Environmental engineering education (E3) in the Gulf Co-operation Countries

European Journal of Engineering Education Vol. 32, No. 1, March 2007, 93 103 Environmental engineering education (E3) in the Gulf Co-operation Countries MAJEED JASSIM* and GULNUR COSKUNER Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Bahrain, P.O. Box 32038, Manama, Bahrain Department of Environmental Engineering, Cumhuriyet University, 58140, Sivas, Turkey (Received 1 February 2006; in final form 7 July 2006) The six members of the Gulf Co-operation Countries (GCC) Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates are facing enormous environmental challenges associated with rapid urbanisation and industrialisation, especially in the last three decades, due to its role as a global hydrocarbon energy centre. None of these countries have systematic and specialised academic programmes with the sole purpose of Environmental Engineering Education (E3). The current status of E3 in the universities across the region is surveyed and thus the individual and collective higher education policies towards environmental affairs are highlighted. The E3 policies of the regional universities are then compared to the benchmark status of the European and the US universities. The ABET criteria are used to evaluate non-e3 programs. The survey shows that the environmental engineering subjects were mostly taught under the umbrella of civil or chemical engineering departments in the GCC countries. An educational scheme for E3 in the GCC higher education institutes is proposed that is based on the evolution of E3 approach in the Western universities. Keywords: Curriculum development; Environmental engineering education; Higher education 1. Introduction The welfare of future generations depends on proper management of environment and implementation of strategic frameworks for sustainable development. Cawsey (1996) stressed about providing high-quality education for environmental engineers to become proactive towards pollution challenges. The American Academy of Environmental Engineers (AAEE 1998) defines environmental engineering as the application of engineering principles to the management of the environment for the protection of human health, for the protection of nature s beneficial ecosystems, and for environment related enhancement of the quality of human life. Therefore, the themes covered by the discipline are water and wastewater engineering, solid waste management, air pollution control, environmental quality and modelling, sustainable development, and environmental management. *Corresponding author. Email: drmajeed@gmail.com European Journal of Engineering Education ISSN 0304-3797 print/issn 1469-5898 online 2007 SEFI http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals DOI: 10.1080/03043790601055683

94 M. Jassim and G. Coskuner The level of pollution in air, water and land in the member countries of the GCC has increased exponentially since the discovery of vast petroleum reserves in the 1930s. The rapid urbanisation, energy-related industrialisation, and arm conflicts are major culprits. To address these concerns, it is essential that proper training and education in the field of environmental engineering and sustainable development is integrated into the Higher Education (HE) to build up local expertise that could properly assess the risks to the environment. An international survey by Azapagic et al. (2005) showed there is still a need for further improvements in sustainable development in undergraduate engineering curriculum. There are three methodologies for integrating E3 discipline into academia: chemical/civil/mining/etc. engineering degrees with specialisation in environmental engineering (Munter 1996, Mahamud-Lopez and Menendez-Aguado 2005), undergraduate programme in environmental engineering (Fettig et al. 2000), and postgraduate studies. Ujang et al. (2004) suggest that the BSc level of E3 in university education is an indicative of slowly industrialising countries while MSc and PhD programs in E3 show fast-industrialising and industrialised countries. 2. Environmental problems in GCC The land under the Gulf countries contains almost two-thirds of the world s proven oil and natural gas reserves. Latest surveys show that 5 of the top 10 highest recoverable oil reserve countries are located in this region: Saudi Arabia (261.9 billion barrels), Iran (125.8), Iraq (115.0) Kuwait (101.5), and UAE (97.8). Qatar and Oman are also oil-producing countries with 15.2 billion barrels and 5.5 billion barrels, respectively. The Iraqi invasion of Kuwait in 1990 led to an environmental disaster as more than 1 billion barrels of oil were set a flame or spilled leading to deteriorated air and water qualities. The use of low-level depleted uranium in the war might have released toxic and radioactive dust. The Gulf countries are continuously increasing their export capacities in order to meet the rising international market demands. Higher production volumes necessitate more shipping traffic and the construction of new cross-international-boundaries pipelines. This traffic congestion might lead to higher spillage odds and hence puts the environment at greater risk as the Gulf is a semi-closed sea that is 990 km long, 370 km maximum width, and 36 m average depth. The release of polluted ballast water from huge oil tankers is a serious concern to marine life, especially that the circulation rate is slow and it takes approximately two years for cyclic outflow of dense water from the Gulf (Kampf and Sadrinasab 2005). Offshore exploration and drilling activities negatively affect the integrity of the coastal shelf and the marine life. The energy-intensive industries such as aluminium production, petrochemicals, and electricity power stations are also major contributors to air pollution. Besides the oil and energy sectors, the GCC are subjected to severe water shortage due to low rainfall rate and shortage of natural drinking water reservoirs. Al-Zubari (2003) showed that the water aquifers in Bahrain were managed poorly leading to continuous deterioration during the past few decades which resulted in increase in its salinity levels. Rapid local population growth and large foreign population influx due to accelerated socio-economic development resulted in substantial increase in water demands. The groundwater resources are being over-exploited to meet water demands, causing irreversible deterioration in its quantity and quality. Desalination is used extensively to meet the domestic water supply requirement. However, the process of desalination requires expensive capital investment. In terms of wastewater recycling, the available treated wastewaters are not

