Climate Change Impacts on Water Systems

Dr. Saad Jasim, Professional Engineer registered in Ontario

President, SJ Environmental Consultants (Windsor) Inc.

Dr. Jasim received his PhD and M.Sc., from University of Wales, Swansea, United Kingdom. He currently serves as President of the International Ozone Association, the first Canadian to lead the organization (2020–2022), and President at SJ Environmental Consultants (Windsor) Inc. He has solved many challenges in drinking water quality, the latest was solving the arsenic and manganese problem in drinking water in White Rock, BC.

While serving as the Acting Research Director and Principal Investigator at the Qatar Environment & Energy Research Institute, Hamad Bin Khalifah University, Qatar Foundation, he developed the project for the Reuse of Treated Sewage Effluent (TSE).

Dr. Jasim was the Director at Great Lakes Regional Office-International Joint Commission (IJC) for Canada and USA and is the founding CEO for the Walkerton Clean Water Centre following the outbreak tragedy.

He introduced ozone as primary disinfectant to the City of Windsor in 2001, which was followed by many other cities in Ontario. He designed and successfully implemented ozone application for water reuse for green house operation in Canada in 2004. He is a member of the Editorial Board of Ozone Science & Engineering Journal, and the Editorial Board for Water Process Engineering.

He has received many awards for his work and was the Past President of the Ontario Water Works Association, President the International Ozone Association-Pan American Group (IOA-PAG), Member of the Board of Directors of the International Ozone Association.

Since 1996, Dr. Jasim has served as Adjunct Professor at the University of Windsor, Canada.

Background

Harmful algal blooms (HABs) are becoming a continuous challenge to the ecosystem and human health due to climate change, discharged nutrients from agriculture activities, improperly treated or untreated sewage effluents, and others. Higher temperatures and unpredictable weather conditions are expected to have significant impacts on water quantity and quality. Water system engineers, governing authorities, and researchers are challenged with problems associated with harmful algal blooms (HABs) for the past few decades. The public started to be concerned about the absence of proper solutions to these problems that could have serious impacts on human health. HABs could harm the ecosystem by producing toxins that accumulate in certain species like fish. Cyanotoxins caused by cyanobacteria blooms have been associated with the death of wildlife and domestic animals has posed risk to human health through the exposure to contaminated fresh water, ingestion of contaminated drinking water, or by the consumption of contaminated fish.

Learning Objectives

• To enhance participant’s knowledge on the impact of climate change on water resources and potential impact on human health
• To understand the impact of climate change on water supplies, and how the world mitigates and adapts to these effects
• To enhance participant’s understanding on climate change impacts on the ecosystem, especially on water sources and the water systems infrastructure

Who should attend

Professionals working in the water treatment industry (engineers, biologists consultants, operators, technologists, etc.) who could face these challenges in their water resources which may have a serious impacts on water treatment processes and drinking water quality.