectors, which have been on an upswing due to urbanization and modernization. So, with this surge in demand, various industrial sectors have been tapping into the same talent pool. This has led to a chronic shortage of well-trained professionals to focus on the efficient management of water resources.
Furthermore, masters level engineering graduate programs are only a year or two in duration. So all learning remains confined to a very narrow area of focus with limited scope for exploring and understanding allied fields. The result? Engineers often lack a holistic understanding and require several years of on-the-job training before they can be effective in their field.
Hence the need for a specialized course of study that educates and trains engineers to manage water resources optimally, ensuring an abundant supply of water that is safe to use.
What is Learned in the Four-Year Program?
Designed to deal exclusively with water, this undergraduate program features a wide range of courses aimed at grooming students for real-life projects.
Courses offered in the program include:
- Theoretical courses in basic engineering such as computer, math, communications and ethics.
- Theoretical courses in water engineering such as hydrology, hydraulics and hydrogeology.
- Applied and design courses in specialized areas such as production of drinking water, treatment of wastewater, and planning, management and protection of watersheds and waterways.
- Courses in life sciences such as microbiology, chemistry, ecology and soil mechanics to equip students with a basic understanding of the dynamics of water pollution.
- Courses in sociology, history and other social sciences. Apparently, the undergraduate program at Université Laval saw social scientists imparting education to engineering students for the first time in the 346-year history of the university. (If you are curious, you could check out this website, which provides an interesting chronological sketch of the progress of water engineering, in terms of open channel flow, since the earliest known study of mechanics undertaken by the Greeks during the period 384–322 B.C. right until the development of the Manning equation in the year 1889.)
Job Opportunities
With management of water resources gaining an unprecedented urgency worldwide, water engineers play a vital role in the planning, design, operations and management of water resource systems.
Water engineers are indispensable when it comes to developing infrastructure for provision of safe drinking water. Sonia Paulin, one of the water engineering graduates from Université Laval, has been employed by Bruser and Associates Engineering Consultants, headquartered in Quebec City, to pilot two projects based on membrane filtration water treatment aimed at providing safe drinking water to the aboriginal Cree community of Wemindji.
Another area of focus is wastewater treatment, a field that is constantly evolving as we find our water resources threatened by newer and different kinds of pollutants. Significant investments are being made to develop systems for collection and treatment of wastewater, and to protect and filter drinking water. Alexis Morissette, another of the recent graduates, has been hired by BPR, a specialized civil engineering firm, to work on projects related to wastewater in Quebec City.
The increasing focus on hydroelectric power as a clean and ‘green’ source of energy also calls for water engineers to design and construct dams, reservoirs and related infrastructure, while simultaneously addressing the consequent issues of large-scale community displacement and environmental concerns.
Obviously, the requirements are innumerable and varied. Employers seek professionals who can deliver from the word “go”. And what could be a better and more effective tool than a university educational track to continually add to the global talent pool of well-trained and skilled professionals?
A Sense of Urgency
In an earlier post, we discussed how the present scenario of indiscriminate usage of water is quickly creating the need for responsible management of water resources.
Here are a few facts and figures gleaned from the website of the World Water Council that will throw more light on the situation:
- About 1.1 billion people live without access to clean drinking water. That is close to 17% of the world’s population.
- An astounding 2.6 billion people, close to 40% of the world’s population, lack adequate sanitation.
- Roughly 1.8 million people succumb to diarrheal diseases every year.
- Water-borne diseases claim the lives of 3,900 children every day!
A recent report titled ‘Water Scarcity & Climate Change: Growing Risks for Businesses and Investors’ authored by Pacific Institute claims that we are likely to run out of usable water long before we run out of oil!
Clearly, there has never been a more pressing need for well-educated and trained professionals to tackle the mismanagement of water resources and related environmental issues that are wrecking our planet.
