Water Supply Engineering

Structure & contents

The coursework part of the programme starts at Univalle in Cali, Colombia in August, where students follow a number of courses until the second half of December.

• August - December

  Univalle, Cali, Colombia
  • Chemistry of Environmental Pollution Required

    Course at Univalle

  • Environmental Pollution Microbiology Required

    Course at Univalle

  • Fundamentals of Environmental Processes Required

    Course at Univalle

  • Environment and Development Required

    Course at Univalle

  • Engineering Research Introduction Required

    Course at Univalle

In early January, they move to Delft where they join students in UNESCO-IHE’s Urban Water and Sanitation programme for seven modules, the international field trip and the group work.

• January - August

  UNESCO-IHE, Delft, The Netherlands
  • Surface Water Treatment I Required
    Upon completion, the participant should be able to:

    1. Describe the theoretical principles of the unit processes involved in conventional surface water treatment
    2. Link theoretical principles with practical aspects
    3. Determine design parameters from experimental studies
  • Surface Water Treatment II Required
    Upon completion, the participant should be able to:

    1. Understand the principles of disinfection, ion exchange, softening, adsorption and activated carbon filtration processes
    2. Link theoretical principles with practical aspects
    3. Select appropriate processes depending on the nature of impurities to be removed and the intended use of the treated water
  • Groundwater Resources and Treatment Required
    Upon completion, the participant should be able to:

    1. Assess if given (ground)water is aggressive against materials used in water a supply system and propose appropriate neutralisation technique.
    2. Assess overall quality of a given groundwater.
    3. Establish appropriate treatment approach for groundwater containing commonly occurring impurities and pollutants including iron, manganese, ammonia, fluoride, and hydrogen sulphate.
    4. Understand advanced groundwater treatment approaches applied in The Netherlands including direct nano filtration and ion-exchange.
  • Water Transport and Distribution Required
    Upon completion, the participant should be able to:

    1. distinguish between different network configurations and supplying schemes; recognise various consumption categories and their growth patterns, including water leakage; define the relation between the main hydraulic parameters, namely the demands, pressures, velocities and hydraulic gradients;
    2. demonstrate understanding of the steady-state hydraulics by being able to select appropriate pipe diameters, indicate optimum location of reservoirs and identify pumps capable to supply the demand;
    3. apply the above theoretical knowledge by learning to perform computer-aided hydraulic calculations and predict the consequences of demand growth on the hydraulic performance of particular WTD system;
    4. analyse the implications of various operational modes of pumping stations and compare the investment and operational costs for various network layouts and supplying schemes;
    5. propose preliminary hydraulic design that will integrate economic aspects, choose adequate components, and judge technical solutions dealing with the network maintenance, rehabilitation, and expansion.
  • International Fieldtrip and Fieldwork UWS Required
    Upon completion, the participant should be able to:

    1. International Field Trip: To expose the participants, during a two week fieldtrip to a European country, to different international practises in the design, operation and management of water supply, wastewater, solid waste and urban civil infrastructure networks.
    2. Field Work: The fieldwork, carried out typically within the Netherlands but on location, is a one week work to make the students familiar with performing research on location, how to process real data, and to apply the newly acquired knowledge to a practical situation.
  • Elective module I UWS Required

    Industrial effluents treatment and residuals management - (UWS/SE/UWEM/10)
    - or - Water treatment processes and plants - (UWS/WSE/10)
    - or - Urban water systems - (WSE/HI/10B/e)
    - or - module from another Programme

  • Advanced Water Transport and Distribution Elective
    Upon completion, the participant should be able to:

    1. distinguish between various sources of water quality problems in distribution networks;understand the basic corrosion mechanisms and suggest the list of preventive and reactive measures;
    2. understand the theory of advanced hydraulic and water quality modelling; apply state-of-the-art network software for assessment of irregular operational scenarios and develop a reliability-based and cost effective design using computer model.
    3. recognise the GIS and remote sensing technologies, and familiarise with the GIS-based techniques for sustainable planning and management of WTD systems;
    4. understand the theory of transient flows, and plan the measures to prevent/control water hammer;
    5. select modern tools for monitoring of operation, and planning of maintenance of WTD systems.
  • Elective module II UWS Elective

    Advanced water transport and distribution - (UWS/WSE/11a)
    - or - Decentralised water supply and sanitation - (UWS/WSE/11b)
    - or - Faecal sludge management - (UWS/SE/11)
    - or - module from another Programme

  • Groupwork Sint Maarten Required
    Upon completion, the participant should be able to:

    1. apply and integrate his or her knowledge obtained during the Specialisation to solve water and sanitation related issues.
    2. compare the complex water and sanitation issues applied to a real case scenario with the examples from the classes
    3. defend his or her input in a team of specialists as well as in an interdisciplinary team.
    4. assess his/her own strengths and weaknesses with respect to working in a group.
    5. efend the groups' findings to a team of experts in the field.

