Veolia Water Technologies by GineersNow Engineering Magazine GineersNow Engineering Magazine September 2016 | Page 56

municipal employees that we
train to operate and maintain
the systems. Their scope of
work includes water resources
management, monitoring and
evaluation, rate setting/collection,
and asset management. We have
also trained craft workers to build
and manage their water systems
and toilets. Additionally, our
school and community hygiene
programs for behavior change
are very successful. We have
trained sanitation entrepreneurs
and helped them start their
businesses selling toilet/septic
systems, pit emptying services,
decentralized fecal sludge
treatment plants, and sludge
repurposing for biofuels and
fertilizers. We also have developed
water and sanitation product
lines for microfinance lenders
and community cooperatives for
water and sanitation credit to
build water systems and toilets.
Some of these are self-funded
by the communities through
revenue collection.
THE CHALLENGES &
SOLUTIONS
56
SEPTEMBER 2016
Clean Water Technologies
GN: What are the greatest
challenges in the water industry?
Allen: To reach the UN’s
Sustainable Development Goal
#6(SDG6) we need national
leadership to prioritize water
and sanitation, governance,
regulation,
supply
cha in
development, and investment
in infrastructure and institution
building (without corruption).
GN: What do you think the
government, private companies
and NGO of each country need
to do to get rid of these?
Allen: To reach SDG 6 we need
to achieve greater collaboration
between governments (those
providing aid and those needing
aid), private industry, and NGOs.
Development of country-wide
plans with bottoms-up bankable
investment plans to meet SDG
6 is already underway (we are
helping Bolivia, Rwanda, and
Uganda) where national leaders
have prioritized water and
sanitation. All 193 signatory
countries of the SDGs need
to do this to achieve SDG 6
globally. Today between national
governments,
aid,
private
industry, and philanthropy the
world invests $10B per year. So
we need to step it up to get to
the $50B per year. In the scale
of the global economy, this is
not a large number – we just
need to make clean water and
sanitation a priority. We need to
raise awareness and educate to
get to this level of funding. And
the business case is there – we
know there is a 5:1 return!
GN: How do we provide water
accessibility to more than 7
billion people?
Allen: We need to develop
infrastructure in each country,
village by village, and city by city.
Just like we did in the US and
other nations around the world.
We have done this before, and we
know how to do it. It isn’t easy
and needs all the items above to
happen!
ADVICE TO THE YOUNG
ENGINEERS
GN: Please give advice and words
of wisdom about the clean water
campaign to our young global
audience. What would you like
to tell to the millennials? Any
inspiring words that you can
share?
Allen: Water is one of the most
rewarding fields - challenging
for its technical and societal
aspects. Development work
is infrastructure and social
engineering – the perfect
combination! Imagine you have
an orchestra of community
voices, government, business,
and technology. When they
make music together, it is
amazing!! This truly is a career
for those that want to build a
better world and improve the
quality of life, especially for
women and children. Plus, in this
field, you can help clean up the
environment by treating human
waste appropriately for reuse and
resource recovery. By doing this,
we will leave the earth in better
shape for our children and future
generations.