155 students join the Master programme this academic year

With 22 participants Ethiopia is has the most representation, followed by Indonesia with 14 participants, and there are students from countries as varied as Qatar, Sudan, Honduras, Bhutan and Malawi.

Professor Meganck, the director of UNESCO-IHE, opened the academic year stressing the need to increase professional capacity worldwide: “It is important to invest in human capital and the long-term potential of each of you to not only succeed here, but to have a fruitful career trajectory and in that manner assist both your country as well as the name of this Institute, and over the next 25 years becoming a more effective professional”.

Uzma Bashir, from Pakistan, and Salamawit Wubishet, from Ethiopia, both 29, attended the opening with mixed feelings of enthusiasm and concern. They had met each other during registration and exchanged first impressions. “It seems we are going to have to work very hard”, says Uzma. “But that is what we have come for”. She works for the Pakistani Environmental Protection Agency, coordinating drinking water policy and quality control. “Studying at UNESCO-IHE will increase my technical skills and this will hopefully allow me to perform better and to influence decision making in my country”. Selamawati works for the Ethiopian Roads and Infrastructure Authority. She has joined the Municipal Water and Infrastructure programme because she wants to “contribute to the development of my country with the best knowledge I can bring in”.

When these students are awarded their Master of Science diplomas by April 2009, they will join a network of 14,000 alumni that work to apply new knowledge to solve increasing water challenges. UNESCO-IHE will enable them with tools, techniques and knowledge related to, among others, eco-sanitation, improved rainfed agriculture, interaction between climate and water, decentralization, public-private partnerships, transboundary water management, water valuation, and virtual water trade. These professionals are at the cutting edge of a profession that will -more than any other issue- affect the future of humankind and they know their countries cannot afford them to squander this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.