Cranfield University and the International Water Association have announced fifteen new scholarships to develop the water scientists and engineers of the future.

It is hoped that the scholarships will help the next generation of water scientists and engineers to develop their skills and become leaders in the worldwide fight to improve sanitation conditions and manage water sustainably.

The World Health Organisation estimates that 4.2 billion live without access to safely managed sanitation, with 297,000 children under five estimated to die each year from diarrhoea because of unsafe drinking water, sanitation, and hand hygiene.

Scientists and engineers at Cranfield are involved in a number of projects that are seeking technological solutions to the global challenge of inadequate sanitation, such as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation funded, Nano Membrane Toilet. The toilet, once fully developed, will be able to treat human waste on-site without external energy or water.

Professor Paul Jeffrey, Director of Water at Cranfield University, said:

“These scholarships across our full range of postgraduate programmes will help develop the next generation of leaders that we desperately need in the water industry both in the UK and around the world.

“If we are to realise the UN Sustainable Development Goal of ‘ensuring availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all’, then we need to increase the skills base of water scientists and engineers, who can help develop the solutions to these global challenges.

“I’m extremely grateful for the support of the International Water Association in enabling us to provide these scholarships, together we are both committed to training and nurturing future technical specialists and leaders for the global water sector.”

Professor Kalanithy Vairavamoorthy, Executive Director of the International Water Association (IWA), added:

“We are delighted to be working with Cranfield University to provide these scholarships. A heightened pace of change has been seen in the global water sector over recent years as professionals and organisations attempt to address a host of challenges, such as climate change and population growth.”

“Emerging economies have a unique but fleeting opportunity to change the way they think about water and sanitation. How is water used – and reused? Should water systems and their accompanying infrastructure and services be centralised or decentralised, linear or circular?

“We believe that the Cranfield scholarships will create a new generation of water and sanitation practitioners that will shape the new-normal."

According to IWA, although the potential to do things differently in these emerging areas exist, the window of opportunity to create a more sustainable pathway is relatively small (5-15 years) and quick action is needed to create a paradigm shift.

The Association believes that innovators and institutions can, through a pragmatic alliance with IWA, develop nimble and affordable ways to ‘leapfrog’ the legacy of clunky, costly, centralised, top-down policies and infrastructure that burden much of the world.

Click here for more information about the scholarships