March 2019

And the winner is…

Posted on March 26, 2019
in Blogs, Wetskills-Oman
by JohanOost

Muscat, Oman - 25 March 2019 - Wetskills Water Challenge Day 10 By Luisa Javier (King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, Saudi Arabia) & Marsha Tack (Wageningen University)   Today is the last day of the pressure cooker Wetskills program; a day with mixed emotions. The last two weeks were very intense. We worked hard on the cases and had a lot of fun. With the adrenaline at the top, we rode into the bus and Marsha was the first to break the silence: “Music, please”.  We arrived to Sultan Qaboos University to the World Water Day, which topic was “Leaving no one behind”. We believe the theme was perfect for a closing ceremony, basically summarizing what we all achieved as a Wetskills family that was formed in these past ten days. After the official opening remarks and listening to some singing verses of the Quran, lectures on water challenges in Oman start occurring one by one....

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Introducing the European Water Stars initiative!

Posted on March 26, 2019
in News
by JohanOost

The European Water Stars initiative is under way and have published a video introducing themselves! Have a look and feel free to contact them with your suggestions at the email below!   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JOjF8V5g5SM   Why water? Water is such an integral part of everyday life that most Europeans barely think about it anymore. We drink it, use if for food production, in industry, for transport or recreation. Yet Europe faces a combination of water-related challenges: extreme weather, the impacts of climate change, pollution, and demographic shifts pressuring water infrastructure.   Who are the European Water Stars? The European Water Stars (EWS) initiative has been created in order to stress the importance of water collaboration within Europe, and to inspire youth to enter the water sector and battle the current and future challenges. EWS are well-known personalities with a strong European background and story, willing to contribute to the awareness raising of water issues among the general public and...

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Atheer vs Martijn

Posted on March 25, 2019
in Blogs, Wetskills-Oman
by JohanOost

Muscat, Oman - 24 March 2019 - Wetskills Water Challenge Day 9 By Atheer Al Kabsi (King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, Saudi Arabia) & Martijn Erkelens (Dutch Water Authorities)   Today was the day for the pitchers and the posters! The day every group has been working towards during the Wetskills program. This is the day Wetskills looks most like an competative arena in an otherwise very friendly program. Martijn: The day started at the Sultan Qaboos University. All the pitchers, me included, still had plenty of time to prepare untill the end of the day. We started with a some great awesome Omani food that our Omani Wetskills groupmates brought along with them: Shúkran! After that display of culinary excellence it was time for a pitch rehearsal with all the pitchers. Everyones pitch greatly improved compared to the previous day. I knew that I had to get serious if I even wanted so much as a...

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True Value of Water at Wetskills-Oman 2019

Posted on March 25, 2019
in Blogs, News, Wetskills-Oman
by editor

The 2nd Wetskills in Oman took place from 15 to 25 March 2019. 24 local and international young professionals and students from the water sector worked together in 5 teams on real-life water cases, formulated and supported by local and international case owners. The finals were organised aligned to the World Water Day Celebration at the Sultan Qaboos University in Muscat.   At the Awarding Ceremony, the jury congratulated all teams with the teamwork and the out-of-the-box solutions they presented. The winning team worked on Case 2, finding a solution for Groundwater resources management for future water resilience.   True Value of Water (TVW) - Team 2 worked on a PDO case to develop a straightforward and easy to implement method to assist water authorities to better characterize and allocate available groundwater resources in the Sultanate of Oman. What they developed is method based on a single, meaningful monetary unit, the True Value of...

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Wetskills in China, Romania and Bangladesh – June and July 2019 – Registration is now open

Posted on March 23, 2019
in News
by editor

The teams of Wetskills-Oman are finalizing their pitches for the final presentations. They worked for two weeks in international teams on out-of-the-box solutions for various water cases, discussing with water experts, exchanging views, joining knowledge from different backgrounds. What solutions did they find? Who will win the Oman 2019 Challenge? The Awarding Ceremony will be on March 25, during the World Water Day Celebrations in Muscat, Oman. Interested to join one of the Wetskills Challenges? Preparations have already started for Wetskills Events in China (2-14 June), Romania (3-14 June) and Bangladesh (30 June – 12 July). We are looking for local and international students and young professionals, who are passionate about water, and excited to work in international teams to find transdisciplinary water solutions. Registrations are now open! We are also inviting Water companies, knowledge institutes and organisations to join and formulate a case, and support one of the Wetskills Events as case...