Environmental engineering education 95 reused to benefit from their potential as the planning for full utilisation of effluent treatment is in its early stages. The construction of dams, development of groundwater resources, installation of new desalination plants, expansion in wastewater treatment and reuse should be the potential methodologies to satisfy the rising water demands. The recent trends of real estate construction projects of artificial islands have negative implications on marine life, coral reef and mangroves. There are sets of environmental laws that protect the society against various pollution sources for every individual GCC country (Al-Awadi 1996). These laws were introduced in the 1970s and were then continuously updated to meet new international regulations. Furthermore, the GCC political council has established annual prizes for environmental activities that promote awareness, research and education. Local industrial companies that excel in environmental management are praised and awarded. 3. E3 in Western universities Alha et al. (2000) reviewed the status of E3 in Europe. They found that E3 was mostly offered as part of the traditional undergraduate civil engineering programme. However, an increasing number of educational institutions were recently offering full environmental engineering degrees or specialised postgraduate degrees. Similar trend of departmental evolution materialised in North American universities (Bishop 2000). The criteria of the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET; www.abet.org) ensures that graduates of accredited engineering programmes are adequately qualified to enter professional work life. Environmental Engineering is now accredited by ABET and it is a well-recognised degree programme in the USA. ABET goals are to guarantee quality graduates from the engineering programmes, to adequately provide graduates with skills, and to motivate improvements in the engineering education. It is urged that every programme should have definite programme objectives and resulting programme outcomes. The 2006 2007 environmental engineering programme criteria are summarised in table 1. 4. Status of E3 in GCC universities: the survey The GCC countries have limited number of public universities: 8 in Saudi Arabia, 8 in UAE, 2 in Bahrain and 1 in Kuwait, Qatar and Oman. Table 2 lists the GCC universities according to the existence of engineering colleges and availability of environmental subjects. American Table 1. ABET environmental engineering program criteria for 2006 2007. 1. Proficiency in mathematics, physics, chemistry, an earth science, a biological science, and fluid mechanics 2. Introductory-level knowledge of environmental issues and associated environmental health impacts 3. An ability to conduct laboratory experiments and to critically analyse and interpret data in more than one major environmental engineering focus areas, e.g. air, water, land, environmental health 4. An ability to perform engineering design by means of design experiences integrated throughout the professional component of the curriculum 5. Proficiency in advanced principles and practice relevant to the programme objectives 6. Understanding of concepts of professional practice and the roles and responsibilities of public institutions and private organisations pertaining to environmental engineering

