Climate Change Impacts on Water Systems

Dr. Saad Jasim, Professional Engineer registered in Ontario

President, SJ Environmental Consultants (Windsor) Inc.

Dr. Jasim received his B.Sc. in chemical engineering from Baghdad University, and his M.Sc. and PhD in chemical engineering from the University of Wales Swansea in the UK. He is a registered professional engineer in Ontario and in British Columbia.

Dr. Jasim served as Manager, Utilities for the City of White Rock. He started the work to investigate and research the technologies for the new water treatment plants and initiated the discussion with the Res’eau-WaterNet, University of British Columbia, which led to signing the agreement to conduct the studies required for the design of the new water treatment plant for the removal of Arsenic and Manganese.

He is the first Canadian elected as President of the International Ozone Association.

President, SJ Environmental Consultants (Windsor) Inc., providing consulting services to municipal, private water systems, and government agencies to challenges related to water quality and water treatment. His last project was the upgrade of the Ozone System at the Windsor Utilities Commission, Windsor, ON.

The seminar will address the impact on fresh water sources such as harmful algal blooms (HABs), cyanotoxins produced from HABs, and how to address these challenges to maintain the supply of safe drinking water to the public.

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.