Training Public Health Engineers in Developing Countries

Abstract

THE SHORTAGE of public health engineers in the developing countries is the most acute and urgent among all other health disciplines. The inauguration of the International Drinking Water Supply and Sanitation Decade 1981-1990 by the United Nations in November 1980, followed by a soaring demand for public health engineers, has further aggravated the situation.

The conventional public health engineering training system, that is practised in almost all higher learning institutions, including those located in the Third World, consists of a graduate course in civil engineering, followed by a post-graduate course in public health engineering. This system that has been functioning quite satisfactorily in the developed countries, has failed to produce these required engineers in the developing countries. The appropriate training technology for public health en gineers, discussed in this paper, that has been successfully experienced in Ahmadu Bello University in Zaria, Nigeria, can provide a sound solution for the acute shortage problem. This solution is based on the performance of the whole training at the graduate level only in a Department of Environmental Engineering, established in the Faculty of Engineering.

Developing countries universities that provide engine ering studies, should adopt this solution in order to eliminate the long-term problem of acute shortage in public health engineers in these countries.