Biography
Jay Bhagwan and Mei Yee Chan are Chair and Vice Chair of the IWA NSS Specialist Group
Jayant (Jay) Bhagwan, is the Executive Manager of the key strategic area of Water Use and Waste Management at the South African Water Research Commission, which focuses on the management of water and wastewater in the Domestic, Mining and Industrial sector. He has been instrumental in creating the portfolio of research projects and innovations related to water supply and wastewater management. He completed his Masters Degree in Tropical Public Health Engineering from Leeds University, UK. With his knowledge and experienced gained in implementation of water and sanitation projects, he has played and participated in the shaping of national water policy and legislation.
He held the posts of the President of the Water Institute of Southern Africa, Chairperson of the Minister of Water Affairs and Forestry Water Advisory Committee, as well as international advisory positions with the Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council, IWA- Global Development Agency and UNEP. He continues to be actively involved globally in a broad range of areas in the field of water supply, wastewater and sanitation, with current focus being on sanitation technologies for the future, technology innovation and application, social franchising of O&M, conduit hydropower, benchmarking, reuse and reclamation of effluents. He has contributed to raising the sanitation profile, and has been instrumental in pioneering the FSM conference series as well the NSS concepts.
Mei Yee Chan, is the Senior Programme Manager of Water and Sanitation services at TÜV SÜD PSB Singapore. She leads the programme development of establishing lab testing and certification services and drafting international standards for innovative non-sewered sanitation technologies such as ISO 30500. Prior to this, she was the Programme Manager at the World Toilet Organization, where she spearheaded the Rainbow School Toilet Project, rural toilets for rural schools in China, executed the floating toilets for floating schools on the Tonlé Sap River in Cambodia. She has also implemented SaniShop, a market-based approach, social enterprise that improves sanitation conditions globally by empowering local entrepreneurs in Cambodia and Mozambique. She completed her Masters Degree in Community Water and Sanitation at Cranfield University, where she researched on the effective demand for a waterless toilet by deriving wealth indices and willingness to pay for sanitation ownership and services, in two areas of Antananarivo with contrasting socioeconomic and environmental factors.
Prior to this, Mei Yee earned her Earth Science degree from the University of Western Australia and worked as an exploration geologist and as a hydrogeologist with Fortescue Metals Group and the Department of Water. She has deep knowledge in pit dewatering and aquifer re-injection through her involvement with the Cloudbreak Managed Aquifer Recharge (MAR). She also possessed a sound working knowledge in regulatory compliance to groundwater license and conditions for mine sites and government requirements on impact assessments and license approvals in Western Australia. She is passionate about developing women leaderships and had recently co-founded the Women in Women in Water and Sanitation Networking (WWSN) group with the aim to engage women to become strong leaders in the sector. She also served as the Chairwoman of Women in Mining Western Australia (WIMWA) Pilbara Group in 2013.
