“Embrace water saving technologies to easy water scarcity in the country” Kenyans urged. These are sentiments made by prof. Bancy Mati, Director Water Research and Resource Center WARREC during the 24th IEK Engineers International Conference held in Nairobi on 10th –12th May 2017. The event with the theme “Engineering Innovation & Strategic Solutions” provided a podium for engineers and other stakeholders to share their experiences in the industry and offer a networking platform. The Thematic areas included : Renewable Energy, ethics and Governance, General, transmission and distribution of Electric power, project planning and financing, engineering education, disaster preparedness, food processing and value addition to agricultural products, electronic waste management, quality control and standards, transportation, housing, building materials, dispute resolution, mining, telecommunications, ICT, Informal sector, manufacturing, environment and climate change, sanitation, water resources and management, farm mechanization and machinery and irrigation and machinery.
The conference provides a platform for engineers, academicians, industrialists and associated professionals from Eastern Africa and other regions to share experiences, challenges and new knowledge on engineering. The event features a comprehensive technical programme with distinguished keynote speakers. The past conferences have included guests from Nigeria, China, Uganda, Namibia, Tanzania and South Africa.
Speaking during the conference, Prof. Mati stated that we all contribute to wasting water… and pointed out the following in Kenya, water wastages (and losses) occurs all the time among:
• Urban and rural areas
• Rich and poor households,
• Metered and unmetered water supplies
• Water-deficit and water excess homes
• Domestic, commercial and agricultural users
• Knowingly and unknowingly
• The educated and the uneducated
• Adults and children, male & female,
• Employers and employees (engineers and non-engineers)