The global problem of water resources management, environmental challenges, and sustainable development has stimulated the need for engineering skills and technology in these fields to provide safe, regular water and environmental service to mankind more effectively and efficiently. The stemming tide of these problems suggests the need for branching off from the primary discipline to become a specialized discipline confident enough to deal with challenges. In the developed world, such specialized discipline exists while developing countries like Nigeria are trying to follow suit.
Water Resources and Environmental Engineering focuses on the development and use and management of land and water resources in rural and urban watersheds to the benefit of end user. The hydrologic and hydraulic behaviour of watershed flow systems is combined with engineering science. The supply of water for various purposes is considered in the context of resource conservation. Identification of potential point and diffused sources of pollutants is used to develop efficient, environmentally sustainable and economical methods to preserve high-quality water to sustain human life and water-dependent ecosystems. This is the basis of the course content of Water Resources and Environmental Engineering. The course curriculum is also compliant with the requirements of NUC’s and COREN BMAS.
This branch of Civil Engineering has always been taught in the Department of Civil Engineering of The University as one of the three areas of specialization (Structures, Transportation and Water Resources) until year 2013 when the need arose for it to stand alone in compliance with the global best trend for water management. The department has graduated three sets of students since 2018. The creation of the Department of Water Resources and Environmental Engineering in the University of Ilorin also serves to strengthen the newly established National Water Resources Capacity Building Network in terms of collaborative research and demand driven training. Indeed, there subsist a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the University (Civil Engineering) and the National Water Resources Institute, Kaduna as the training centre for the North Central geopolitical zone.