96 M. Jassim and G. Coskuner Table 2. Classification of GCC universities based on existence of engineering college and environmental subjects in curriculum. Universities with an Engineering College With Without- Universities Number of environmental environmental without an Country universities subjects subjects Engineering College Bahrain 2 Bahrain AGU Saudi Arabia 8 KFUPM, King Saud, King Abdul Umm-Alqurra Aziz, King Khalid Imam Mohamed Bin Saud Islamic University, Islamic University of Medinah, King Faisal Kuwait 1 Kuwait Oman 1 Sultan Qaboos Qatar 1 Qatar UAE 8 AUD, UAE, Sharjah, AUS Ajman, PI Zayed, Dubai Polytechnic Notes: AGU: Arabian Gulf University, AUD: American University in Dubai, AUS: American University of Sharjah, PI: Abu Dhabi Petroleum Institute, KFUPM: King Fahad University of Petroleum and Minerals, UAE: United Arab Emirates. University in Dubai (AUD) and the American University in Sharjah (AUS) in UAE were the only private universities listed in the public universities section. The number of students and the financial investment in higher education in these two universities are much greater than the smaller private universities that were excluded. Besides, the smaller private universities mainly focus on IT (Information Technology) and business management with fewer numbers of students than the public universities. Saudi Arabia has three universities focused on Islamic studies with no engineering colleges. Arabian Gulf University (AGU) in Bahrain is a regional university specialising in medical science with a postgraduate programme in technology, environment and education. Zayed University in UAE was established in 1998 for providing quality education to national women. Unfortunately, engineering was not yet considered as a suitable profession for women in this particular university. A survey was conducted to assess the current status of environmental engineering discipline in the GCC universities. A questionnaire was sent to the academic staff that either possesses environmental engineering expertise and/or responsible for teaching environmental subjects in the universities listed in table 3. The questionnaire seeks answers to the following issues: Environmental subjects in engineering curriculum. Drivers for initiating environmental courses. Constraints against initiating environmental courses. Possibility of a separate environmental engineering department? Status of accreditation. Specialty postgraduate programmes in environmental engineering. Most of the GCC universities integrate E3 into the undergraduate programmes through a chemical or civil engineering curriculum. The list of environmental-related subjects and its main contents is shown in table 3. The curriculum of chemical engineering covers non-sanitary components of E3 and the civil engineering syllabus covers subjects related with water supply, sewage distribution systems and domestic wastewater treatment technologies. The civil engineering department of UAE university, Qatar university and King Abdul Aziz university provide an elective specialisation option in environment and water resources. The undergraduate student is required to select three elective environmental courses (beside two core courses) from a list of offered courses.

Table 3. Undergraduate environmental engineering subjects in the GCC universities. Country University Department Subjects (core/elective) Major contents AA SN Qatar Qatar Chemical Water Treatment (E) Pollution Control (E) Waste minimization and waste recycle (E) Civil Water treatment Design (E) Wastewater treatment Design (E) Solid waste management (E) EE (C) All aspects of water and wastewater treatments All aspects of air, water, wastewater, marine, solid waste control All aspects of methodologies to reduce waste Pretreatment, filtration, sludge handling, pumps, flow measurement and waste sludge management All aspects of principles and regulatory issues of solid waste management All aspects of water, air, land pollution, sustainable technologies, risk assessment, climate change Kuwait Kuwait Chemical -Wastewater Treatment (E) Characterisation of industrial waste, treatment processes, economics and legal issues Civil 8 (final year) Air pollution (E) Sources, dispersion, measurement, removal 460 WWT (C) Environmental Pollution Control (E) Groundwater Contamination (E) CAWREE (E) All types of pollution and assessment of environmental impact Sources, modelling, remedying contamination Analysis, design, and modelling treatment facilities using computers UAE AUD Civil EE (C) All aspects of water, air, land pollution, sustainable technologies, risk assessment, climate change. UAE Civil and Environmental Introduction to EE (C) WWT (C) Advanced EE (E) SHWE (E) Geo EE (E) Groundwater Analysis (E) Air, water, solid waste management, env. microbiology, env. chemistry EIA policies, framework and methodologies, air pollution: modelling and control All aspects of solid and hazardous waste management. All aspects of soil, land pollution and laws In progress 150 (Continued) Environmental engineering education 97

Table 3. Continued. Country University Department Subjects (core/elective) Major contents AA SN All aspects of groundwater hydraulics and pollution All aspects of water, wastewater, air, noise, solid waste management All aspects of WWT All aspects of water, WWT, air quality and pollution, and solid waste management Reactor, separation, disinfection, acid/base chemistry, precipitation & corrosion Sources and types of pollution, impact of industrial activities, pollution control technologies Design of water supply networks, sanitation All aspects of water, wastewater, air, noise, solid waste management, recycling Petroleum, Industrial Industry and Environment (C) Similar content to course in civil department All aspects of water, wastewater, air, noise, solid waste management, recycling All aspects of groundwater hydraulics and pollution Sharjah Civil EE (C) WWT (E) AUS Civil EE (C) PCPEE (E) Saudi Arabia King Saud Civil Industry and Environment (C) WSDS (E) WWT (E) EE (C) King Abdul Aziz Civil EE (C) Groundwater Engineering (E) WWT (E) Solid Waste Technology (E) Coastal and Inland Water Pollution (E) Wastewater reclamation and reuse (E) All aspects of solid waste technology All aspects of coastal and water pollution All aspects of reuse of wastewater 350 No 98 M. Jassim and G. Coskuner Chemical Industrial Wastewater Control (E) Industrial Pollution Control (E) All aspects of industrial wastewater control All types of pollution and assessment of environmental impact King Khalid Industrial Industry and Environment (E) Sources and types of pollution, impact of industrial activities, pollution control technologies KFUPM Civil EE (E) WWT (E) All aspects of water, wastewater, air, noise, solid waste management, recycling No

