In the week of 25-29 July 2016, a 5 days’ training workshop on Water, Climate and Resilient Cities for young professionals was facilitated by the International Water Association (IWA) in Malaysia’s capital Kuala Lumpur. During the workshop, sixteen young professionals from Bangladesh’s Center for Environmental and Geographic Information Services (CEGIS) were stimulated to understand a diverse range of disciplines and topics focusing on water resources management, urban issues and climate change adaptation including legal and institutional arrangements from the local watershed to the basin scale and beyond.

The participants were trained by a team of experts from across the region. They were given opportunity to explore new perspectives on climate, water and resilient cities. Lectures accompanied by video materials, group work, field visit and hands-on exercises stimulated them to understand the broad areas of water management, use of technology, prototyping and technical writing.

The workshop took place at the Malaysia-Japan International Institute of Technology (MJIIT) of Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) in Kuala Lumpur. Professor Dr Durrishah Idrus, Campus Director of the Universiti Teknologi Malaysia distributed certificates among the participants at the closing ceremony as the chief guest.

‘IWA is a right platform for young professionals who want to build their capacity through enhancing the understanding of essential steps towards sustainable water management’, said Ganesh Pangare , the Regional Director of IWA Asia – Pacific program who facilitated few important sessions at the workshop. He thanked CEGIS and Malaysia-Japan International Institute of Technology (MJIIT) for providing necessary supports in organizing the workshop. IWA would like to organize more workshops of similar kind in the region, he added.

During the workshop, the participants were engaged in interactive learning and introduced to new concepts to encourage them in finding effective solutions to meet challenges in the field of water management. “We had some interactive sessions where we were engaged in role-play on sensitive topics including gender and international water laws with a focus on the role of negotiation in strategy development’, said Muhammad Monowar-ul-Haq, one of the participants of the workshop. Interaction with the officials of the Indah Water Konsortium (IWK) during the field visit was a learning experience for the participants, he added.

“If we want to ensure a better future, we have to certainly build the capacity of young professionals. I believe the knowledge and experience gained from this workshop will tremendously help the participating young professionals in their future endeavor’, said Engr Md Waji Ullah, Executive Director of CEGIS and Member of the Joint River Commission of Bangladesh.

Among others, Ms Shamim Ara Khatoon, Joint Secretary, Government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh; Mr Malik Fida Abdullah Khan, Deputy Executive Director(Operation), CEGIS; Dr Norhayati Abdullah, Senior Lecturer, Department of Environmental Engineering & Green Technology, MJIIT,UTM; Engr Bushra Nishat, Programme Manager, South Asia, IWA were present and facilitated sessions at the workshop.