Executive Summary

U.S. – India Partnership: A Global Engineering Model for Sustainable Water Development in Resource-Constrained Communities

To address the global crisis of freshwater scarcity in resource-constrained communities, there is an urgent need to build educational and research capacity in water sustainability at institutions of higher learning. The Sustainable Water Development program at the University of Iowa (UI-SWD), the Water Resource Development and Management program at the Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee (IIT-WRMD) and the S. M. Sehgal Foundation will collaborate to implement and assess an evidence-based, engineering training model that emphasizes place-based learning for sustainable water development in resource-constrained communities; and leverage long-standing educational exchanges to create complimentary, collaborative, and self-sustaining research between the three partner institutions. This project funded by the U.S. -India 21st Century Knowledge Initiative grant will mutually benefit the U.S. and Indian partners by creating new capacity to train students, generate knowledge, and improve water sustainability in India. The proposed exchange will launch the new “global engineer” training path within the UI-SWD program and the resulting student assessment data will provide compelling arguments for sustained institutional investment. The IIT-WRMD program will generate data on student outcomes that will shape future designs of courses and hands-on training experiences. The Sehgal Foundation with its broad disciplinary expertise will lead community-based, sustainable solutions to some of India’s most challenging water scarcity problems.