Tue, 08/16/2016 - 10:15

TOPSFIELD, Ma, (Aug. 16, 2016)—The International Desalination Association (IDA) announced today that PUB, Singapore’s National Water Agency, will be the host for the 2016-17 IDA Fellowship Program. Inaugurated in 2008, the IDA Fellowship is one of the industry’s most prestigious awards, featuring both a monetary prize of up to 10,000 USD and an attachment with a high profile host agency to work on a specific project. Its purpose is to promote greater interaction and sharing of knowledge, technologies and processes in the desalination and water reuse industry, benefitting not only the Fellow and host agency, but also the industry at large. “Since its inception, the Fellowship Program has paired IDA, the world’s leading organization focused on desalination and water reuse, and the world’s leading water agencies with a shared goal of promoting education and fostering information exchange among industry professionals. The 2016-17 Fellowship is the first to offer a dedicated attachment on either water reuse or desalination, in keeping with IDA’s additional focus on reuse as part of our mission,” said Patricia A. Burke, Secretary General of the International Desalination Association. Depending on the Fellow’s expertise and his/her proposal, PUB – Singapore’s National Water Agency – will arrange for the Fellow to work on either a research-based attachment in the field of desalination and/or water reuse, or an operation/maintenance-based attachment at PUB’s NEWater Factory, a water reuse plant. The attachment with PUB will run for four to six weeks. PUB is responsible for the collection, production, distribution and reclamation of water in Singapore, which has built a robust, diversified and sustainable water supply from four water sources known as the Four National Taps—local catchment water, imported water, reclaimed water (known as NEWater) and desalinated water. This will be the second time that PUB has been the host agency for the IDA Fellowship Program. Each host agency is a high-profile public utility or research organization known for its leadership in desalination and/or water reuse. In addition to PUB, IDA has partnered with the Saline Water Conversion Corporation (SWCC) in Saudi Arabia; Water Corporation and Murdoch University in Western Australia; the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation in the USA; the Ministry of Electricity & Water in Kuwait; and the Public Authority for Electricity and Water (PAEW), located in Oman. Applications for the 2016-17 Fellowship Program are now being accepted, with a submission deadline of October 13, 2016. To be eligible for the Fellowship Award, individual applicants must be IDA members, and must possess 8-10 years of working experience in the field of desalination and/or water reuse. IDA and PUB will jointly select the Fellow to receive the award for the Fellowship Program and will jointly present the award to the Fellow. For further details about the IDA Fellowship Program and application guidelines, please visit www.idadesal.org or email education@idadesal.org. For more information about PUB, visit https://www.pub.gov.sg/.