University of Utah May 2016 Mission concluded at USPCASW MUET

Water Experts team from University of Utah led five-day boot camp, was concluded today, to enhance learning and research capacity development of the faculty and students of U.S.-Pakistan Center for Advanced Studies in Water (USPCAS-W) at Mehran University of Engineering & Technology (MUET), Jamshoro. American professors including Prof. Patrick Shea, Prof. Dr. Tariq Banuri, Dr. Jim VanDerslice, Dr. Mohammad Aslam Chaudhry, Dr. Sajjad Ahmed, Monitoring & Evaluation Specialist Mercedes Marie Ward had brainstorming meetings, graduate seminars and workshops at USPCAS-W. The Utah mission has formed parallel research group includes water governance and sustainable development, clean water infrastructure and technologies, water informatics and decision support, sustainable agriculture water management. The water experts delivered lectures on Water Data Issues and Challenges in Pakistan, Tracking Water SDG’s through Pakistan Data Portal (PDP), Pakistan Water Gateway and other topics. In the curriculum reforms perspective, the mission discussed different subjects of all programs offered by USPCAS-W and specially the newly introduced two year Master of Science (MS) program on Water, Sanitation and Health (WaSH) Sciences and Engineering.

The mission also conducted workshop on MUET Clean Water Project and also had meeting on Water Sustainable Development Goals (SGG) in Pakistan: Challenges and Opportunities. The mission also discussed two flagship projects i.e. Pakistan Water Development Report (PWDR) and Water Management in the Indus Basin. In this connection, the Technical Advisory Group (TAG) was setup at USPCAS-W to steer the process of the projects. On this occasion, Prof. Dr. Tariq Banuri, Associate Director USPCAS-W University of Utah, USA,  who led the mission said that Pakistan facing various development challenges as for as water is concerned, the country is facing sever conditions either of the scarcity most of the time or floods in some time. He said that due to water quality, access to safe drinking is one of the major challenges in the country. Dr. Banuri further said that poor water infra-structure, effective water policy, lack of technical experts and unavailability of updated water data are challenges of the time which Pakistan is facing.

On this occasion, Project Director USPCAS-W Prof. Dr. Bakhshal Khan Lashari briefed the Utah mission regarding the performance, achievements, and goals of USPCAS-W and also highlighted the role of USPCAS-W in future research opportunities in collaboration with other stakeholders. Faculty, management and staff of the USPCAS-W actively participated in this five-day boot camp held at Office of Innovation and Commercialization (ORIC) building of MUET Jamshoro.

Before the arrival of the mission one of the key member of the mission Prof. Patrick Shea delivered lecture on “Integrated Land & Water Management” at Senate Hall, Vice Chancellor Secretariat, where Vice Chancellor MUET Dr. Mohammad Aslam Uqaili and other distinguished professor of the different deaprtments of MUET participated. Prof. Patrick also visited some water treatment and filtration plants in Hyderabad and Jamshoro town accompanied by Dr. Rafiq Ahmed Chandio, Director Administration USPCAS-W.