Capacity Building training Workshop
The Capacity training workshop was about 1 day of theory (with some hands on), and the following days as a chance to build a model of a sewage works that the participants are involved with in the field, so that they can best transfer the information to a sewage works that means something to them.
This option means that they had to bring layouts, tank sizes, flow, water quality data for crude sewage and final effluent, operating data etc.
Indeed this training was meant for professionals who want to deepen their expertise, and wish to gain substantial insight into the global water agenda.
Selection
The selection of the participants was done on the basis of their experience in the field of wastewater treatment (submission of the CVs was mandatory).
Participants from, DR Congo, Lesotho, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa and Swaziland were selected and responded positively to the invitation.
Forum Partnership
To ensure rich and high quality reflection and debates, UNESCO convened the workshop (see attached pictures) in close coordination with the SADC secretariat and in cooperation with key international organizations active in the field in the region, such as the International Labour Organization (ILO), the African Association of Education (ADEA), the African Development Bank (AfDB), the European Commission(EC) and other organizations such as the Commonwealth of Learning (CoL), the Southern African Network of Water Centres of Excellence (NEPAD SANWATCE) [http://nepadwatercoe.org/], Further Education and Training (FET) [http://ewseta.sun.ac.za/] and the Stellenbosch University [http://www.sun.ac.za/english].
Training
The training session ran from Tuesday, 26th November, to Thursday, 28th November inclusive (see attached programme). The training was tailored to provide maximum benefit to the trainees, taking account of their existing knowledge, skills and areas of interest.
The first session focuses on the theory (Introduction to wastewater characterisation, primary tanks, activated sludge aeration tanks, and activated sludge settling tank etc.), while the second and third sessions concentrated mainly on building representations of sewage works and performing simulations and calibrations and dynamic modelling of wastewater treatment plants. Hands-on sessions were done using STOAT (free software).
Overall, it was a good experience and UNESCO managed to have a better picture of the skills and the quality of available data in the region.
Recommendations
- More time has to be allowed in future trainings for the introduction to wastewater treatment and to the theory behind wastewater treatment processes;
- The selection procedure has to be based on the access to local data which should be of good quality for the hands on and the modelling step and the CVs;
- In the future, the appllications need to be endorsed by the participants’ employers to avoid last minute cancellations;
- Visa procedures have to be initiated earlier to avoid last minute cancellations;
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Alumni have to take part in the examination of the training (short courses). If they obtain a passing mark and submit their modelling project report (only in the case where modelling was part of the training), they will receive a certificate of attendance for the course.
