KU News Release

KU to exchange knowledge of groundwater issues with experts from Asia

LAWRENCE — The University of Kansas is hosting groundwater experts from four Asian countries for three weeks to share information about water issues.

The International Water Management Institute is sponsoring the program, which is designed to expose the Asian participants to groundwater issues and management challenges in the United States and to expose the Kansas participants to Asian water management issues.

John Peck, professor of law, agreed to coordinate the group in Kansas, and Diana Carlin, dean of the Graduate School and International Programs, is the co-director. Their schedule includes presentations by staff members of the Kansas Geological Survey about Kansas groundwater issues, talks by the visitors about conditions in their countries, visits with faculty at Washburn University and the University of Missouri-Kansas City and meetings with officials at the Kansas Division of Water Resources and other Kansas water agencies.

The group will spend several days in western Kansas viewing water projects and meeting with personnel from cities, industry, groundwater management districts and the Kansas State University Agriculture Extension Service. The group arrived Nov. 26 and departs Dec. 16.

The six experts are: Sushil Kumar Kamra, principal scientist, Indian Council of Agricultural Research, India; John Thomas, joint director, Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry, India; Yunpeng Xue, deputy division chief/senior engineer, Department of Water Resources Management and Regulation, Yellow River Conservancy Commission, China; Mohammad Shirazul Islam, director general, Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute, Bangladesh; Puskar Ghimire, senior divisional hydrogeologist, Department of Irrigation, Nepal; and Madhav Narayan Shrestha, branch manager, Nepal Water Supply Corporation, Nepal.

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