Experts brainstormed on Sustainable Management of Water and Sanitation at three day’s 55th Annual Convention of Indian Water Works Association (IWWA)

Pune: Experts from the water management from across the country brainstormed on various aspects of water management and sanitation including technology, development and planning at the ’55th All India Annual Convention’, a three-day long event organised by the Indian Water Works Association (IWWA). The theme of this year’s convention was ‘Sustainable Management of Water and Sanitation : Availability for All’.Minister of Water Supply and Sanitation Gulabrao Patil inaugurated the convention organised at Messe Global (Lakshmi Lawns) Pune, Hadapsar. Sanjeev Jaiswal, Principal Secretary of Department of Water Supply and Sanitation, Abhishek Krushna, Member Secretary of Maharashtra Jeevan Pradhikaran, Rajendra Rahane, Chief Engineer at Pune Jilha Parishad were present as the guest of honor.Er. Subhash Bhujbal, National President of IWWA, Organizing Chairman of Convention & Chief Engineer of Maharashtra Jeevan Pradhikaran (MJP), Dr. Dayanand Panase, Organizing Vice Chairman of Convention & Director of Shonan Engineering Works; Er. Vaishali Awate, Superintendent Engineer of Maharashtra Jeevan Pradhikaran & organizing secretary of convention; KN Pate, organizing secretary, Anant Nampurkar, Parag Kashyap, Anil Kulkarni, Rajendra Antad, Dileep Pandit, Deepak Mhaske and others were took efforts for the successful convention.Er. Anil Kumar Gupta from Lucknow and Dr Parag Sadgir, HoD, College Of Engineering Pune honored with ‘Jalnirmalta’ and ‘Jalseva’ awards respectively.

Also, Youth Women Engineer Pallavi Rai from Lucknow was honoured with the ‘Brij Nandan Sharma’ Award during the convention.Gulabrao Patil appreciated the work done by Maharashtra Jeevan Pradhikaran & also congratulated awards winners. He mentioned that, The topic of water is not limited to speeches or ceremonies. We are working to ensure that every person should get 55 liters of water. To solve the water problem of the country, Jal jeevan Mission, household toilets are needed & the government is working on it. Under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the Har Ghar Nal, Har Ghar Jal scheme is mainly being implemented across the country.Further he said, People affectionately call me Bhau (brother). But I don’t want to be a brother, I want to be a ‘Paniwala Baba’. To have the water available for drinking is a virtue and I want to get it. He remarked that there is a pair of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the Centre, Minister Gulabrao Patil in the state and Principal Secretary Sanjiv Jaiswal in the department saying ‘A bearded man at Centre, a bearded minister state and a bearded secretary too’. We would work together to provide water to the people, Patil added.Dr Rajendra Shende, former director at United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and Dr Nitin Karmalkar, former Vice Chancellor of Savitribai Phule Pune University (SPPU) delivered a speech on the effects of environmental and climate change on water. Entrepreneurship Development Workshop was also organised to motivate young entrepreneurs.

Experts engineers from the field have discussed various aspects of the Water and Sanitation sector in different sessions like ‘Water to every household (Har Ghar Jal) – challenges’, ’24×7 Water Supply Systems – Urban & Rural’, ‘Wastewater Management in Urban & Rural Areas’, ‘Faecal Sludge and Septage Management’, ‘Operation & Maintenance of Water and Wastewater Systems’, ‘Resilient Water and Wastewater Systems’, ‘Circular Economy for Water’, ‘Climate Change and Water’, ‘Water Resource Management’.Dedicated sessions on Jal Jeevan Mission and AMRUT including 24×7 programs of Govt of India were conducted. “Role of R&D and technology transfer and participation of International Organization” with support from Govt and IWWA were discussed in an international session. Eminent speakers from Europe, Japan, and the UK shared their case studies.

This 3-day convention received an overwhelming response. Convection observed participation of more than 1500 delegates & 150 youths. Poster competition and exhibition with 142 stalls were the attraction at the convention.