Bahrain Bahrain Civil EE (C) WWT (E) Design of Water Supply and Waste Water Collection Systems (E) Ground water and irrigation (E) Chemical Energy and Environment (E) Industrial Pollution (E) Industrial Water Treatment (E) Oman Sultan Qaboos Chemical & Petroleum Health, safety and environment (E) EE (E) Civil EE1 (C) EE2 (C) Water and wastewater management (E) Solid waste management (E) Microbiology for engineers (E) Chemistry for environmental engineers (E) Environmental pollution (E) Environmental management system (E) All aspects of water, wastewater, air, solid waste management, and energy recovery All aspects of ground water flow, water transmission and distribution, design of sanitary sewers All aspects of groundwater, irrigation and aquifers. Sea water intrusion in aquifers All environmental effects of energy sources on society and pollution modelling All aspects of air, water, wastewater, marine, solid waste and thermal pollution on industries All aspects of water/wastewater chemistry and separation methodologies Industrial hygiene, monitoring and measurements All aspects of water quality, water distribution and sewer collection system All aspects of water quality, water distribution and sewer collection system Design practical solutions of air pollution, solid waste, wastewater, and noise pollution control All aspects of conventional, biological, and physical design of treatment units Aspects of municipal solid waste control Basic aspects of microbiology issues in sanitary and environmental engineering All aspects of chemistry branches related to environmental hazards, e.g. pesticides, detergents, incineration, land fills, etc Sources and contamination of pollution to rivers, lakes, and groundwater Description of environmental management systems, international standards and auditing types In progress 178 In progress 61 In Progress 75 In Progress Notes: AA: ABETAccreditation; CAWREE: ComputerApplications in Water Resources and Environmental Engineering; EE: Environmental Engineering; EIA: Energy InformationAdministration; : Not available; PCPEE: Physical & Chemical Processes in Environmental Engineering; SHWE: Solid and Hazardous Waste Engineering; SN: Student number in 2005 2006; WSDS: Water Supply and Drainage Systems; WWT: Water and Wastewater Treatment. Environmental engineering education 99

100 M. Jassim and G. Coskuner Sultan Qaboos university in Oman has a BSc in civil engineering with a major in environmental engineering. The student is required to take three core courses: environmental engineering I, environmental engineering II, and water and wastewater management. The student is exposed to practical and technical environmental problems via civil engineering design project and two compulsory projects in order to meet the third and fourth ABET criteria in table 1. The student is also required to take three environmental electives from the list in table 3. The drivers for inclusion of environmental courses in civil/chemical engineering departments were: the need of labour market for graduates with environmental knowledge especially with growing civil/industrial infrastructure projects, implementation of Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) studies in civil engineering projects, understanding laws and regulations by governmental agencies for protection of environment both locally and globally, understanding sustainable society, and improving quality of graduates by enhancing their basic understanding of environmental issues. Another important factor is the ABET accreditation requirement for offering interdisciplinary options in civil/chemical engineering departments. The main constraint against initiating environmental courses is the limited number of credit hours. It should be noted that most of the environmental subjects in table 3 are given as elective courses. Most lecturers agreed that these environmental electives are popular. However, the students are reluctant to get involved in environmental-related senior projects in civil engineering departments as most prefer construction-related ones due to favourable job prospect especially with the current construction boom. Based on the survey response, no institution was considering the establishment of an environmental engineering department in the near future. However, a proposal for establishing an environmental engineering programme under civil/chemical engineering department is being considered by Kuwait University. The InternationalActivities Committee (INTAC) ofabet recognises non-usa engineering departments as substantial equivalent. ABET is the only invited accreditation body that evaluates the quality of the engineering departmental programs in the GCC countries as shown in table 3. Most of these departments have already achieved substantial equivalent status or in the process of acquiring one. It was not possible to get an accurate number of students in the engineering colleges of Saudi Arabia universities. However, the total number of engineering graduates in 2002/2003 from all Saudi universities was 488 out of 38,798 male graduates (ARAA 2006). The universities that have a postgraduate programme in environmental-related subjects are: Kuwait University, Arabian Gulf University, Bahrain University, Sultan Qaboos, King Abdul Aziz University, and King Fahad University of Petroleum and Minerals (KFUPM). The regionalarabian Gulf University (AGU) in Bahrain has a biotechnology programme and environmental management programme as part of postgraduate studies. Bahrain University had a Master degree programme in environment and sustainable development. The programme was taught by different faculty members from the chemistry/biology and civil/chemical engineering departments. However, the program was terminated due to the closing of all postgraduate programs at the university. Kuwait University, Sultan Qaboos, KUFPM and King Abdul Aziz University are running their environmental engineering courses in Civil Engineering Departments. 5. Labour market and need for new enviromental engineering education strategy A list of potential job opportunities for environmental engineers in the GCC countries is shown in table 4. The regional governmental agencies, local municipalities, oil-related

