Ministry of Jal Shakti has initiated an innovative Young Water Professional Program in collaboration with Western Sydney University and Indian Institute of Technology, Guwahati. The objective of this program is to build the capacity of Young Water Professionals (YWPs) and to provide them with the required knowledge, skills, attitude, and aptitude to offer their best in the country’s water sector. It may help them in accepting leadership roles and responsibilities.
The Young Water Professional Program focuses on gender equality and diversity. 20 young officers have been selected for the first phase of this Programme. These include 10 men and 10 women have from the National Hydrology Project’s central and state implementing agencies. First batch of this 11-month YWP program is getting successfully completed. While conducting this program, the Australia India Water Centre brought eight universities and one State Government Department from Australia and 16 IITs and key universities of India together.
On the occasion of the concluding event in New Delhi, Western Sydney University, with the Ministry of Jal Shakti and the Australian Water Partnership also launched an app, ‘My Well’. ‘My Well’ app is meant for the farmers and ordinary citizens. It is a citizen science tool for participatory monitoring and visualisation of groundwater, surface water, rainfall, water quality, check dam water levels, and other parameters. This app will be used by villagers trained to manage their groundwater resources. These citizen scientists, called Bhujal Janakaar- “BJs’’ – are part of the ’Managing Aquifer Recharge and Sustaining Groundwater Use through Village-level Intervention’ (MARVI) project. The app will help BJs and ordinary citizens to make sense of what is happening to water availability in their villages.
Debashree Mukherjee, Special Secretary, DOWR, RD & GR, Ministry of Jal Shakti addressed the event. ‘India and Australia are natural partners and this collaboration to train young water professionals is an important step in the right direction’, said Debashree Mukherjee while adding, “I am particularly inspired by the equal participation of women. These will be our female leaders in future water management.”
Meanwhile, Sarah Ransom, General Manager of the Australian Water Partnership said,“The future of water security in India is also in the hands of the future leaders in water management.”
“I am pleased that the first cohort of 20 Young Water Professionals are graduating today from a 10-month training program delivered by the Australia-India Water Centre, led by Western Sydney University and the Indian Institute of Technology, Guwahati,” she further added.
Professor Barney Glover, Vice-Chancellor and President of Western Sydney University also addressed the event. “It not only provides technical capacity building, but it also develops the critical thinking, problem-solving, leadership, and project management skills needed for management of water resources and water management reforms in India”, said. Emphasizing the need for collaboration between Australia and India, Professor Barney Glover said, Professor Barney.
Western Sydney University (WSU) has been ranked Number One in the world for SDG impact in the latest Times Higher Education (THE) University Impact Ranking. WSU is also rolling out a Joint Master’s program in Sustainable Water Futures, in collaboration with the Indian Institute of Technology, Guwahati.
Western Sydney University (WSU) began operations on 1st January 1989, under the terms of the University of Western Sydney Act, 1988 which had been passed by the New South Wales Parliament in December 1988. Located in Western Sydney, WSU is ranked amongst the top two per cent of universities in the world.
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