International Water Association (IWA) organised ‘World Water Congress & Exhibition’ on 11-15 August 2024 in Toronto, Canada, to bring together stakeholders and key contacts within the conventional water sector and beyond.
Nearly 8,900 participants from around the world including thought leaders, decision makers, leading researchers and business representatives gathered at the global event.
At the congress, ITN-BUET presented their work in the technical and workshop sessions and through poster presentations. Research Officer of ITN-BUET, Md Azizur Rahman, showcased his research findings on ‘Community AIRP for Combating Arsenic Contamination in Remote Rural Char Areas of Bangladesh’. His presentation addressed the challenges of mitigating groundwater arsenic in rural char areas of Bangladesh. The presentation highlighted the technical performance of community arsenic iron removal plants (AIRP) in eliminating arsenic, iron, and manganese, while sharing user feedback on the system’s usage, caretaker insights on operation and maintenance, and the potential for scaling up this technology in similar settings.
During the event, ITN-BUET, in collaboration with the CWIS-FSM Support Cell of DPHE and WaterAid Bangladesh, organised a workshop titled ‘Progress of Inclusive Sanitation in Bangladesh/South Asia’. In this workshop, Project Manager of ITN-BUET, Mr Alauddin Ahmed, discussed ITN-BUET’s role as a Capacity Building (CB) Hub. Mr Ahmed emphasised the importance of bringing sanitation to the forefront of discussions among policymakers and stressed that CB programs should be tailored to achieve specific outcomes and reach target audiences. He also highlighted the value of horizontal learning events in enhancing CB programs through the exchange of successful initiatives. Other notable panellists included Mr Golam Muktadir, Project Director at the Department of Public Health Engineering (DPHE) of the Government of Bangladesh; Prof. Thamarat Kutatape from the Asian Institute of Technology in Thailand; and Ms Deepa Karthykeyan, Co-founder and Director of Athena Infonomics.
In another collaborative effort, ITN-BUET, the CWIS-FSM Support Cell of DPHE, and WaterAid Bangladesh presented two posters at the Congress on ‘Sanitation Safety Plan’ and ‘Scaling CWIS’. Among others, the ITN-BUET team took part in two sessions focused on the ‘Reinvented Toilet Cost Reduction Challenge’, organised by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation as part of the IWA Stand Activity.
The ITN-BUET team also visited the Centre for Global Engineering (CGEN), a multidisciplinary research institute at the University of Toronto. During their visit, the team met with Dr Nitish Ranjan Sarker, a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, and the Program Manager of Strategic Outreach and Funding for Africa and South Asia. The discussions focused on exploring potential partnerships between the two centres in the areas of research and technological innovation.
The Congress & Exhibition provided the participants new networking and business opportunities, and ensured maximum exposure between participants, exhibitors and sponsors.