Environmental engineering education 101 Table 4. Job opportunities in GCC countries. Environmental Ministry and city directorates Water and wastewater management connected to city municipalities and wastewater collection systems Oil and petrochemical organisations that produce polluted effluents Private companies which design, construct and operate wastewater treatment plants Consulting engineers for public and private institutions concerning water management, handling of resources, solid waste, protection and rehabilitation of waters and soil Public health laboratories Companies which provide necessary materials and equipment for the treatment plants (marketing sector) Private companies that prepare Environmental Impact Assessment Reports Industrial enterprises for the management and quality assurance of raw materials, products and waste streams Experts in risk engineering to perform risk analysis under special consideration and monitoring of the threats to the environment Research engineer in the development and application of pilot and field experiments, models, tools and software for the simulation of complex systems Some national and international institutions which are basically work on management activities companies, consultancy firms and private companies are the main pool of recruiters for engineers specialising in environmental affairs. The economies of the GCC countries are currently booming with an average of 7% growth rate propelled by high oil revenues. New environmental initiatives are underway in governmental and industrial sectors. Thus, the labour market is expected to absorb graduates from engineering academic programmes. Furthermore, there are adverts for large oil/gas companies in the region that seeks professionals with undergraduate or postgraduate degrees in environmental engineering to work in Health, Safety and Environment departments, or to implement ISO environmental management systems. The purpose of an academic educational strategy in E3 is to graduate professional engineers that are capable of addressing local and global environmental threats and promote environmental sustainable development. For an environmental engineer to be a complete engineer, he/she should have technology and society experience and that necessitates understanding of technical (e.g. engineering, mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology) and non-technical social subjects (De Graaff and Ravesteijn 2001). The need for the environmental engineer is attributed to the fact that this type of engineer is able to integrate different knowledge and skills acquired from different disciplines in order to find a streamlined overall solution. If experts from different backgrounds were asked to sort out an environmental-related problem then an optimised solution may not be achieved, as each expert will only focus on his/her specialised area. In addition, constituting a project team from experts of different disciplines will not be feasible for small- and medium-scale projects. E3 framework for developing countries that covers course content and research direction is proposed by Ujang et al. (2004). The themes included were: urban water management, sustainable sanitation, appropriate technology, cleaner production, wastewater minimisation and financial aspects. Unfortunately, this strategy focuses mainly on water and wastewater management. For the Gulf region, the pollution challenges to air, water and land are serious, as detailed in section 2. Thus, the solution of local environmental problems in the Gulf countries demands a separate entity for E3 instead of the current integrated programmes that do not train real environmental engineers. It typically takes up to 5 years to establish a new educational programme and to be accepted by employer organisations. In the meantime, there is an urgent