Students then normally move back to Cali for their individual thesis research work.

• September - April

  Univalle, Cali, Colombia
  • Individual thesis research work Required

    MSc thesis research and thesis writing. 

Tuition & fellowships

If you wish to receive more information about the fees and living costs of a specific Joint Programme, please send an e-mail to the fellowship officer, Ms. Ineke Melis: i.melis@unesco-ihe.org

The following fellowships are recommended for prospective students who wish to study Water Supply Engineering

• Joint Japan Worldbank Graduate Scholarship Programme (JJ/WBGSP)

  Participants from World Bank member countries can apply for a fellowship from the Joint Japan/World Bank Graduate Scholarship Programme (JJ/WBGSP). Please note that the deadline for JJ/WBGSP scholarship applications for the academic year 2016-17 has passed.

  more info: www.worldbank.org

• Netherlands Fellowship Programme (NFP)

  The Netherlands Fellowship Programmes (NFP) promote capacity building within organisations in 51 countries by providing training and education through fellowships for professionals.

  The overall aim of the NFP is to help increase both the number and the competencies of skilled staff at a wide range of governmental and non-governmental organisations. You have to be nominated by your employer to be eligible for the fellowship. There also has to be a clear need for training within the context of your organisation. 

  Fellowship application procedure per modality: 

  • For more info about how to apply for a NFP fellowship for a MSc Specialization at UNESCO-IHE click here -  Please note however that the UNESCO-IHE NFP application deadline for MSc programmes starting in 2016 passed.
  • For more info about how to apply for a NFP fellowship for a Short Course at UNESCO-IHE visit the Short Course webpage.

  more info: www.studyinholland.nl

  Tip

  Use the Nuffic Grantfinder to find a suitable fellowship
   

Application & Admission

Admission requirements

Academic admission to the Master programmes may be granted to applicants who provide evidence of having:

• a university level Bachelor’s degree in an appropriate field for the specialization, which has been awarded by a university of recognised standing.
• a good command of the English language, if this is not the first language. All non-native English-speaking applicants must satisfy the English language requirements for all UNESCO-IHE's educational programmes.
• a good command of the Spanish language, if this is not the first language. All non-native Spanish-speaking applicants must show proof of sufficient knowledge of the Spanish language.

Working experience in an environment related to the specialization is an asset. At least three years experience is in general preferred.

Application procedure

Interested persons apply for admission with UNESCO-IHE. UNESCO-IHE will coordinate with Univalle on admissions, and selected participants will receive an admission letter from UNESCO-IHE. 

UNESCO-IHE will check the application first, and inform Univalle if the applicant can be accepted. Univalle will then consider the application for admission, and if both institutions agree on admittance, UNESCO-IHE's provisional admission letter will be sent to the applicant. If applicants do not yet possess the language requirements, they can apply for admission anyway. If they meet the other admission requirements, they will be sent a conditional admission letter, and an unconditional admission letter will be sent after receiving the required language test scores.

For admission to the programme please complete the online application form. The link is available at the top of this page. Collect the required documents and attach them to the online application form:

• Certified copies of degrees/diplomas.
• Certified copies of academic transcripts. Authenticated or certified copies are copies with an official stamp to verify that the copies are true copies of original documents. This official stamp may be from one of the following: a solicitor/notary, the educational institution from where the student gained the diplomas or the local council/local authority/local government office.
• Two reference letters, preferably one from a person that can judge students' professional abilities and one from a person that can judge his/her academic abilities. One recommendation letter has to come from the current employer (if available) and another one from the university the student graduated from. Letters have to be printed on company (logo) paper and signed.
• Motivation letter (maximum 500 words explanation why he/she applies for admission to the choosen programme).
• Copy of passport.
• Copy of results of English language test score (if required, see English language requirements).

Please note all documents are required to be in English, or officially translated into English.

Once academically accepted this admission remains valid for three consecutive years. In principle one can not apply for more than one programme per academic year. However, if a student applies for an Erasmus Mundus programme, he/she can also apply for another programme as long as it is not also an Erasmus Mundus programme. Academic admission to the programmes will be granted on the basis of a decision taken to that effect by the Academic Registrar, upon advice of the programme coordinator.

More information

Further questions about the application procedure can be addressed to:

Ms. Ineke Melis
Admission and Fellowship Officer
E: i.melis@unesco-ihe.org