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Working, working and Shisha at the End of the Night!

Posted on March 22, 2019
in Blogs, Wetskills-Oman
by JohanOost

Muscat, Oman - 21 March 2019 - Wetskills Water Challenge Day 6 By Maryam Al Balushi (Petroleum Development Oman)   Today we were introduced to Rick Hogeboom, another Wetskills member, while  Johan went back to The Netherlands. Having him with us was really beneficial as he was a tremendous help for our water footprint case study. Described by Dr. Ahmed Al Busaidi as “A Google for Water Footprint” his presence will undoubtedly benefit all of us. We spent most of our time dedicated to working on the case study and developing the paper and poster, following that up with lunch in the faculty club. After coming back from lunch, Rick was nowhere to be found, he actually got lost in the campus! Fortunately Dr. Ahmed managed to find him to everyone’s relief. By the end of the day a tour around Sultan Qaboos University (SQU) campus was decided on to ensure no one gets lost again. At...

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Sultan Qaboos University Tour

Posted on March 21, 2019
in Blogs, Wetskills-Oman
by JohanOost

Muscat, Oman - 20 March 2019 - Wetskills Water Challenge Day 5 By Rawabi Al Hajri (A'Sharqiyah University)   When you start to break the shy, and start to make relationship with others, it’s a nice step actually. In the beginning of the day all groups come with higher power to complete their work. Also I like the way of interchange information between every group. The most thing which caught my attention, every single group change their location. They go outside to the tree and nature. The groups moved from one place to another to allow people to feel refreshed and be able to think differently. This allowed them to come up with other ideas and brainstorm clearly. Suddenly we stopped worked because of lunch break, today we did something slightly different after lunch. We walked to Sultan Qaboos University botanic garden and getting some information about Omani plant, and we were interested. Then we went together...

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From holiday to an ‘enriching experience’

Posted on March 20, 2019
in Blogs, Wetskills-Oman
by JohanOost

Muscat, Oman - 19 March 2019 - Wetskills Water Challenge Day 4 By Areej Al Ghaithi (Petroleum Development Oman)   I was on holiday, in a different time zone and I woke up to a message from my boss asking me to join Wetskills Oman 2019. In the beginning I was very confused as to what he meant by Wetskills, so I decided to take a look and do more research after I come back from my holiday. Two weeks later I was at the office applying for the Wetskills program. After going through the website and reading more about Wetskills, I was more intrigued and interested in joining the program. I joined Wetskills because of multiple reasons: My company being one of the case owners was very keen for us to join as participants as well Encouragement from Dr. Ahmed Al Busaidi and his continuous enthusiasm to having us as part of the program...

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Training Pitch and Poster

Posted on March 20, 2019
in Blogs, Wetskills-Oman
by JohanOost

Muscat, Oman - 19 March 2019 - Wetskills Water Challenge Day 4 By Balqees Al Shaaibi (A'Sharqiyah University)   We start the day by Johan’s presentation about training pitch and poster. I learned what makes a good poster, what should not be on a poster and more over. We did many exercises and it was very useful for me. In addition, pitch training gives me a clear idea of how to do it in correct way. The discussion action plan changed our thinking way positively, we did many brainstorming and chose other pains and solutions. Also we writingand literature review belongs to our case work....

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Experiencing diversity

Posted on March 20, 2019
in Blogs, Wetskills-Oman
by JohanOost

Muscat, Oman - 19 March 2019 - Wetskills Water Challenge Day 4 By Marwa Abdullah Al Mahdouri (Haya Water)   The new edition of the Wetskills program organized in Muscat, and hosted by Sultan Qaboos University synchronizing with World Water Day.  As participant in this program I was so excited to meet international friends and have 10 days full of work and sightseeing in my beautiful country. The field trip to Al Hazm castle and Nakhal fort along with some water areas has given the legend of the spectacular nature, culture and heritage of Oman. The Wetskills program for 19 March 2019 was to continue with our action plan. Morning discussion with the workshop leaders was very fruitful, as they have highlighted the main important points to be considered in our case study paper. The team has modified the initial action plan accordingly as per the paper requirements and distributed the task among each other. The team was...

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Wetskills is an independent Foundation based in The Netherlands. Wetskills is part of the Human Capital Agenda of the Dutch water sector. KNW Waternetwerk, the Royal Netherlands Water Network, is the (financial) administrator for Wetskills Foundation.

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