Click here to enlarge imageDr. Adalberto Noyola Robles is back to the classroom as an environmental engineering professor and director of UNAM’s Instituto de Ingeniería in Mexico City.
Dr. Noyola spent much of the past two years traveling on behalf of the Asociación Interamericana de Ingeniería Sanitaria y Ambiental (AIDIS) or, in English, the Inter-American Association of Sanitary & Environmental Engineering — which has some 30,000 members in 24 chapters throughout the Americas. In October, at the XXXI Congreso Interamericano de AIDIS in Santiago, Chile, he handed off AIDIS’ top job to Carlos Alberto Rosito, of Brazil’s Saint-Gobain Canalização Ltda. But he also offered a commentary on what the organization accomplished over the prior two years.
A native of San Luis Potosí, Mexico, Dr. Noyola studied engineering at the Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana-Azcapotzalco and Institut National de Sciences Appliquées in Toulouse, France, before beginning his career at the UAM-Iztapalapa. He’s a member of the Federación Mexicana de Ingeniería Sanitaria y Ciencias Ambientales (FEMISCA), Sociedad Mexicana de Biotecnología y Bioingeniería (SMBB), Colegio de Ingenieros Ambientales de México (CINAM), and the International Water Association (IWA). And he’s a former vice president and president of SMBB and FEMISCA.
Below is a sample of WWi’s interview with Dr. Noyola:
WWi:Give us, if you could, an overview on what we’ve seen accomplished here in Santiago at the Congreso Interamericano de AIDIS.
Noyola: In this Congress, we have three highlights besides the normal technical program. One was this forum — the first Foro Interamericano sobre Servicios de Agua y Saneamiento, or Interamerican Forum on Water and Sanitation Services. It was a good opportunity to discuss in Latin America the experience with water utilities and the type of management structures and how they can be improved. The other two were the Water Operator Partnership (WOPs), with PAHO, the CDC, and EPA, and the Water Safety Plans (WSPs), which we had a workshop last night covering. AIDIS has joined this initiative with the International Water Association.
WWi: Tell me about the Water Safety Plans?
Noyola: Well, it includes the International Water Association where Coca-Cola is financing part of it with a low-profile position. It is supporting this by helping translate the manual to Spanish and also providing funds in order that IWA has a manager for this program — a Spanish speaking manager — based in Peru and coordinated through PAHO’s Centro Panamericano de Ingeniería Sanitaria y Ciencias del Ambiente (CEPIS) offices in Lima to push these plans in the whole region. These are vulnerability assessment and prevention plans. I think through our network of national chapters we can help a lot of these partners in order to accomplish the goals. We have only nine experiences in the region to draw upon, so we have to multiply this many times over the next years.