Grand water challenges : how do we teach our students : a case for Bangladesh and Australia

![CDATA[Water is vital source of life, indeed, if there is no water, there is no life. Access to adequate water is essential for every living being, maintaining sustainable development and ensuring healthy ecosystem. Water demand is increasing for expanding cities, industries and agricultural activities, and consequently, leading to water crisis worldwide. In most cases, either people do not care or pay less attention on the issues related to water and the processes that lead to its contamination. According to the UNESCO (Sources No 84, November 1996), the supply of fresh water will fall short to the demand by 2030 if we continue businesses as usual. It is also reported that more than one-third of the world's population are suffering from either getting access to the pure water or diseases associated with polluted water. The statistics is alarming, and related not only to polluted water but also individuals’ limited knowledge regarding water contamination. Therefore, the urgency of learning about sustainable water system has been felt crucially all over the world and there is a pressing need to create awareness and educate community people ranging from primary school children to the high profile professionals about the importance of sustainable water use. The aim of this study is to present few case studies on water contamination to show the seriousness of the problem. It also presents how we can educate our engineering students to find innovative solutions to tackle global water problems. A comparison on tertiary education systems in Bangladesh and Australia has been presented to identify the differences in terms of student learning in water engineering at undergraduate levels in these two countries.]]