102 M. Jassim and G. Coskuner need to upgrade the current engineering curriculum to include more environmental-related courses and offering specialised graduate studies. 6. Conclusions and recommendations According to the results of the survey, the acquired knowledge by undergraduates is low, especially in aspects of air pollution, water treatment and waste management. The student is currently undertaking 3 6 credit hours out of 135 150 total programme requirements and that constitute only 2 4% of subject distribution. Moreover, the GCC universities teach environmental subjects as electives in their curriculum. It is recommended that these countries should start to establish E3 in their universities with a separate department to enhance awareness and research for a variety of environmental problems. If the universities do not have sufficient financial resources and academic staff to set up separate environmental engineering departments, then they should upgrade their curriculum, particularly in Civil and Chemical Engineering Departments, to accommodate more environmental-related subjects, and make these mandatory rather than the current elective philosophy. In addition, universities may offer master degree with waste management, wastewater and water management or any other sub-disciplines of Environmental Engineering to the engineering or science graduates. We believe that local environmental engineering graduates will be absorbed by a variety of private and governmental institutions. These are currently providing short courses via continuing engineering programmes to their employees. These 2 3 days short courses are not sufficient to train, educate, and acquire fundamental knowledge. A recent German survey conducted by Alha et al. (2000) showed that graduates from environmental engineering programmes were well-accepted by the employment sector and they were employed in engineering consulting firms, industry and authorities. The majority of graduates confirmed that the concept of generalisation instead of specialisation in the curriculum has had a positive effect in their professional work. The GCC countries should also promote co-operation between educational institutions by making joint programmes and research such as the one established in the Baltic countries (Pietila 1996). It has been reported recently that a specialised environmental university will open in Bahrain in co-operation with European universities and will focus on graduate-level education. The research in this university will address GCC pollution, environmental hazards, and transfer of technical knowledge, technology and expertise. References AAEE, Guide for Administrators and Faculty to ABET Accreditation in Environmental Engineering, 1998 (American Academy of Environmental Engineers: Annapolis, MD). Al-Awadi, B., Environmental laws in Gulf Co-operation Countries, 1996 (Kuwait Foundation for Advancement of Science: Kuwait) (in Arabic). Alha, K., Holliger, C., Larsen, B.S., Purcell, P. and Rauch, W., Environmental engineering education summary report of the 1st European Seminar. Water Sci. Technol., 2000, 41(2), 1 7. Al-Zubari, W.K., Assessing the sustainability of non-renewable brackish groundwater in feeding an RO desalination plant in Bahrain. Desalination, 2003, 159(3), 211 224. ARAA magazine, Gulf Research Centre (GRC), May 2006, 26, 56 67. Azapagic, A., Perdan, S. and Shallcross, D., How much do engineering students know about sustainable development? The findings of an international survey and possible implications for the engineering curriculum. Eur. J. Engng Educ., 2005, 30, 1 19. Bishop, P.L., Environmental engineering education in North America. Water Sci. Technol., 2000, 41(2), 9 16.

Environmental engineering education 103 Cawsey, D.C., Influencing the future through innovations in environmental engineering education. Eur. J. Engng Educ., 1996, 21, 393 402. De Graaff, E. and Ravesteijn, W., Training complete engineers: global enterprise and engineering education. Eur. J. Engng Educ., 2001, 26, 419 427. Fettig, J., Miethe, M. and Rathke, K., Four-year undergraduate course in environmental engineering in Germany. Water Sci. Technol., 2000, 41, 55 59. Kampf, J. and Sadrinasab, M., The circulation of the Persian Gulf: a numerical study. Ocean Sci. Discuss., 2005, 2, 129 164. Mahamud-Lopez, M.M. and Menendez-Aguado, J.M., Environmental engineering in mining engineering education. Eur. J. Engng Educ., 2005, 30, 329 339. Munter, R., Environmental studies in chemical engineering curriculum at Tallinn Technical University. Eur. J. Engng Educ., 1996, 21, 409 413. Pietila, P., Finnish Baltic cooperation in environmental education. Eur. J. Engng Educ., 1996, 21, 415 423. Ujang, Z., Henze, M., Curtis, T., Schertenleib, R. and Beal, L.L., Environmental engineering education for developing countries: framework for the future. Water Sci. Technol., 2004, 49(8), 1 10. About the authors Majeed Jassim is an assistant professor at Bahrain University since 2002. He holds MEng and PhD degrees in Chemical and Process Engineering from the University of Newcastle upon Tyne (UK). He has got Fulbright Post-Doctorial Research at the University of Texas (UT) in Austin (USA) in 2005. He is a senior member of AIChE and a member of IChemE. He has also industrial experience by working in the Technical Services Department at Bahrain Petroleum Company (Bapco) between 1992 1997. He published papers related to reducing carbon dioxide emissions using simulation and process intensification technologies. Gulnur Coskuner is a specialist in Environmental Biotechnology from Turkey. She holds BSc, MSc, and PhD degrees in Environmental Engineering from Middle East Technical University (Turkey), Cumhuriyet University (Turkey), and Newcastle upon Tyne University (UK). She has been in the Environmental Engineering Department of the University of Texas (UT) in Austin (USA) in 2005 as research visitor. She is a member of SGM, ASM and RASIT. She is also interested in the field of wastewater treatment technologies and has published many papers in international journals. She has worked as an assistant professor in Environmental Engineering Department of Cumhuriyet University since 2000.