From the President: Supporting Tomorrow’s Water Professionals

According to the Brookings Institution (Washington, D.C.), as much as 50% of the current water workforce in the U.S. will retire within the next 35 years. The water sector must take steps today to ensure the next generation of water professionals can seamlessly take the reins, keep critical water resource recovery facilities running, and confront the looming water safety and security challenges of tomorrow.

“We have a responsibility now that we need to work to bring people into the water sector, retain them, and provide opportunities that we have not had to provide in the past,” said 2019-2020 Water Environment Federation (WEF; Alexandria, Va.) President Jackie Jarrell, who assumed office at WEFTEC 2019. 

Listen to the following message from Jarrell for details on such workforce-focused WEF resources as the recent launch of www.workforwater.org, a robust online operator education platform, and WEF’s new Diversity and Inclusion Task Force, which is investigating where WEF should best focus efforts related to the development of a more diverse water workforce.