Tailored Professional Tribute

Wilhelmus Krul

Distinguished Departed Pioneer

Professional background

Wilhelmus F.J.M. Krul (1893-1981) is nationally renowned in The Netherlands for his central role in establishing The Netherlands as one of the world’s leading drinking water suppliers in terms of universal access, water quality and the organization of the sector at the municipal and industrial levels. 

This followed from his leadership as the Managing Director for the National Governmental Institute for Drinking Water Supply (RID) – a post he held from 1922 to 1947.  The agenda for the RID included expansion of coverage of residential water supply from cities to smaller towns, villages, and rural areas.   

At the same time, RID was responsible for aggregating the highly fragmented waste supply network in the countries into a regionally-rationalized collection of approximately 200 public drinking water supply authorities.   

In 1947, Wilhelmus Krul was invited to serve as an Extraordinary Professor at Delft University, focusing on drinking water supply.  Under his leadership and direction, in 1950 the Technical University Delft created a Faculty of Civil Public Health including drinking water supply, sewage water collection and treatment.  Professor Krul retired from TU Delft in 1963. 

Major Contributions to IWA 

Concurrent to his roles at TU Delft from 1947, Professor Krul shared with Cornelis Biemond (Managing Director at the Amsterdam Water Authority) a belief in the value and importance of pursuing best practice and research in water supply at an international level.  Accordingly, they partnered in promoting the formation of the International Water Supply Association (IWSA) in 1947, in collaboration with key drinking water authorities in Great Britain, France and Belgium. Professor Krul also contributed to the formation of KIWA in 1948, a globally recognized research organization that was an important research partner to IWSA, and later to IWA as KWR. 

Authors:  Bert Roebert (NL), Paul Reiter

Contributors: Theo Martijn, Maarten Gast (NL)